A Java Applet to play with Penrose tiles

Penrose tiles contain only two different kinds of pieces, and they tile a whole plane only nonperiodically. For information about Penrose tiles, read the book Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers by Martin Gardner.

If you have read Professor Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind and Shadows of the Mind, here is my little philosophical thought : why our physical world is evolving like the forming of a Penrose pattern.

Also I have created a 3-D image that reflects this philosophical thinking.

This applet have been awarded for Science Excellence from "Dr. Matrix' Weird Web World of Science."

Instruction:

First click anywhere inside applet area below this instruction to create a loose piece.

When you have a loose piece, click inside it for control:

1. Click right button to rotate it clockwise, shift + right button to rotate it counterclockwise;
2. Click shift + left button to delete it(if you want a different kind of piece).
3. Click left button and drag it to fit to the pattern (for the very first piece, just click outside it and make it become first piece of a pattern), if the fit is legal, the color of this loose piece will change;

When you don't have any loose piece, you can:

1. Click outside the pattern to create a new loose piece, left button for a "kite", right button for a "dart";
2. Click a piece inside the pattern and drag it out, it will become loose;
3. Click a color from the spectrum at the left and then click a piece inside the pattern, the color of this piece will change to the color of you choose;
4. Click the up or down arrow at the left to enlarge or reduce the size of each piece.

Please send email to s_zeng@yahoo.com for problem report or suggestion.

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