In March, a team of mathematical tilers announced their solution to a storied problem: They had discovered an elusive “einstein” — a single shape that tiles a plane, or an infinite two-dimensional flat surface, but only in a nonrepeating pattern.
“I’ve always wanted to make a discovery,” David Smith, the shape hobbyist whose original find spurred the research, said at the time.
The researchers might have been satisfied with the discovery and the hullabaloo, and left well enough alone.
But Mr. Smith, of Bridlington in East Yorkshire, England, and known as an “imaginative tinkerer,” could not stop tinkering.
Now, two months later, the team has one-upped itself with a new-and-improved einstein.
Persons:
einstein, I’ve, ” David Smith, Smith, einstein ”, stein, Jimmy Kimmel, “, ”, Marjorie Senechal
Organizations:
University of Oxford, Smith College
Locations:
Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England
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