On a visit to the Lowline, I noticed an interesting application of mathematics above us.
The ceiling is a tiling of hexagons and equilateral triangles. But unlike a typical tiling of a flat bathroom floor, this tiling seems to create a curved surface! Here’s a closer look:
The underlying pattern is hexagonal, but when a hexagon is replaced with six small, hinged equilateral triangles, the surface gains the potential to curve.
It’s interesting to follow the “straight” line paths as they curve over the surface. And since this tiling is suspended from above, it’s interesting to think about what the surface would look like if it were lying on the ground. How “flat” would it be? Or a better question might be “How far from flat is it?”
