If you seek information about this site, please browse the about page.
Tessellations are by nature very graphic-oriented. Throughout
this site are colorful images and animations that are indispensible
for not only explaining why tessellations work but also how to
create them. Also on this site are many images of tessellations
in artwork, buildings, and other sources. Therefore, a minimum
requirement of this site is to have the following:
- Color monitor capable of displaying at least 256 colors
- Fairly recent Web browser such as Netscape Navigator 2.x, 3.x,
or 4.x, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x or 4.x (A recent browser
is necessary to view animations.)
This site is aimed towards embracing a large audience, so most
new and unconventional technologies (e.g., RealAudio, RealVideo,
PDF, Quicktime) are avoided in this site. Additionally, although
Java and Javascript are used in this site, such enhancements are
not necessary and transparent to users who cannot make use of
them.
A note about animations: animations are substantially larger in file size than normal
images. Please allow pages to complete load before clicking on
links in order to make sure that animations are loaded fully.
You may scroll and read text, however, at any time. If an animation
seems to be broken, click the Reload button in your browser and
let the page load completely.
Toolbar
The toolbar at the top of each page is a navigational tool which
you should use to move through the site. Following is an explanation
of the links you can follow from the toolbar:
Totally Tessellated: the welcome page
The site is divided into five main content sections, each of which
deals with a portion of the topic of tessellations:
History: information about the history of tessellations, including their
place in various cultures
Essentials: information that is essential for understanding tessellations
Mosaics/Tilings: information about tessellations composed of shapes with straight
lines for sides (in other words, polygons)
Escher: information about M. C. Escher, the artist well-known for his
work with tessellations; and information about the kind of tessellations
he created (tessellations with irregular shaped pieces that represent
some object, common or uncommon)
Beyond: information about advanced explorations of tessellations and
related topics
Additionally, there are several pages that are not directly related
to content. These include the following:
help: this page which explains how the site works
search: perform a search of this entire site, sorted by relevance
site map: see a map of the entire site from which you can jump to certain
parts of the site; this helps understand the topic of tessellations
better
about: information about this site including its creators, references,
and permissions
guestbook: see and add to our record of visitors
gallery: view a gallery of tessellations as well as submit your own creation
message board: read and post messages about tessellations
glossary: a short, concise list of definitions of words related to tessellations
outside links: links to and descriptions of other World Wide Web sites that
deal with tessellations
feedback: information about how to contact the site creators (highly recommended!)
Colored Banner
Beneath the toolbar will be a colored banner. The title of this
banner tells you what topic in the site you are currently browsing.
If the topic has more than one page to it, then the current page
number will also be indicated.
Other Icons
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will take you to the previous page of the current topic.
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will take you out of the current topic and to the section index
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will take you to the next page of the current topic.
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will take you the templates page. These templates include outlines
of regular, semiregular, and demiregular tessellations that you
may print out and use for your own experiments and explorations.
Most of the topics discussed on this site can be applied to the
regular, semiregular, and demiregular tessellations. |
If you have general questions or comments about tessellations,
you may use the message board to interact with other students as well as the site creators.
If you have any further questions or concerns not covered by this
page, please contact us using the feedback form (a link to which is also provided on the toolbar).
