Symmetry
Most of the materials in the Matematita image archive are related to the theme of symmetry and derive from our experience at the Symmetry, playing with mirrors exhibition and from the section on symmetry at the matemilano exhibition.
The various images give an idea of the variety of situations in which symmetry is involved. They are ordered, and can thus be consulted, in two different ways.
In the first way the images are ordered by subject: laces or wheels, floors or gates, art or nature.
In the second way, the images are ordered by symmetry group. This means users can choose between 3D groups and plane groups, and in the latter there are friezes, rosettes and wallpaper patterns. In still more detail, for example, in the section on friezes, the seven types of symmetry are distinguished for a frieze. For wallpaper patterns, there are 17 different possibilities, and for rosettes there is an initial distinction between cyclic and dihedral, after which users can choose in accordance with the group size.
The first way doesn't require any familiarity with mathematical methods. However, such methods are required for the second way, and the insets should help visitors to orient themselves better.
In both cases visitors can find many photographs of the same type in the related section. This may mean either a lot of photographs on the same subject (e.g. manhole covers), or lots of photographs that illustrate the same symmetry group (e.g. 4*2 wallpaper patterns).
You can also have fun in looking for symmetry in everyday life: a whole path refers to this theme.
