geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

, the square tiling, square tessellation or square grid is a

regular tiling Euclidean Plane (mathematics), plane Tessellation, tilings by convex regular polygons have been widely used since antiquity. The first systematic mathematical treatment was that of Johannes Kepler, Kepler in his (Latin language, Latin: ''The Har ...

of the

Euclidean plane In mathematics, a Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of Two-dimensional space, dimension two, denoted \textbf^2 or \mathbb^2. It is a geometric space in which two real numbers are required to determine the position (geometry), position of eac ...

consisting of four

squares In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

around every vertex.

John Horton Conway John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many b ...

called it a quadrille.

Structure and properties

The square tiling has a structure consisting of one type of congruent

prototile In mathematics, a prototile is one of the shapes of a tile in a tessellation. Definition A tessellation of the plane or of any other space is a cover of the space by closed shapes, called tiles, that have disjoint interiors. Some of the tiles m ...

, the

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

, sharing two vertices with other identical ones. This is an example of monohedral tiling. Each vertex at the tiling is surrounded by four squares, which denotes in a

vertex configuration In geometry, a vertex configuration is a shorthand notation for representing a polyhedron or Tessellation, tiling as the sequence of Face (geometry), faces around a Vertex (geometry), vertex. It has variously been called a vertex description, vert ...

4.4.4.4

4^4

. The vertices of a square can be considered as the lattice, so the square tiling can be formed through the

square lattice In mathematics, the square lattice is a type of lattice in a two-dimensional Euclidean space. It is the two-dimensional version of the integer lattice, denoted as . It is one of the five types of two-dimensional lattices as classified by their ...

. This tiling is commonly familiar with the flooring and game boards. It is self-dual, meaning the center of each square connects to another of the adjacent tile, forming square tiling itself. The square tiling acts transitively on the ''flags'' of the tiling. In this case, the

flag A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...

consists of a mutually incident vertex, edge, and tile of the tiling. Simply put, every pair of flags has a symmetry operation mapping the first flag to the second: they are

vertex-transitive In geometry, a polytope (e.g. a polygon or polyhedron) or a tiling is isogonal or vertex-transitive if all its vertices are equivalent under the symmetries of the figure. This implies that each vertex is surrounded by the same kinds of face i ...

(mapping the vertex of a tile to another),

edge-transitive In geometry, a polytope (for example, a polygon or a polyhedron) or a Tessellation, tiling is isotoxal () or edge-transitive if its Symmetry, symmetries act Transitive group action, transitively on its Edge (geometry), edges. Informally, this mea ...

(mapping the edge to another), and

face-transitive In geometry, a tessellation of dimension (a plane tiling) or higher, or a polytope of dimension (a polyhedron) or higher, is isohedral or face-transitive if all its Face (geometry), faces are the same. More specifically, all faces must be not ...

(mapping square tile to another). By meeting these three properties, the square tiling is categorized as one of three

s; the remaining being

triangular tiling In geometry, the triangular tiling or triangular tessellation is one of the three regular tilings of the Euclidean plane, and is the only such tiling where the constituent shapes are not parallelogons. Because the internal angle of the equilater ...

and

hexagonal tiling In geometry, the hexagonal tiling or hexagonal tessellation is a regular tiling of the Euclidean plane, in which exactly three hexagons meet at each vertex. It has Schläfli symbol of or (as a Truncation (geometry), truncated triangular tiling ...

with its prototiles are

equilateral triangle An equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length, and all three angles are equal. Because of these properties, the equilateral triangle is a regular polygon, occasionally known as the regular triangle. It is the ...

s and

regular hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is de ...

s, respectively. The

symmetry group In group theory, the symmetry group of a geometric object is the group of all transformations under which the object is invariant, endowed with the group operation of composition. Such a transformation is an invertible mapping of the amb ...

of a square tiling is p4m: there is an order-4 dihedral group of a tile and an order-2

dihedral group In mathematics, a dihedral group is the group (mathematics), group of symmetry, symmetries of a regular polygon, which includes rotational symmetry, rotations and reflection symmetry, reflections. Dihedral groups are among the simplest example ...

around the vertex surrounded by four squares lying on the line of reflection. The square tiling is alternatively formed by the assemblage of infinitely many circles arranged vertically and horizontally, wherein their equal diameter at the center of every point contact with four other circles. Its densest packing is

\frac \approx 0.785

Topologically equivalent tilings

Isohedral tilings have identical faces ( face-transitivity) and

vertex-transitivity In geometry, a polytope (e.g. a polygon or polyhedron) or a tiling is isogonal or vertex-transitive if all its vertices are equivalent under the symmetries of the figure. This implies that each vertex is surrounded by the same kinds of face in ...

. There are eighteen variations, with six identified as triangles that do not connect edge-to-edge, or as quadrilateral with two collinear edges. Symmetry given assumes all faces are the same color.

Related regular complex apeirogons

There are 3 regular complex apeirogons, sharing the vertices of the square tiling. Regular complex apeirogons have vertices and edges, where edges can contain 2 or more vertices. Regular apeirogons pr are constrained by: 1/''p'' + 2/''q'' + 1/''r'' = 1. Edges have ''p'' vertices, and vertex figures are ''r''-gonal.Coxeter, Regular Complex Polytopes, pp. 111-112, p. 136.

References

* Coxeter, H.S.M. ''

Regular Polytopes ''Regular Polytopes'' is a geometry book on regular polytopes written by Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter. It was originally published by Methuen in 1947 and by Pitman Publishing in 1948, with a second edition published by Macmillan in 1963 and a th ...

'', (3rd edition, 1973), Dover edition, p. 296, Table II: Regular honeycombs

External links

* * * {{Tessellation Euclidean tilings Isohedral tilings Isogonal tilings Polyhedra Regular tilings Self-dual tilings Regular tessellations

Structure and properties

Topologically equivalent tilings

Related regular complex apeirogons

See also

References

External links