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You are here: Home / Geometry / Penrose Tiling and Phi

Penrose Tiling and Phi

May 13, 2012 by Gary Meisner 8 Comments

Tiling in 5-fold symmetry was thought impossible!

Areas can be filled completely and symmetrically with tiles of 3, 4 and 6 sides, but it was long believed that it was impossible to fill an area with 5-fold symmetry, as shown below:

Tiled triangles illustrating three-fold symmetry

Tiled rectangles illustrating four-fold symmetry

Tiled pentagons illustrating five-fold symmetry based on phi, the golden ratio

Tiled hexagons illustrating six-fold symmetry

3 sides 4 sides 5 sides leaves gaps 6 sides

 

The solution was found in Phi, the Golden Ratio

In the early 1970’s, however, Roger Penrose discovered that a surface can be completely tiled in an asymmetrical, non-repeating manner in five-fold symmetry with just two shapes based on phi, now known as “Penrose tiles.”

This is accomplished by creating a set of two symmetrical tiles, each of which is the combination of the two triangles found in the geometry of the pentagon.

Phi plays a pivotal role in these constructions.  The relationship of the sides of the pentagon, and also the tiles, is Phi, 1 and 1/Phi.

The triangle shapes found within a pentagon are combined in pairs. One creates a set
of tiles, called “kites” and “darts” like this:
The other creates a
set of diamond tiles like this:
Pentagon illustrating phi or golden ratio relationships Penrose tiles called kites and darts use phi, the golden ratio, in their proportions Penrose tiles using diamonds based on phi, the golden ratio, in their proportions

 

The ratio of the two types of tiles in the resulting patterns is always phi!

Penrose tiling with kites and darts, applying phi, the golden proportion, in five-fold symmetry

Penrose tiling based on diamonds with phi, golden ratio, proportions in their height and width dimensions

As you expand the tiling to cover greater areas, the ratio of the quantity of the one type of tile to the other always approaches phi, or 1.6180339…, the Golden Ratio.

Within this tiling there can be small areas of five-fold symmetry. Decagons can also occur, which when grouped together can look like pentagons from a distance.

Explore further with these resources:

You can download a free program called “Bob” to generate Penrose tiling like the above at the site of Stephen Collins.

You can buy acrylic puzzles of Penrose darts, kites and tiles and other pentagon-based shapes at Kadon Enterprises.

Create Penrose tiling with an L-System fractal generator. (See more on L-System) The input variables shown on the left create the pattern on the right. Note that the 36 degree angle is based on 360 degrees divided by 5 and then by 2, which relates it to the five-sided symmetry of Penrose tiling.

penrose-fractal-generator-settings
penrose-fractal-generator

Quasi-Crystals

Quasi-crystal shape based on phi, the golden ratio Phi also gives 5-fold symmetry in 3D with a single shape, known as a quasi-crystal.

Phi is intrinsically related to the number 5

The appearance of the golden ratio in examples of five-fold symmetry occurs because phi itself is intrinsically related to the number 5, mathematically and trigonometrically.

  • A 360 degree circle divided into five equal sections produces a 72 degree angle, and the cosine of 72 degrees is 0.3090169944, which is exactly one half of phi, the reciprocal of Phi, or 0.6180339887.

  • Phi itself is computed using the square root of five, as follows:

5 ^ .5 * .5 + .5 = Phi

In this mathematical construction, “5 ^ .5” means “5 raised to the 1/2 power,” which is the square root of 5, which is then multiplied by .5 and to which .5 is then added.  See more on the Five and Phi page.

Filed Under: Geometry

Comments

  1. Sasya Natasanthi says

    October 16, 2014 at 7:45 am

    Hello! I’m doing an exploration on this topic for my IB Maths SL Exploration, is there anyway I could speak to you and ask a few things? I understand if that is too much to ask, thank you for this article anyway! It was really helpful.

    Reply
    • Liz says

      October 12, 2015 at 9:38 am

      This is so cool im doing my math SL IA on this topic as well. This artical is really helpful.

      Reply
      • Amy says

        November 16, 2018 at 7:42 pm

        y’all chillin out in 2014 n 2015 doing math IAs on the golden ratio while I’m also doing the same thing but in 2018… this is wild, man.

        Reply
        • Kesang says

          October 19, 2020 at 10:14 pm

          This is cool, I’m also doing my math AI sl IA on golden ratio, wow

          Reply
          • mf says

            December 7, 2020 at 5:11 am

            lol same

  2. Mohamed El Naschie says

    January 1, 2015 at 6:07 am

    The Geometry Junkyard: Penrose Tiling
    http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/penrose.html
    Ancient Islamic Penrose Tiles. Peter Lu uncovers evidence that the architects of a 500-year-old Iranian shrine used Penrose tiling to lay out the decorative …

    Penrose Tiles Talk Across Miles
    http://www.ams.org/samplings/feature-column/fcarc-penrose

    Reply
  3. bill says

    August 10, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    It is obvious to me since told once as lad that pi was jot perfect that this all a manifestation of man not much else, measures from place to place, hence nothingb if divided enough is perfect aka water molecules must be measured by man for bond lengths and angles that we areive at man tryi:g to use math to:define these tiling concepts, in my opinion, i am looking:for:very simplenshapes:once on wikipedia to:whihc make:seemingly rectangular like tiles:for:ceilig all help:any help appreciatted williamrussellmorley at verizon net

    Reply
  4. Jason says

    October 24, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    Think in the black instead of the white and you will see the simplicity of Penrose tiling. It’s like the difference between painting (addition) and sculpting (subtraction) looking at a negative in opposite hues. …

    Reply

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