Corresponding sides and corresponding anglesIn geometry, the tests for congruence and similarity involve comparing corresponding sides and corresponding angles of polygons. In these tests, each side and each angle in one polygon is paired with a side or angle in the second polygon, taking care to preserve the order of adjacency. For example, if one polygon has sequential sides a, b, c, d, and e and the other has sequential sides v, w, x, y, and z, and if b and w are corresponding sides, then side a (adjacent to b) must correspond to either v or x (both adjacent to w).
Congruence (geometry)In geometry, two figures or objects are congruent if they have the same shape and size, or if one has the same shape and size as the of the other. More formally, two sets of points are called congruent if, and only if, one can be transformed into the other by an isometry, i.e., a combination of rigid motions, namely a translation, a rotation, and a reflection. This means that either object can be repositioned and reflected (but not resized) so as to coincide precisely with the other object.
Transversal (geometry)In geometry, a transversal is a line that passes through two lines in the same plane at two distinct points. Transversals play a role in establishing whether two or more other lines in the Euclidean plane are parallel. The intersections of a transversal with two lines create various types of pairs of angles: consecutive interior angles, consecutive exterior angles, corresponding angles, and alternate angles. As a consequence of Euclid's parallel postulate, if the two lines are parallel, consecutive interior angles are supplementary, corresponding angles are equal, and alternate angles are equal.
DistanceDistance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects or points are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). Since spatial cognition is a rich source of conceptual metaphors in human thought, the term is also frequently used metaphorically to mean a measurement of the amount of difference between two similar objects (such as statistical distance between probability distributions or edit distance between strings of text) or a degree of separation (as exemplified by distance between people in a social network).
SymmetrySymmetry () in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations, such as translation, reflection, rotation, or scaling. Although these two meanings of the word can sometimes be told apart, they are intricately related, and hence are discussed together in this article.
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