Penrose tiling

A Penrose tiling can cover an entire plane without creating a pattern that periodically repeats.

There are many tile sets that can create non-periodic tilings, but those can typically also be used to create a periodic tiling. What makes Penrose tiles special is that they can only be used to produce non-periodic tilings.

The two best-known Penrose tile sets are Kite and Dart (P2) and Thin Rhombus and Fat Rhombus (P3)

These so-called prototiles are usually depicted with smooth edges, but in reality Penrose tiles have interlocking tabs and cut-outs like the pieces of a Jigsaw puzzle. For convenience these deformations are often replaced with matching rules, which ensure that the tiles are only connected in ways that guarantee a non-periodic tiling. (Otherwise, for instance, you could combine the kite and dart to form a rhombus, and easily create a periodic tiling from there.)

You can construct a Penrose tiling by setting up some prototiles, and adding tiles through trial and error, backtracking whenever you get stuck.

More commonly a method is used that takes advantage of the fact that Penrose tilings, like fractals, have a self-similarity on different levels. When zooming out it can be observed that groups of tiles are enclosed in areas that form exactly the same pattern as the tiles on the lower level. Departing from an inflated level, the prototiles can be subdivided into smaller tiles, always observing the matching rules. If done correctly it will always fit. The subdivision may have to repeated several times, before you reach the desired level of detail. This process is called deflation.

More information can be found through the links below.

The task: fill a rectangular area with a Penrose tiling.

See also