Ways to Tile Space with Knots

TOROIDAL BLOCK can tile

space. To form a two-dimensional tiling by way of the
pick-and-mix principle, take a
plane of squares, subdivide
each one, then recombine the
pieces differently.

matical Intelligencer this past spring. In

it, Colin C. Adams of Williams College
described new methods that he has discovered for constructing intricate threedimensional tiles from copies of a single shape, or prototile.
The simplest three-dimensional tiling
uses a cube as its prototile. Stacked
cubes, after all, tile space like a checkerboard. This cubic lattice example might
seem prosaic, but basic modications to
it can create surprisingly complex tiles,
as we will see. These modications follow the rules of topology, or rubbersheet geometry. More formally, topology is the study of those properties of
shapes that remain unchanged when
the shape is stretched, squashed, bent,
100

twisted or generally deformed in some

other continuous manner (no tearing
or cutting is allowed ). Such deformations are called topological equivalences. A cube, for example, is topologically
equivalent to a sphere because you can
transform it into a sphere by squashing its corners.
A favorite shape among topologists
is the torus, which resembles a doughnut. For our purposes, think of a solid
torus, or the dough
of the doughnut and
not just its sugary
surface. What kind of
prototile is topologically equivalent to a
torus? One possible
solution is a cube
with a square hole
bored through the
middle. This shape is
equivalent to a torus,
but it would not tile
space. So break the
square peg taken
from the cube into
two rectangular lugs
of equal length and
place them in the
middle of opposite
faces [see top illustration at left]. This form
is still equivalent to a
torus: if you made it
from modeling clay,
you could squash the
lugs at and round
the corners to produce a traditional torus.
And if you made several such prototiles from wood, you could t them togethersticking the peg of one piece
into the hole of anotherto create a
one-cube-thick plane; such planes could
then be stacked up to tile space. The
example illustrates what I shall call the
pick-and-mix principle, which is seen
most clearly in two dimensions [see bottom illustration
above]. Start with an elementary tiling, such as
squares. Subdivide each
tile into several pieces, using the same
subdivisions
in
each tile. Now as-

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN November 1995

MICHAEL GOODMAN

hapes that tile the planethose

that ll it completely and never
overlapare a recurring theme in
recreational mathematics. Solids that
tile three-dimensional space have also
attracted a lot of attention. So much so,
in fact, that it is hard to believe that any
questions about these objects remain.
But they do, as was brought home to
me by a beautiful article in the Mathe-

by Ian Stewart

semble a new prototile by choosing one

copy of each piecenot necessarily
from the original square. The result automatically tiles the plane. In our threedimensional example, we subdivided a
cube into three pieces.
The pick-and-mix strategy can produce even more exotic tiles known as
cubes-with-holes. To form one, simply
bore several tunnels through a cube, always starting at the top face and ending
at the bottom face. These tunnels can
wind around one another, form knotted
loops or generally intertwine in complicated ways. And any cube-with-holes
can be modied to create a topologically equivalent prototile: just add lugs to
the left and right faces of the cube corresponding to the appropriate half-tunnels. These prototiles will then snap together as did those in the rst example.
Moreover, the addition of the lugs
does not change the topology of the
original cube-with-holes, because you
can imagine that each lug has been
stretched out from the face to which it
is attached. Call this fact the sprouting
principlea shape retains the same
topology if it sprouts extra protuberances. There is one important restriction: the protuberances must not develop holes themselves or produce any
by attaching to more than one face. To
be precise, the protuberances must be
topologically equivalent to cubes.
Adams examines many other interesting shapes using another clever technique. Ill illustrate it using a solid torus tied in a simple overhand (or trefoil)
knot, but a very similar method works
with any knot whatsoever. The basic
idea is to think about how you might
cast a trefoil knot in bronze using a
mold whose pieces t together to make
a cube. Then you apply the pick-andmix principle. To
retain the topology of the knot,
it turns out
that the pieces

TREFOIL KNOT TILING was

made by applying the pick-andmix principle to a cubic lattice.

Copyright 1995 Scientific American, Inc.

