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This article describes symmetry from three perspectives: in mathematics, including geometry, the most familiar type of symmetry for many people; in science and nature; and in the arts, covering architecture, art, and music. The opposite of symmetry is asymmetry, which refers to the absence of symmetry.
A drawing of a butterfly with bilateral symmetry, with left and right sides as mirror images of each other.. In geometry, an object has symmetry if there is an operation or transformation (such as translation, scaling, rotation or reflection) that maps the figure/object onto itself (i.e., the object has an invariance under the transform). [1]
Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). [1] Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in precise terms or in more aesthetic terms. [ 2 ]
Macroscopic examples of chirality are found in the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and all other groups of organisms. A simple example is the coiling direction of any climber plant, which can grow to form either a left- or right-handed helix. In anatomy, chirality is found in the imperfect mirror image symmetry of many kinds of animal bodies.
Axial symmetry is symmetry around an axis; an object is axially symmetric if its appearance is unchanged if rotated around an axis. [1] For example, a baseball bat without trademark or other design, or a plain white tea saucer , looks the same if it is rotated by any angle about the line passing lengthwise through its center, so it is axially ...
Fish: Dorsal view of right-bending (left) and left-bending (right) jaw morphs [4]. Many flatfish, such as flounders, have eyes placed asymmetrically in the adult fish.The fish has the usual symmetrical body structure when it is young, but as it matures and moves to living close to the sea bed, the fish lies on its side, and the head twists so that both eyes are on the top.
Symmetry occurs not only in geometry, but also in other branches of mathematics. Symmetry is a type of invariance: the property that a mathematical object remains unchanged under a set of operations or transformations. [1] Given a structured object X of any sort, a symmetry is a mapping of the object onto itself which preserves the structure.
Symmetry breaking occurs at several different levels in order to generate the anatomical asymmetry which we observe. These levels include asymmetric gene expression, protein expression, and activity of cells. For example, left–right asymmetry in mammals has been investigated extensively in the embryos of mice. Such studies have led to support ...