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This traditional Chinese puzzle, known as a tangram, reveals some surprising properties of squares!

What kinds of shapes pack a flat surface with no gaps? Squares are great for floor tiles, and bees stick hexagons together. With a bit of work, you can get any triangle, no matter how stretched, to fit together without gaps. But what about pentagons? These five-sided shapes are awkward, but some types fit together.

If you wanted a really cool bathroom, what shape would you use for the tiles? Squares will work, or rectangles, or even hexagons. But can we use five-sided tiles?

Think your bathroom is boring? Try tons of terrific tessellations and show that tiling is styling! Find out more about the maths of tessellation in this hands-on maths activity.

Would you like to make your own repeating patterns, a la Escher? Grab some scissors and make some tessellating tiles!