Heptiamond Pair Trapezia/Trapezoids

Introduction

A heptiamond is a plane figure formed by joining 7 equal equilateral triangles edge to edge. There are 24 heptiamonds:

A trapezium is a quadrilateral with just two sides parallel. In the U.S. and Canada it is usually called a trapezoid, and a quadrilateral with no sides parallel is called a trapezium. The confusion appears to have arisen from a popular 18th-century English dictionary of mathematics that mixed up the two terms.

Here I show the smallest known trapezia that can be formed by copies of two heptiamonds, using at least one of each. I allow triangles as a special case of trapezia. If you find a smaller solution or solve an unsolved pair, please write.

Carl Schwenke and Johann Schwenke found new solutions and improvements.

See also

  • Tiling a Triangle with a Pair of Heptiamonds
  • Heptiamond Pair Parallelograms
  • Carl Schwenke and Johann Schwenke found the biggest solutions shown here.

  • Table
  • Basic Solutions
  • Non-Triangular Variants
  • Table

     ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPQRSTUVXYZ
    A*???????40??1563???????????
    B?*?4??3?8???????????????
    C??*?????3??43????????????
    D?4?*???44?153????????????
    E????*?191324????20??????????
    F?????*444427??6463???????????
    G?3??1944*5515?485????3927????3127
    H???4134455*1733??????15??4084???
    I4083424271517*357212231260322772012092641882739
    J???????3335*?19????????????
    K???15??48?72?*?????????????
    L15?433?645?1219?*?88??12???????
    M63????63??23???*???????????
    N????20???12??88?*??????????
    P????????60?????*?????????
    Q????????32??????*????????
    R??????391527??12????*???????
    S??????27?7????????*??????
    T????????20?????????*?????
    U???????401209??????????*????
    V???????84264???????????*???
    X????????188????????????*??
    Y??????31?27?????????????*?
    Z??????27?39??????????????*

    Basic Solutions

    3–27 Tiles

    31–88 Tiles

    More Tiles

    7I+7X

    7I+7V

    7I+7U

    The brothers Schwenke have shown that the I heptiamond can tile a trapezium with slant height 21 and bases 183 and 204:

    The I and U heptiamonds can form a parallelogram with sides 8 and 21:

    This parallelogram can be joined to the trapezium to make a new trapezium with bases 191 and 212, tiled with both the I and U heptiamonds.

    Non-Triangular Variants

    Last revised 2025-04-06.


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    Col. George Sicherman [ HOME | MAIL ]