What Is A Tessellation In Math?

A tessellation is when shapes fit together perfectly without gaps or overlaps, like puzzle pieces on a floor.

Imagine you have a bunch of tiles in your bathroom, some are squares, some are hexagons, and others might be triangles. When they all click together to cover the whole floor, that's a tessellation!

Think about playing with building blocks. If you put them next to each other so there’s no space between them, and none of them are sticking out, that's like making a tessellation.

You can use any shape, squares, triangles, even weird ones, as long as they fit together smoothly. Sometimes the same shape is used over and over again, just like when you tile a floor with square tiles.

Some shapes are super good at tessellating, like hexagons, which you might see in beehives or honeycombs! They can keep going forever without any gaps. It's like having an endless floor made of perfect puzzle pieces.

So next time you're playing with blocks or looking at a tiled floor, remember: you’re seeing a tessellation, just like the math says!