this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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Image by Cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A square can tile a plane but can form a repeating pattern. Is there a single shape that can tile but never repeats? That's what's called the "einstein problem".

Link to the article

In 2010, the first never-repeating tile was discovered: the Socolar-Taylor tile. But it's a bit weird, having several separated, disconnected bits.

In 2022, "The Hat" (shown in pic) was discovered, and it's a lot less weird. It only has 13 sides and nice angles that are multiples of 30°.

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

is this the pattern that was found on the walls of a 1000 year old chapel in like Uzbekistan?

according to the scriptures of that particular sect it was called "the pattern of life" or something.