ghost tessellation
  Tessellations from Villa Montessori elementary school, Phoenix, Arizona

Ghost tessellation

by Griffin

This is a griffin tessellation by a ghost. No, that's not right. It's a Halloween ghost tessellation by a griffin. Nah, that's not quite right either.

Anyway, it's a good tessellation because it can completely fill a 2D surface without gaps and without overlaps. Even better, as all Escher-style tessellations do, it closely resembles its theme. That means, just by looking at the silhouette of a single "tile", you can guess what the subject is.

Once you know this is ghosts, what should you do? Well, ask Griffin to bring a camera next time, so the guys at "Myth Busters" TV show can figure out if these ghosts are fact or fiction.

This tessellation repeats via the translation (slide) method. That means the ghosts are all going in one direction: no spinning, no individuality as they choose which way to fly. Maybe they're all running away from the Ghost Busters, or they're all coming to my house because I give away good candy on Halloween?

This tessellation is a clear example of the "TTTT" type in the Heesch tessellation classification system. That means, each tile touches four other tiles (that's why there are 4 "T"s), and translation (represented by each "T") is the only way they repeat.

Griffin used the Papercut Method of making tessellations . To emphasize how the technique works, I've separated the blue example tile, shown above, into its four component corner-pieces.

We now know why Bailey Jo's gorillas look so nervous and why Bennet's buffalos are stampeding: they're afraid of those ghosts.

Somebody, go warn Griffin.