1.

PATTERNS IN NATURE

1.1 Symmetry
● comes from the Greek word symmetria, meaning “the same measure”.
● rigid motion of the plane that leaves the object unchanged.
1.1.1 Reflectional Symmetry
● flipping motion
● sometimes called bilateral or mirror symmetry
● if you fold a picture in half and both halves are exact mirror image of one another, then
the figure has a reflectional symmetry.
● fold is what we call the line or axis of symmetry.
1.1.2 Rotational Symmetry
● rigid motion that makes an object look exactly the same as it did before it was rotated
about a fixed point, called the center.
● rotation must be less than 360 degrees
● the number of times an object can be rotated is called the order;
● the number of degrees through which an object is rotated so that it still looks the same
as it did before the rotation, is called the angle of rotation.
1.1.3 Translation Symmetry
● transformations that slide objects along without rotating them
● pattern has a translation symmetry if an object in the pattern has been moved the same
distance and the same direction.
● preserves orientation.
1.1.4 Spirals
● formed because of a property of growth known as self-similarity or scaling, which means
that the same shape is maintained (not of the same size) as the object (creature) grows.
1.2 Tessellations
● is a pattern made up of one or more geometric shapes that are joined together without
overlaps or gaps to cover a plane.
1.3 Fractals
● is a never ending replication of a pattern at different scales (same shape but different
size).
● self-similarity.