Called “The hat” because it vaguely resembles a fedora, the elusive shape is an “einstein” (from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone”).
“I’m not really into math, to be honest — I did it at school, but I didn’t excel in it,” Smith said.
“The hat,” however, is an aperiodic tile, meaning it can still completely cover a surface without any gaps, but you can never identify any cluster that periodically repeats itself to do so.
How ‘The hat’ worksThere’s nothing inherently magical about “The hat,” according to Kaplan.
“We’re not trying to protect it in any way,” Kaplan said.