Date: 08/11/99 at 03:30:29 From: Markee Guest Subject: Math involving squares What is the definition of a polyomino used in relation to squares? I looked in Merriam-Webster dictionary and tried different geometry sites and had no luck.
Date: 08/11/99 at 14:29:13 From: Doctor Rob Subject: Re: Math involving squares Thanks for writing to Ask Dr. Math. I think you know what a domino is. An abstract domino is a rectangle that is formed by joining two squares together along a side. If you were to join three squares together along sides, you would get an object you could call a tri-omino (tri-: three; di-: two) or triomino. There are two different ways to do this, one in which the three squares are in a row, forming a 3-by-1 rectangle, and one in which they form an L or V shape. If you join four squares together along sides, you would get a tetromino (tetra-: four). There are five different ways to do that. Try to find them all. You can continue this for larger and larger numbers of squares, forming pentominos, hexominos, and so on. The entire set of objects you get (including the monomino) is called polyominos. (Two polyominos are not considered different if one is congruent to the other, including flipping it over.) - Doctor Rob, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
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