Tesla Tessellation Kaleidoscope - 5 Point
The key to understanding what is a Tesla Tessellation kaleidoscope, is to answer two other questions:
- Who was Tesla?
- What is a Tessellation?
Nikola Tesla was the inventor of the alternating current electric system. Elon Musk named his company for Tesla's electrical contributions to the world.
A Tessellation is a pattern created by repeating one or more shapes without gaps or overlaps. Square or hexagonal floor tiles create a tessellation. The artist Escher was famous for his tessellations.
Tesla Tessellations are a kaleidoscope series of the common tessellations found in kaleidoscopes and are decorated on the outside using high voltage electricity (ala Tesla). These patterns are literally burned into the wood. The same patterns are created in nature by lightning strikes!
Most kaleidoscopes use a triangular mirror system. If all the angles in the triangle are evenly divisible into 180, the image you see will be a tessellation. In this version with 5 Points, the three internal mirrors are set to a 36/54/90 right triangle displaying a 5 pointed star/pentagon which is not a tessellation, yet still creates a really interesting image which is very close to a tessellation. As such, this configuration was included in the Tesla Tessellation series.
The Tesla scope is approximately 4-1/2” tall by 3” in diameter at its widest point.
