Attack on the pentagon results in discovery of new mathematical tile
Source: Guardian
Joy as mathematicians discover a new type of pentagon that can cover the plane leaving no gaps and with no overlaps. It becomes only the 15th type of pentagon known that can do this, and the first discovered in 30 years
In the world of mathematical tiling, news doesn’t come bigger than this.
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Most people assumed Reinhardt had the complete list until half a century later in 1968 when R. B. Kershner found three more. Richard James brought the number of types of pentagonal tile up to nine in 1975.
That same year an unlikely mathematical pioneer entered the fray: Marjorie Rice, a San Diego housewife in her 50s, who had read about James’ discovery in Scientific American. An amateur mathematician, Rice developed her own notation and method and over the next few years discovered another four types of pentagon that tile the plane. In 1985 Rolf Stein found a fourteenth. Way to go!
But then the hunt went cold. Until last month, when Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud and David Von Derau of the University of Washington Bothell announced last week that they had discovered this little beauty:
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/aug/10/attack-on-the-pentagon-results-in-discovery-of-new-mathematical-tile
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Not the stupid Pentagon.
the mathematicians could only photo a 3 frame picture of the pentagon.
Is this plane geometry?
It looks almost like a cable pattern for knitters!
Congrats to the researchers for this find! More to show the literal beauty of math.