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Tiling with one of each 3D shape

Encouraged by the positive solutions to my question, Tiling with one of each shape, I'd like to pose the $\mathbb{R}^3$ equivalent: Q. Is there a tiling of $\mathbb{R}^3$ by (bounded) polyhedra, one ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
528 views

Dividing a polyhedron into two similar copies

The paper Dividing a polygon into two similar polygons proves that there are only three families of polygons that are irrep-2-tiles (can be subdivided into similar copies of the original). Right ...
Kepler's Triangle's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
227 views

Tiling space with supertile of hypercube unfoldings

Two students in my class asked and answered what might be a novel question. It is well known that the cube has exactly $11$ edge-unfoldings (or "nets"), as shown below:         (Image from ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
24 votes
1 answer
1k views

Which unfoldings of the $d$-dimensional hypercube tile $(d{-}1)$-space?

A six year old question, Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile $3$-space?, has just been answered by Moritz Firsching: All $261$ unfoldings tile space! So now we know: For $d=2$, the unfolding of ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
14 votes
0 answers
417 views

Minimum number of distinct triangles for tesselating the sphere

Consider sequences of tesselations of the sphere. For instance, one such sequence might start with an icosahedron and proceed by subdividing each triangle face into 4 triangles and projecting the new ...
Arthur B's user avatar
  • 1,902
3 votes
1 answer
84 views

Tilings of lattice polytopes by transformations of lattice polytopes

A quasi-lattice polytope is a polytope obtained by reflections, translations, and rotations of lattice polytopes. In a tiling of a lattice polytope by quasi-lattice polytopes, are all quasi-lattice ...
Display name's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
282 views

Thinnest covering of the plane by regular pentagons

Q. Is it known what is the thinnest covering of the infinite plane by regular pentagons? By covering I mean every point of the plane is covered. By thinnest I mean the proportion of the plane covered ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
27 votes
3 answers
13k views

Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile 3-space: How to check for isometric space-fillers?

Recently Mark McClure constructed and displayed the 261 unfoldings of the hypercube (tesseract) in response to the question, "3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?": The first 9 unfoldings ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
677 views

Higher dimensional generalization of: Any quadrilateral tiles the plane?

Any (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral tiles the plane.     (MathWorld image.) Q. What is the strongest known generalization of this statement to higher dimensions? I.e., $\mathbb{R}^d$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

Fractal Tiling of Rhombic Dodecahedra

Hello, this is my first question on Math Overflow... Rhombic dodecahedra can be tiled in 3-space, leaving no gaps. This tiling corresponds to the close-packing of spheres. Consider a "nucleus" ...
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