Bubble Tiles were inspired by a textile pattern in a book by the Japanese artist Hokusai.  Find a link to his book on this info sheet.  The idea is that a circle can be made of 6 60 degree arcs.  Each arc can be inverted, or not and all the possible combinations make a tileset that has 13, or 14 tiles depending on how you think about the one that is different when reflected.  Get a PDF of our Bubble Tiles Booklet Here.

We have a frame that works for one of each tile.  There are many many ways to solve this and we are keeping count!  See the screen capture of the gallery.  We are now up to 66 different solutions as of November 21, 2024.

The first solutions came in from participants in the Matrix x Imaginary Conference in Geneva Switzerland followed by the Math Festival in Geneva, then we’ve had some solutions from our staff in Austin, Chicago Math Circles, Mathhappens @ The Works in Bloomington MN, and most recently 8 from a Girl Scout Math Festival here in Austin, TX and 7 more from John Chase and Friends in Rockville, MD.  There are now 4 more from John added on Nov 21st.

The black rectangles are to separate the patterns by position of the white tile.

So far we’ve taken them to MathFest in Indianapolis, Math On-A-Stick at the State Fair in Minneapolis, the Matrix x Imaginary conference in Geneva and the Math’émerveille Math Festival in Geneva, Switzerland.  The tiles have been fun for kids, parents, math professors and other educators!

If you would like a free set of Bubble Tiles, please fill out a request form.

The 1 of Each or 13 Tile Frame challenges us to find a new combination of tiles.  So far we have 23 different patterns.  If you have a new one please send it to us here.  We’ll check it against the ones we have and put it in if it’s new!  These are organized based on the location of the white tile if you have one to check.

To make your own frames, or tiles, you can use this SVG file.

The following includes 29 solutions found at Matrix x Imaginary and adds 5 more found at Austin Museum Day and a few more since then including one from Math Circles of Chicago and another from the Works in St. Paul to take us to 42.  And after 19 days we have 47.  Current to 10/25/24.

Wondering what a Bubble Tile Soccer Ball would be like.  You’d need “pentagons” with the same arc but rotated by 72 degrees.  We played around a bit with this idea back in March 2024.

This woman who found a solution at Austin Museum Day used to teach high school statistics and now she demonstrates quilting in period costumes.  She said it was really fun!

Comments and feed back on the review kits (8 of each tile, 3 frames the small, one of each and large):