UW professors, former student discover rare math pattern

BOTHELL, Wash. (AP) — Two mathematics professors and one of their former students at the University of Washington Bothell have discovered a rare geometry pattern that could have applications in crystallography or self-assembling nanomachines.

The Daily Herald of Everett reports that their discovery is in a branch of geometry called tessellation, or tiling of identical shapes that can cover a plane with no gaps or overlaps to infinity.

Casey Mann and Jennifer McCloud-Mann with help from David Von Derau discovered a pattern of tiling convex irregular pentagons. It is only the 15th pentagon tiling pattern ever discovered. The last pattern was discovered in 1982.

The group used software modeling to discover the new pattern.