ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Gilbert tessellation

Okay kiddo, imagine you have a bunch of eggs and you want to put them in a basket. But instead of just putting them in all higgledy-piggledy, you decide to arrange them really neatly so that there are no big gaps between them. That's kind of like what Gilbert tessellation is!

First of all, we need to know what a tessellation is. Have you ever played with blocks or tiles that fit together like a puzzle to make a bigger picture? That's a tessellation! So in Gilbert tessellation, we're trying to make a pattern out of a bunch of shapes that all fit together closely, like the eggs in the basket.

Now, let's talk about how we choose the shape we're going to use. In Gilbert tessellation, we use circles. But instead of just randomly putting circles down, we use a special pattern. We start with one big circle, and then we put a smaller circle right in the middle of it. Then we put another circle in each of the spaces between those two circles. And then we keep going, putting circles in the leftover spaces each time until we've filled up our whole area with circles.

Here's the really cool part: because we're using circles in this special way, they all fit together really tightly without overlapping! It's kind of like a puzzle where all the pieces just snap into place perfectly.

Gilbert tessellation can be used for all sorts of things, like creating patterns in art or designing surfaces for computer graphics. And the best part is, it looks really cool!