Heptomino

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The 108 free heptominoes Heptominoes.svg
The 108 free heptominoes

A heptomino (or 7-omino or septomino) is a polyomino of order 7; that is, a polygon in the plane made of 7 equal-sized squares connected edge to edge. [1] The name of this type of figure is formed with the prefix hept(a)-. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 108 different free heptominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 196 one-sided heptominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 760 fixed heptominoes. [2] [3]

Contents

Symmetry

The figure shows all possible free heptominoes, coloured according to their symmetry groups:

Reflection Symmetrical Heptominoes-90-deg.svg
Reflection Symmetrical Heptominoes-45-deg.svg
Rotation Symmetrical Heptominoes.svg
Rotation and Reflection Symmetrical Heptominoes.svg

If reflections of a heptomino are considered distinct, as they are with one-sided heptominoes, then the first and fourth categories above would each double in size, resulting in an extra 88 heptominoes for a total of 196. If rotations are also considered distinct, then the heptominoes from the first category count eightfold, the ones from the next three categories count fourfold, and the ones from the last two categories count twice. This results in 84 × 8 + (9+7+4) × 4 + (3+1) × 2 = 760 fixed heptominoes.

Packing and tiling

Of the 108 free heptominoes, 101 satisfy the Conway criterion and 3 more can form a patch satisfying the criterion. Thus, only 4 heptominoes fail to satisfy the criterion and, in fact, these 4 are unable to tessellate the plane. [4]

The four heptominoes incapable of tiling a plane, including the one heptomino with a hole No Tile Heptominoes.png
The four heptominoes incapable of tiling a plane, including the one heptomino with a hole

Although a complete set of the 108 free heptominoes has a total of 756 squares, it is not possible to tile a rectangle with that set. The proof of this is trivial, since there is one heptomino which has a hole. [5] It is also impossible to pack them into a 757-square rectangle with a one-square hole because 757 is a prime number.

However, the set of 107 simply connected free heptominoes—that is, the ones without the hole—can tile a 7 by 107 (749-square) rectangle. [6] Furthermore, the complete set of free heptominoes can tile three 11-by-23 (253-square) rectangles, each with a one-square hole in the center; the complete set can also tile twelve 8 by 8 (64-square) squares with a one-square hole in the "center". [7]

Related Research Articles

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Derived from the Greek word for '5', and "domino", a pentomino is a polyomino of order 5; that is, a polygon in the plane made of 5 equal-sized squares connected edge to edge. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 12 different free pentominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 18 one-sided pentominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 63 fixed pentominoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetromino</span> Four squares connected edge-to-edge

A tetromino is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally. Tetrominoes, like dominoes and pentominoes, are a particular type of polyomino. The corresponding polycube, called a tetracube, is a geometric shape composed of four cubes connected orthogonally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klein four-group</span> Mathematical abelian group

In mathematics, the Klein four-group is an abelian group with four elements, in which each element is self-inverse (composing it with itself produces the identity) and in which composing any two of the three non-identity elements produces the third one. It can be described as the symmetry group of a non-square rectangle (with the three non-identity elements being horizontal reflection, vertical reflection and 180-degree rotation), as the group of bitwise exclusive or operations on two-bit binary values, or more abstractly as Z2 × Z2, the direct product of two copies of the cyclic group of order 2. It was named Vierergruppe (German:[ˈfiːʁɐˌɡʁʊpə], meaning four-group) by Felix Klein in 1884. It is also called the Klein group, and is often symbolized by the letter V or as K4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyomino</span> Geometric shapes formed from squares

A polyomino is a plane geometric figure formed by joining one or more equal squares edge to edge. It is a polyform whose cells are squares. It may be regarded as a finite subset of the regular square tiling.

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A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of geometries.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexomino</span> Geometric shape formed from six squares

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A wallpaper is a mathematical object covering a whole Euclidean plane by repeating a motif indefinitely, in manner that certain isometries keep the drawing unchanged. For each wallpaper there corresponds a group of congruent transformations, with function composition as the group operation. Thus, a wallpaper group is a mathematical classification of a two‑dimensional repetitive pattern, based on the symmetries in the pattern. Such patterns occur frequently in architecture and decorative art, especially in textiles, tessellations, tiles and physical wallpaper.

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In recreational mathematics, a polyabolo is a shape formed by gluing isosceles right triangles edge-to-edge, making a polyform with the isosceles right triangle as the base form. Polyaboloes were introduced by Martin Gardner in his June 1967 "Mathematical Games column" in Scientific American.

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In recreational mathematics, a polyhex is a polyform with a regular hexagon as the base form, constructed by joining together 1 or more hexagons. Specific forms are named by their number of hexagons: monohex, dihex, trihex, tetrahex, etc. They were named by David Klarner who investigated them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polycube</span> Shape made from cubes joined together

A polycube is a solid figure formed by joining one or more equal cubes face to face. Polycubes are the three-dimensional analogues of the planar polyominoes. The Soma cube, the Bedlam cube, the Diabolical cube, the Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle, and the Conway puzzle are examples of packing problems based on polycubes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tromino</span> Geometric shape formed from three squares

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonomino</span> Geometric shape formed from nine squares

A nonomino is a polyomino of order 9; that is, a polygon in the plane made of 9 equal-sized squares connected edge to edge. The name of this type of figure is formed with the prefix non(a)-. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 1,285 different free nonominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 2,500 one-sided nonominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 9,910 fixed nonominoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dihedral group of order 6</span> Non-commutative group with 6 elements

In mathematics, D3 (sometimes alternatively denoted by D6) is the dihedral group of degree 3 and order 6. It equals the symmetric group S3. It is also the smallest non-abelian group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Octomino</span> Geometric shape formed from eight squares

An octomino is a polyomino of order 8; that is, a polygon in the plane made of 8 equal-sized squares connected edge to edge. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 369 different free octominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 704 one-sided octominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 2,725 fixed octominoes.

In mathematics, a domino is a polyomino of order 2, that is, a polygon in the plane made of two equal-sized squares connected edge-to-edge. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there is only one free domino.

A decomino, or 10-omino, is a polyomino of order 10; that is, a polygon in the plane made of 10 equal-sized squares connected edge to edge. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 4,655 different free decominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 9,189 one-sided decominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 36,446 fixed decominoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conway criterion</span> Rule from the theory of the tiling of the plane

In the mathematical theory of tessellations, the Conway criterion, named for the English mathematician John Horton Conway, is a sufficient rule for when a prototile will tile the plane. It consists of the following requirements: The tile must be a closed topological disk with six consecutive points A, B, C, D, E, and F on the boundary such that:

References

  1. Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN   0-691-02444-8.
  2. Weisstein, Eric W. "Heptomino". From MathWorld – A Wolfram Web Resource. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  3. Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics. 36 (2): 191–203. doi: 10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5 .
  4. Rhoads, Glenn C. (2005). "Planar tilings by polyominoes, polyhexes, and polyiamonds". Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 174 (2): 329–353. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2004.05.002.
  5. Grünbaum, Branko; Shephard, G. C. (1987). Tilings and Patterns . New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. ISBN   0-7167-1193-1.
  6. "Polyominoes: Even more heptominoes!"
  7. Image, "An incredible heptomino solution by Patrick Hamlyn", from Material added Feb-Aug 2001 at MathPuzzzle.com