Symmetry in mathematics
Symmetry occurs not only in geometry, but also in other branches of mathematics. Symmetry is a type of invariance: the property that something does not change under a set of transformations.
Given a structured object X of any sort, a symmetry is a mapping of the object onto itself which preserves the structure. This occurs in many cases; for example, if X is a set with no additional structure, a symmetry is a bijective map from the set to itself, giving rise to permutation groups. If the object X is a set of points in the plane with its metric structure or any other metric space, a symmetry is a bijection of the set to itself which preserves the distance between each pair of points (an isometry).
In general, every kind of structure in mathematics will have its own kind of symmetry, many of which are listed in the given points mentioned above.
The types of symmetry considered in basic geometry (like reflection and rotation symmetry) are described more fully in the main article on symmetry.
Let f(x) be a real-valued function of a real variable. Then f is even if the following equation holds for all x and -x in the domain of f:
Geometrically speaking, the graph face of an even function is symmetric with respect to the y-axis, meaning that its graph remains unchanged after reflection about the y-axis.
Examples of even functions are x, x2, x4, cos(x), and cosh(x).
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