A tessellation is a way of covering a plane with a repeating pattern... Basically, it's like creating wallpaper.
In 1975, Marjorie Rice (1923- 2017), a mother and amateur mathematician, read an article by Martin Gardner in Scientific American that listed ALL possible "pentagonal tessellations" in the plane. A mathematician had just proved that the list was complete. Except that Marjorie, working alone at home, found 4 new ones... The theorem was wrong!
Planar Tessellations
Journey into Maths Country · Season 2 · Episode 4
A tessellation is a way of covering a plane with a repeating pattern... Basically, it's like creating wallpaper.
In 1975, Marjorie Rice (1923- 2017), a mother and amateur mathematician, read an article by Martin Gardner in Scientific American that listed ALL possible "pentagonal tessellations" in the plane. A mathematician had just proved that the list was complete. Except that Marjorie, working alone at home, found 4 new ones... The theorem was wrong!
In 1975, Marjorie Rice (1923- 2017), a mother and amateur mathematician, read an article by Martin Gardner in Scientific American that listed ALL possible "pentagonal tessellations" in the plane. A mathematician had just proved that the list was complete. Except that Marjorie, working alone at home, found 4 new ones... The theorem was wrong!
Episode Details
Air date, runtime, timezone, and episode position.
Season
2
Episode
4
Air Date
10/Oct/2023
Air Time
—
Runtime
10 min
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