Einstein Tile

Einstein Tile

Discovery of Elusive ‘Einstein’ Tile Raises More Questions Than It Answers

David Smith, a math hobbyist in Yorkshire, England, has discovered a 13-sided shape that eluded mathematicians for decades. The craggy, hatlike shape is called an “einstein,” based on the German for “one stone.” If you used einstein-shaped tiles to cover your bathroom floor—or any flat surface, even if infinitely large—they would fit together perfectly but never form a repeating pattern. For decades mathematicians have been hunting for tile shapes like these that can form only nonrepeating arrangements, called aperiodic tilings. They started with sets of many different tiles: the first set, discovered in 1964, required 20,426 distinct tiles, which was later simplified to 103. By 1974 mathematician Roger Penrose had found two tile shapes that, when combined in a mosaic, never formed a repeating pattern.

Someone ought to make some jigsaw puzzles using this pattern. Shoot, someone ought to make Einstein floor tiles.

Break Einstein into two words (Ein stein) and Google says it is 'a stone'.

Via Dennis