LinkFINITE SYMMETRY GROUPS AND THE SEVEN FRIEZE PATTERNS Table How does the algebraic structure of a group

help us classify and recognise symmetries occurring in nature and man-made objects? The Rotational Symmetries of the Square Take a square and mark its right top hand corner. Stick a pin in the centre and rotate through 900 clockwise about the centre. We will call this rotation R90. Write the symbol for a clockwise rotation through 180, 270 and 0 degrees. We have discussed last week that isometries can be combined. So the product of R90 and R180 would be R90 followed by R180 , which is the same as R270. In notation: R90 o R180 = R270. Try exercise 4.5 page 86 in your electronic book now. followed by written as o is called binary operation, i.e. a rule or method for combining objects two at a time. Other examples of binary operations for numbers are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. An example of a unary operation (a rule for operating on objects one at a time) is square root operation or square operation or cube operations, etc. Try exercise 4.6 on page 86 in your electronic book. Group Group theory is that branch of mathematics concerned with the study of groups. These are sets with a rule, or operation. The operation in a group must satisfy closure and have these three additional properties: 1) The operation must have the property of associativity. 2) There must be an identity element. 3) Every element must have a corresponding inverse element. (a) Closure: Closed under an operation Look at the set {R0, R90, R180, R270}. In exercise 4.6 we see that every entry in the table is one of the elements R0, R90, R180, R270. Hence, since all the results are within the set {R0, R90, R180, R270}, we say that the set {R0, R90, R180, R270}is closed under the operation o. If however if we have a set {R0, R90}and we do R90 o R90. R90 o R90= R180

R180 is not in the set {R0, R90} nor is it equivalent to R0 or R90 and hence set {R0, R90} is not closed under the operation o. Another example: Set of natural numbers closed under addition but not subtraction because 3-6 = -3 and natural numbers are all positive integers. (b) Associativity Addition is associative for the set of natural numbers. The brackets can be removed when adding 2 or more natural numbers. Example: (2+3) +1 = 5+1 = 2+(3+1) = 2 +4 = 6 the same answer. So brackets are unnecessary. Subtraction is not associative. Example: 7-(5-2) = 7-3=4 but (7-5) -2 = 2-2 = 0. Brackets are necessary to obtain the answer we desire. To check for associativity we will check using a combination of 3 rotations from the set {R0, R90, R180, R270}. Example: (R180 o R90)o R270 = R270 o R270 = R180 R180 o (R90o R270) = R180 o R0 = R180 which is the same answer. Try another combination of 3 rotations yourself. (c) The identity element R0 is the identity element. For addition 0 is the identity. Subtraction does not have an identity. For multiplication, 1 is the identity. The identity element does not change the object. (d) Inverses For every integer under the addition operation, there is an inverse but not for every natural number. ] Example: 2+(-2) = 0 and (-2 ) + 2 = 0. For the inverse, the object operation and its inverse produce the identity. Rotation of 90 degrees has an inverse rotation of 270 degrees which produces the identity rotation of 0 degrees: R90 o R270 = R0 . R0 is the identity. All the elements of the set {R0, R90, R180, R270} have inverses.

For the set {R0, R90, R180, R270} of rotations of a square forms a group under the operation followed by. This group is called the group of rotational symmetries of the square. This is because it satisfies all the requirements to form a group which is as follows: A group is a set G , together with an operation o such that a) G is closed under the operation o i.e. for every A and B in G , A B is also in G. b) The operation is associative i.e. (A B) C = A (B C) for every A , B and C in G .

A group is commutative if for every A and B in G, A o B = B o A. In the case of the group of rotational symmetries of the square is commutative. The symmetry group of the triangle Draw an equilateral triangle and mark one vertex and shade the back of the triangle a different colour from the front. It has 3 rotational symmetries- rotations through 0, 120 and 240 degrees (assume all are clockwise) that is R0, R120, R240. Do exercise 4.8. An equilateral triangle has 6 symmetries 3 rotational and 3 reflections.

MA : reflection in the vertical mirror through point A, MB and MC like wise are reflections in the line through the respective points. Now rotate and reflect and obtain 6 different positions of the triangle try it out on your triangle and draw a sketch to keep track of the isometry that resulted in the position obtained. Then combine your isometries and complete Exercise 4.10 on page 91 in Susie Groves Electronic book. The Cyclic Groups Take the equilateral triangle and rotate it at its centre through 1200. It has rotational symmetry for rotation through 1200. If we did a rotation of 1200 followed by another rotation of 1200 then we have a rotation of 2400 which is also an angle within the set of rotations that illustrate symmetry for an equilateral triangle ({R0, R120, R240}). Rotation of 1200 followed by another rotation of 1200 can be written as a product as follows: R120 o R120 = (R120)2 = R240. Likewise, (R120)3 = R360 = R0. If we tried to continue we would just go in circles since we would get (R120)4 = R120 (R120)5 = R240 (R120)6 = R0 The whole group ({R0, R120, R240}) can be generated by a single element (sometimes called the generator), we call the group a cyclic group. In this case, the rotational symmetries form a cyclic subgroup of the full group of symmetries. The group consists of the set {R0, R120, R240}, which contains 3 elements. Hence, this group has order 3. We call this group the cyclic group of order 3 and we write it as C3. Rotational symmetries of any regular polygon with n sides form cyclic group, Cn, of order n. Example the regular pentagon forms the group C5. Can you list the elements of rotational symmetry for a pentagon? Also, a regular polygon with n sides will have n lines of symmetry (and hence n reflections).

The Dihedral group Dn A two dimensional object that has both rotational (cyclic) and reflectional (flip) symmetry is referred to as having dihedral symmetry and denoted as Dn (D for the dihedral symmetry and n because it is a n sided polygon). Objects that are not invariant under refelction (flip) but has cyclic (rotation) symmetry is denoted as Cn symmetry The full symmetry group of a regular polygon with n sides consists of 2n elements n rotations and n reflections. These groups are known as dihedral groups, Dn. Try and complete the following table. o R0 R120 R240 MA MB MC R0 0 R120 120 R240 240 MA MB MC

The only finite symmetry groups in the plane are the cyclic groups Cn and the dihedral groups Dn. The discrete point groups in 2 dimensional space are the following classes:

cyclic groups C1, C2, C3, C4,... where Cn consists of all rotations about a fixed point by multiples of the angle 360/n dihedral groups D1, D2, D3, D4,... where Dn (of order 2n) consists of the rotations in Cn together with reflections in n axes that pass through the fixed point.

Infinite symmetry groups: The Seven Frieze (strip) patterns So far we have looked at finite symmetry groups which are the cyclic and dihedral groups. Now we will look at infinite symmetry groups which can be used to classify the symmetries of frieze or strip patterns. A frieze is a horizontal band of sculpture or decoration appearing on buildings and walls, often near the ceiling. Example: R R R R R R

Since the pattern is along a strip, only transformations which can shift points along a strip can be included translation, reflection and turns or rotation through 1800. Reflections which are vertical or horizontal, that is, parallel or perpendicular to the strip only can be used.

Only translation and glide reflections can be used by themselves to generate an infinite pattern. Since two half turns (or the square of a R180 rotation) is equal to the identity and two reflections on the same line of reflection (or square of a reflection) is the identity, they cannot be used to produce frieze patterns. So single generator patterns are those involving translation and glide reflection.