MICHAEL GOODMAN

MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS

MICHAEL GOODMAN

of the mold must be topological cubes.

Two of the pieces in this mold are
half-cubes that have indentations along
one face; the third is a strange treelike
structure. The role of the tree is to t
between the overlapping regions of the
knot and convert it into a many-holed
torus. With the tree in place, the strands
of the knot loop around one another
instead of merely intersecting. The tree
consists of three squarish patches that
are connected by thin tubes so that
only one extra piece is needed to complete the mold instead of three. Note
that this single piece is topologically
equivalent to a cube.
The top and bottom pieces of the
mold t together to form a typical
square-sided cube, lacking only an inner region that corresponds to the knot
and the tree. The stem of the tree extends to the edge of the cube. Why introduce the extra complexity of the
tree? The reason is that you cannot cast
a trefoil knot from a two-piece mold
if those pieces must be topologically
equivalent to cubes (the pieces would
need to include loops of some kind to
separate the overlapping regions of the
knot). The tree makes it possible to cast
the knot from cube-equivalent molds.
Having constructed the three-part
mold, you can use the pick-and-mix principle to create curious prototiles [see
lower illustration on opposite page]. Begin with a cubic lattice whose cubes are
split into four pieces: a trefoil knot plus
its three-piece mold. Imagine space lled
with such cubes, arranged in a cubic
lattice. Then choose one copy of each
piece: the knot from one cube, the top
half-cube from the one behind it, the
bottom half-cube from the one in front
of it and the tree from the one to its
left. You must also cut a few grooves

KNOT (right) was formed by stacking the layers (left) and attaching the brown
pieces. Four of these knots will t together and make a solid cube.

and add matching tubes, with semicircular cross sections, as shown, so that
the pieces t together into a single,
rather elaborate prototile. Despite its
spindly architecture, this prototile is
equivalent to the original trefoil knot,
according to the sprouting principle:
the prototile is formed by adding three
protuberances to the trefoil knot, and
despite their complex shapes, those
protuberances are topologically equivalent to cubes.
This method leads to rather complex

shapes, and you could be forgiven for

wanting shapes more like an ordinary
knotted tube. Adams has an answer for
that, too: he starts with a cube and cuts
it into congruent knotted pieces. The illustration above shows such a decomposition into four symmetrically related trefoil knots. If you start with a cubic
lattice and break each cube into four
trefoil knots in the manner shown, then
you have tiled space with knots. If any
reader nds a simpler solution, I will
consider it for Feedback.

Feedback

his months correspondence arose from the July 1994

column, The Ultimate in Anty-Particles. The topic
was Langtons ant, a mathematical entity that lives on the
squares of an infinite grid and moves around painting the
squares black or white, following some simple rules. One
of my sources attributed various results to the wrong peopleerrors that I slavishly followed: First, Christopher
Langton of the Santa Fe Institute introduced the original
ant, but the ant I described was due to Greg Turk of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The highways
these ants create were discovered by Langton and named
by Jim Propp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
And the result I called the Cohen-Kong Theorem was
first proved by Leonid A. Bunimovich of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Serge E. Troubetzkoy of the University of Bielefeld. Bernd Rmmler of the University of Gttingen has now solved one of the big mysteries of myrme-

Copyright 1995 Scientific American, Inc.

cology concerning generalized ants, also known as turmites, after their inventor, Turk. Bunimovich and Troubetzkoy invented the same idea independently. Turmites follow more complex rules than do ants and paint squares in
many colors. Their rules are defined by sequences of 0s
and 1s. In computer experiments, some rule-strings, such
as 1001 and 1100, repeatedly lead to symmetrical patterns; the problem is to prove that the symmetry recurs infinitely often.
In 1990 Rmmler found the key idea, which involves
decorating the square with curves known as Truchet tiles.
He originally used the properties of these tiles to explain
the symmetrical tracks of the rule-string 1100, butas he
was awarethe same technique applies more generally.
Because of the volume of Feedback correspondence, I
regret that I cannot reply individually to many lettersbut
please dont let that stop you from writing in.
I.S.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN November 1995

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