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In
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
, the square tiling, square tessellation or square grid is a regular tiling of the
Euclidean plane In mathematics, the Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of dimension two. That is, a geometric setting in which two real quantities are required to determine the position of each point ( element of the plane), which includes affine notions ...
. It has
Schläfli symbol In geometry, the Schläfli symbol is a notation of the form \ that defines regular polytopes and tessellations. The Schläfli symbol is named after the 19th-century Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli, who generalized Euclidean geometry to mo ...
of meaning it has 4 squares around every
vertex Vertex, vertices or vertexes may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics and computer science *Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines, or edges meet *Vertex (computer graphics), a data structure that describes the position ...
. Conway called it a quadrille. The internal angle of the square is 90 degrees so four squares at a point make a full 360 degrees. It is one of three regular tilings of the plane. The other two are the
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 the
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 truncated triangular tiling). English mathemati ...
.


Uniform colorings

There are 9 distinct uniform colorings of a square tiling. Naming the colors by indices on the 4 squares around a vertex: 1111, 1112(i), 1112(ii), 1122, 1123(i), 1123(ii), 1212, 1213, 1234. (i) cases have simple reflection symmetry, and (ii) glide reflection symmetry. Three can be seen in the same symmetry domain as reduced colorings: 1112i from 1213, 1123i from 1234, and 1112ii reduced from 1123ii.


Related polyhedra and tilings

This tiling is topologically related as a part of sequence of regular polyhedra and tilings, extending into the
hyperbolic plane In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai– Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ' ...
: , p=3,4,5... This tiling is also topologically related as a part of sequence of regular polyhedra and tilings with four faces per vertex, starting with the
octahedron In geometry, an octahedron (plural: octahedra, octahedrons) is a polyhedron with eight faces. The term is most commonly used to refer to the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at ea ...
, with
Schläfli symbol In geometry, the Schläfli symbol is a notation of the form \ that defines regular polytopes and tessellations. The Schläfli symbol is named after the 19th-century Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli, who generalized Euclidean geometry to mo ...
, and Coxeter diagram , with n progressing to infinity.


Wythoff constructions from square tiling

Like the uniform polyhedra there are eight
uniform tilings A uniform is a variety of clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, s ...
that can be based from the regular square tiling. Drawing the tiles colored as red on the original faces, yellow at the original vertices, and blue along the original edges, all 8 forms are distinct. However treating faces identically, there are only three topologically distinct forms: square tiling, truncated square tiling, snub square tiling.


Topologically equivalent tilings

Other
quadrilateral In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...
tilings can be made which are topologically equivalent to the square tiling (4 quads around every vertex). Isohedral tilings have identical faces ( face-transitivity) and vertex-transitivity, there are 18 variations, with 6 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.


Circle packing

The square tiling can be used as a
circle packing In geometry, circle packing is the study of the arrangement of circles (of equal or varying sizes) on a given surface such that no overlapping occurs and so that no circle can be enlarged without creating an overlap. The associated '' packing de ...
, placing equal diameter circles at the center of every point. Every circle is in contact with 4 other circles in the packing ( kissing number).Order in Space: A design source book, Keith Critchlow, p.74-75, circle pattern 3 The packing density is π/4=78.54% coverage. There are 4 uniform colorings of the circle packings. :


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.


See also

*
Checkerboard A checkerboard (American English) or chequerboard (British English; see spelling differences) is a board of checkered pattern on which checkers (also known as English draughts) is played. Most commonly, it consists of 64 squares (8×8) of altern ...
*
List of regular polytopes This article lists the regular polytopes and regular polytope compounds in Euclidean, spherical and hyperbolic spaces. The Schläfli symbol describes every regular tessellation of an ''n''-sphere, Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces. A Schläfli ...
* List of uniform tilings *
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 thei ...
*
Tilings of regular polygons 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 ''Harmonices Mundi'' (Latin langua ...


References

* Coxeter, H.S.M. '' Regular Polytopes'', (3rd edition, 1973), Dover edition, p. 296, Table II: Regular honeycombs * * p36 * (Chapter 2.1: ''Regular and uniform tilings'', p. 58-65) * John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, Chaim Goodman-Strass, ''The Symmetries of Things'' 2008,


External links

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