A Tiling of the Plane with Triangles

Author(s): Paul T. Mielke

Source: The Two-Year College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Nov., 1983), pp. 377-381
Published by: Mathematical Association of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3026759 .
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A Tilingofthe Plane withTriangles

Paul T. Mielke
Paul Mielkereceived his Ph.D. in mathematicsfromPurdue
in 1951.He has been on thestaffof WabashCollege
L3EUniversity
for29 years,havingserved for15 of thoseyears as chairman
/;* ETw;Sf
~
of its mathematics
He has been a memberof the
department.
MAA for 35 years, havingserved as ExecutiveDirectorof

.: C

in

as a memberofitsBoard ofGovernorsfrom

1970-71,
JutCUPM
1972 to 1975,and as associate editorformathematics
education of the "AmericanMathematicalMonthly"from1974 to
1978.

Figure1.

Figure 1 mightbe used as a problemwithoutwords for a geometryclass. If that

provestoo cryptic,the studentmightbe led along by the followingsuggestions:
1. Count the equilateraltrianglesand observetheirsizes (of formn2_ 1).
2. Establish the patternof formationof these triangles(startingwith side 3,
successiveenlargmentby isosceles trapezoidsof slant height2n + 1 in a counterclockwisepattern).Extendthispatternto coveran arbitrarily
largearea, thustiling
the plane.
3. Considerthediagonalsof thesetrapezoids.Use theRule of Pythagoras(or the
cosine law) to findtheirlengths(of formn2+ n + 1).
4. Discover relationships
betweenthe sides of the triangles,e.g.,
72 = 32 + 52 + 3 X 5 = 52 + 82

5 x 8= 82 + 32

8 x 3.

Generalizetheseequations.
377

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5. Show that the map of the plane resultingfromthe tilingneeds only three
colors.
6. Find the similartrianglesamong the tiles.(There are only two pairs. Proof?
Note thatamong the equilateraltriangles,only the smallestone is actuallya tile.)
My discoveryof thisproblemresultedfroma colloquiumtalk thatwas givenat
Wabash College in the Springof 1980 by ProfessorRodney Hood of Franklin
College. Hood's talk centeredon the Diophantineequation
a2 + b2- ab = c2

(1)

thatresultsfromsetting9 = 7r/3in the cosine law. L. E. Dickson reports(see [1],

p. 214) thatthisequation was solved in 1625 by AlbertGirard.Hood providesan
independentsolution[2]. In eithercase, the solutionsconstitutea two-parameter
familyof pairs of numbertriplesof form(a, b,c) and (a', b,c) with
a + a' = b.

(2)

Each triplerepresentsa trianglehavingintegralsides and one 600 angle, and the

paired trianglesfit togetherto forman equilateral triangleof side b. Figure 2
representsthe pair (3,8,7) and (5, 8,7).

3
Figure2.

a trianglein whichthe angle is

Girardalso noted thatthe triple(a, a', c) represents
1200,thatis,
a 2 + ~2
a + aa=

c2

(3)

of the solutions,let m and n be positiveintegerswith

For Girard'sparametrization
togetherwiththeirintegral
m < n. Then all solutionswillbe givenby thefollowing,
multiples:

a = 2mn+

m2,

2
b =2mn + n2,

c=m ~~~~~~2
+mn+n,

(4)

and

a'

It is an easy exercisein algebra to show that equations (1), (2), and (3) are all
satisfied.To obtain Hood's parametrization,
replacem by n - v.
378

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In thinking
about Hood's solutionto the equation,I could not resistpreparinga
listof the triplesforpossiblefutureclassroomuse, theirappeal
computer-generated
being comparable to that of the Pythagoreantriples.Scanning the list provided
several surprises,all of which are associated with the subset of triplesfor which
m= 1. Since thereis thenonly one parameter,let us denote the relationships
with
thisparameterby writingequations(4) as
an=

2n + 1,

cn =n2

1)21

=n(n+2)=(n+

bn=2n+n2

(5)

+n+ 1,

and

1.

