Zigzag

A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular.

For other uses, see Zigzag (disambiguation).
Drawing of a zigzag.

From the point of view of symmetry, a regular zigzag can be generated from a simple motif like a line segment by repeated application of a glide reflection.

Although the origin of the word is unclear, its first printed appearances were in French-language books and ephemera of the late 17th century.[1]

Examples of zigzags
A 2-metre carpenter's ruler with centimetre divisions

Lightning and other electrical hazards are often depicted with a zigzag design, with long downward strokes and short backward ones.

The trace of a triangle wave or a sawtooth wave is a zigzag.

Pinking shears are designed to cut cloth or paper with a zigzag edge, to lessen fraying.

A carpenter's folding ruler can be folded to look like a zigzag.

Zigzags are a basic decorative pattern used on pottery, and are often seen in the cuts which separate pieces of ravioli pasta.

In sewing, a zigzag stitch is a machine stitch in a zigzag pattern.

The zigzag arch is an architectural embellishment used in Islamic, Byzantine, Norman and Romanesque architecture.[2][3]

The stripe on Charlie Brown's famous yellow shirt is a zigzag.

gollark: Or via a bodily autonomy argument.
gollark: It's not murder if you do not consider fetuses "people", which is very common.
gollark: Things are actually quite good in many ways. Things are, by many metrics, better than they've ever been. Extreme poverty continues to trend vaguely downward, technology advances, people are getting richer, etc.
gollark: So it's better than conclusions which don't follow from premises.
gollark: It is one of those conclusions which follows from premises which some people agree with.

See also

References
  1. Google Books: "Word Origins and how we know them"
  2. Allen, Terry (1986). "4". A Classical Revival in Islamic Architecture. Wiesbaden.
  3. Allen, Terry (2008). Pisa and the Dome of the Rock (electronic publication) (2nd ed.). Occidental, California: Solipsist Press. ISBN 0-944940-08-0. Retrieved January 28, 2012.

Bibliography
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