Can you use the word symmetry for 3 equal parts?
Asked by
JLeslie (
65790
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September 4th, 2019
from iPhone
Or, is it only correct for 2?
Is it different in math as opposed to every day use in the English language?
An example would be saying trimesters have symmetry. Or, the pie was cut into 3 symmetrical parts. It sounds odd to me.
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9 Answers
If you put three, or four, or five, plants in a window sill, equally spaced from each other, you have symmetry.
It is called radial symmetry.
Symmetry means balanced. One (of a equal pair) on each side, balanced, is symmetry. Two of the same things on opposite sides, balanced, is symmetry. “Due or balanced proportions; beauty of form arising from such harmony*” is symmetry.
-*from Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1960 ed.
You can use the word “symmetry” for an unlimited number of things as long as they stay on a certain path. You can have an entire room that is very symmetrical…and, IMO, very boring.
I guess maybe because it was 3, an odd number, that symmetry just doesn’t sound right to me.
It was about dividing the year into 3 equal parts—trimesters.
That would be four parts, if I’m not mistaken.
Symmetry is an important concept in mathematics, and the definition is fairly useful outside of mathematics. A transformation is a symmetry with respect to a certain property if performing that transformation leaves the property unchanged.
In the case of the pie cut into 3 equal parts, swapping any pieces leaves the division unchanged. The letter S is symmetric with respect to 180 degree rotation and the letter M is symmetric with respect to reflection about the vertical axis of symmetry. A red chair under a blue table next to a blue chair under a red table is symmetric with respect to swapping the colors red and blue.
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