About this pattern
Hankin, working in India in the 1900s, noticed that the star patterns were laid out over a hidden tiling of regular polygons. From each edge midpoint two lines leave at the same contact angle and continue until they strike another. Because neighbouring tiles share midpoints, the lines cross the joins uninterrupted and the underlying scaffolding disappears. The angle sets the star's order; the tiling sets which stars are possible.
Ernest Hanbury Hankin · polygons in contact