=
n=a

once moreto Figure 1, one sees thattheabove formulasforan and bnare

Referring
easily guessed,and the formforcn can be derivedeasily fromthe cosine law or,
witha bit more exercise,fromthe Rule of Pythagoras.Now come two delightful
surprisesthatlead to thetiling.What I had noticedfromscanningthelistwas that
=

(6)

and this is now algebraicallyobvious from equations (5). The most appealing
surprise,
however,is a kindof Pascal's Law thatarisesfromapplyingequation(6) to
equation (2) in the form
an

+ an

=n+

thus,
an +

1+ bn =

bn+l

*(7)

This can also be checkedalgebraicallyfromequations(5).

thatleads to
Equations (6) and (7) now permita freshgeometricalinterpretation
froma pair of triples(an,bn, C),
thetiling;givenany equilateraltriangleconstructed
in the equilateraltriangleassociated with
(an,bn,cn),one can imbed it suggestively
n + 1. Figure3 explainsthe imbeddingmoreeloquentlythanwordscan:

n+

Figue 3.
an+

In

39

an

Figure3.

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379

Incidentally,equation (3) forFigure3 becomes

2

an+

I+

,2

an+

I+

=2
1 = Cn+ 1I

an+,an+

Notice also how equations(6) and (7) apply to thefigure.

Mathematicalinductionnow suggeststhatone can tiletheplane withtrianglesof
this kind beginningat any place in their sequence. Furthermore,if n = 1 is
permitted,
the constructioncan begin withthe equilateraltriangleof side a, = b,
= 3, in whichcase a' = 0. Figure4 is an explodedviewof thefirstfivestepsof
=
one such construction.
Beginningwithan equilateraltriangleof side 3,join isosceles
in the counterclockwise
trapezoids(a), (b), (c), and (d), respectively,
patternshown.
These trapezoidshave tops of lengthn2 _ 1, sides of length2n + 1, bases of length
(n + 1)2 - 1, and diagonals of lengthn2 + n + 1, and theyhave base angles of 60
degrees.How to continuethetilingshouldbe clear.Thereare otherinteresting
ways
to join the trapezoids,some leading to tilingsand othersnot. For youngchildren,
cutoutsbased on Figure4 could serveas jigsaw puzzles. For purposesof arithmetic
instruction,
the back of each trapezoidcould be imprintedwithits relatedequations,e.g., fortrapezoid(d),
312=

x24

112+242+11

= 242 + 352

24 x 35

= 352 + 112-35

x 11.

Colors may be added. If the startingequilateraltriangleand thebottomtriangle

of each trapezoid are colored one color, and if alternatetop trianglesof the
trapezoidsare coloredwitha second and thirdcolor,thenthe tilingwill become a
three-color
map of theplane.
What is not so simpleis thatthereare only two pairs of similartrianglesin the
tiling.Keep in mind thatthereis reallyonly one equilateraltile.It is usefulin this
connectionto recall that one definesa tripleto be primitiveif its threeelements
have no commonfactor.Hood provesthateach of a pair of triplesis primitive
iffm
and n are relativelyprimeand n - m is not a multipleof 3. Since m = 1 for the
tilingtriples,the only nonprimitives
among themare those forwhichn = 3k + 1.
Settingm = 1 and n = 3k + I in equations(4) yields
a =3(2k + 1),

b = 3(k + 1)(3k + 1),

c = 3(3k2 + 3k + 1),

(8)

and
a' = 3k(3k + 2).
a multipleof 3. But a furtherscan of the computerEach such tripleis therefore
generatedlistrevealedthatif one letsm = k and n = k + 1, in equations(4), then

a = k(3k + 2),

b = (k + 1)(3k + 1),

c = 3k2 + 3k + 1,

and

a' = 2k + 1.
380

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(9)

(c) 24
21
15

13

~~~~8

(b)
15

(a)/

(d)
Figure4.

Furthermore,
since k and k + 1 are relativelyprime for any k, these triplesare
primitiveaccording to Hood. Equations (8) and (9) make it clear that the only
non-primitive
tilingtriplesare multiplesof the primitiveswhere n = m + 1 and
wherea and a' have been reversed,and thiscorrespondenceis clearlyone-to-one.
One can now use this informationto discoverthat thereare only two pairs of
similartiles.
I concludeby thankingMurrayKlamkinforthe referenceto Girard'swork.

REFERENCES
1. Leonard Eugene Dickson,Historyof theTheoryof Numbers,vol. II, DiophantineAnalysis,Chelsea,
1966.
2. Rodney T. Hood, On equilateraland relatedtriangleswithintegralsides,paper in preparation.

381

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