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Geometry Lesson 4 Symmetry of 2D and 3D Shapes

The document discusses symmetry in 2D and 3D shapes. There are two types of symmetry: reflective symmetry, where an object looks the same when reflected across a line, and rotational symmetry, where an object looks the same when rotated. Regular polygons have rotational symmetry equal to the number of sides and lines of symmetry equal to the number of sides. 3D shapes like cubes and pyramids also exhibit different types of symmetry based on their geometric properties. Several examples and exercises are provided to illustrate symmetry concepts.

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Nagy Elraheb
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310 views15 pages

Geometry Lesson 4 Symmetry of 2D and 3D Shapes

The document discusses symmetry in 2D and 3D shapes. There are two types of symmetry: reflective symmetry, where an object looks the same when reflected across a line, and rotational symmetry, where an object looks the same when rotated. Regular polygons have rotational symmetry equal to the number of sides and lines of symmetry equal to the number of sides. 3D shapes like cubes and pyramids also exhibit different types of symmetry based on their geometric properties. Several examples and exercises are provided to illustrate symmetry concepts.

Uploaded by

Nagy Elraheb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Lesson 4: Symmetry of 2D and 3D shapes

There are two types of symmetry: reflective symmetry


and rotational symmetry.

Reflective Symmetry

An object has reflective symmetry if it can be reflected in a particular line and


looks the same as the original.
The line the object is reflected across is called a line of symmetry or a mirror
line.

Look for lines of symmetry in the two shapes below:

In (a) there are two lines of symmetry, one horizontal and one vertical.
In (b) there are also two lines of symmetry, both diagonal.

Here are the shapes with the lines of symmetry drawn on:

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Rotational Symmetry
An object has rotational symmetry if it looks the same as it did originally
when rotated.

The order of rotational symmetry is the number of times an object looks the
same as it did originally when it is rotated through 360°. Even if a shape
appears to have no rotational symmetry then the order of rotational
symmetry will still be 1, because every shape looks the same at the end of a
360° rotation as it did originally.

There is a centre of rotation about which the rotational symmetry occurs.


There can only be one centre of rotation in a shape.

Symmetries in regular polygons


Look at the regular heptagon below. A heptagon is a shape with seven sides
and this one has equal sides and equal angles.

You can see that there are seven lines of symmetry, and the regular
heptagon also has rotational symmetry order seven.

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

The order of rotational symmetry and the number of lines of symmetry of any
regular polygon is equal to the number of sides.

Exercises

Question 1

State the order of rotational symmetry and the number of lines of symmetry
for each of the following shapes:

(a)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

(b)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

(c)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

(d)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

Order of rotational symmetry =


(e)
Number of lines of symmetry =

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Question 2
Describe the symmetries of the shapes shown below:

(a)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

(b)

Order of rotational symmetry =


Number of lines of symmetry =

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Question 3
Describe the symmetry properties of each of the following triangles:
(a)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

(b)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

(c)
Order of rotational symmetry =

Number of lines of symmetry =

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Question 4
Complete the following table:
Order of Number of
rotational lines of
Shape symmetry symmetry

Equilateral triangle

Square

Regular pentagon

Regular hexagon

Regular heptagon (7 sides)

Regular octagon

Regular nonagon (9 sides)

Regular decagon

Regular dodecagon (12 sides)

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

The 9 Plane Symmetries of the Cube

Cube

Square 5 Planes of
based prism symmetry

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Triangular Based Prisms

An equilateral triangular based prism has four planes of symmetry.

Pyramids

A square based pyramid has 4 planes of symmetry.

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Pyramids

Regular Tetrahedron: 6 planes of symmetry

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

Exercises :

1) (a) Write down the name of the special quadrilateral which has rotational
symmetry of order 2 but no lines of symmetry.
Answer (a) ...................................................... [1]

(b) On the grid, draw a quadrilateral, which has exactly one line of
symmetry but no rotational symmetry.
Draw the line of symmetry on your diagram.

2)

For the shape shown, write down

(a) the number of lines of symmetry,


Answer (a)…………………………… [1]
(b) the order of rotational symmetry.
Answer (b)…………………………… [1]
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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

3)

The triangle in the diagram above is isosceles.

(i) How many lines of symmetry does this triangle have?


Answer (i) ………………………………… [1]

(ii) Write down the order of rotational symmetry of this triangle.


Answer (ii) ………………………………… [1]
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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

4)

5)

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

6)

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

7)

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MATH DEPARTMENT-PART 4:GEOMETRY

8) In each of the shapes below draw one line which divides it into two
congruent shapes.

9)

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