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18 Isometries

1) Isometries are transformations that preserve distances between points. They include rotations, reflections, and translations. 2) Every translation and composition of isometries is also an isometry. 3) An isometry maps lines to lines and sets onto themselves. 4) An isometry that fixes the origin is a linear transformation. Every isometry can be written as the composition of a translation and a linear transformation, so all isometries are affine transformations.

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Khadija Irfan
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108 views3 pages

18 Isometries

1) Isometries are transformations that preserve distances between points. They include rotations, reflections, and translations. 2) Every translation and composition of isometries is also an isometry. 3) An isometry maps lines to lines and sets onto themselves. 4) An isometry that fixes the origin is a linear transformation. Every isometry can be written as the composition of a translation and a linear transformation, so all isometries are affine transformations.

Uploaded by

Khadija Irfan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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18 Isometries

Basic Properties
Recall that the distance between two points x, y ∈ Rn is given by
p
dist(x, y) = ||x − y|| = (x − y) · (x − y).

Definition. A function F ∈ Trans(Rn ) is an isometry if every x, y ∈ Rn satisfy

dist(F (x), F (y)) = dist(x, y)

In words, we say that a function F is an isometry if it preserves distances. Isometries are


also called rigid transformations and we view them as the natural family of transformations
that preserve the “structure” of Euclidean space.

Example: In R2 (as we will prove) every rotation Rx,θ and every mirror ML is an isometry.

Our goal is to develop an understanding of isometries. The next two lemmas take a couple
of steps toward this goal.

Lemma 18.1. Every translation is an isometry

Proof. For the translation Tz and x, y ∈ Rn . We have

dist(Tz (x), Tz (y)) = dist(z + x, z + y) = ||(z + x) − (z + y)|| = ||x − y|| = dist(x, y)

Lemma 18.2. The set of all isometries of Rn is a subgroup of Trans(Rn )

Proof. We need to show identity containment and closure under multiplication and inverses.
(identity) It is immediate from the definition that the identity is an isometry.
(mult. closure) If F, G are isometries of Rn and x, y ∈ Rn then

dist(F G(x), F G(y)) = dist(F (G(x)), F (G(y))) = dist(G(x)), G(y)) = dist(x, y).

It follows that F G is an isometry, thus establishing closure under multiplication.


(inverses) Let F be an isometry and let x, y ∈ Rn . Since F is an isometry

dist(F −1 (x), F −1 (y)) = dist(F (F −1 (x)), F (F −1 (y))) = dist(x, y)

and it follows that F −1 is also an isometry. This establishes closure under inverses.
2
Lemma 18.3. Let F ∈ Trans(Rn ) be an isometry. If L is a line in Rn , then F (L) is a line.

Proof. To prove this lemma, it suffices to show that whenever x, y, z lie on a line, then
F (x), F (y), F (z) lie on a line. So assume x, y, z lie on a line with y between x and z. Then

dist(x, z) = dist(x, y) + dist(y, z)


⇒ dist(F (x), F (z)) = dist(F (x), F (y)) + dist(F (y), F (z))
⇒ F (x), F (y), F (z) lie on a line with y between x and z

giving the desired conclusion.

Symmetry
Definition. A symmetry of a set S ⊆ Rn is an isometry F ∈ Trans(Rn ) so that F (S) = S.

Proposition 18.4. For every S ⊆ Rn , the set of symmetries of S is a subgroup of Trans(S).

Proof. Let G be the set of symmetries of S. We need to prove that G contains the identity,
is closed under products, and closed under inverses.
(identity) The identity I satisfies I(S) = S so I ∈ G.
(mult. closure) If F, G ∈ G then F (S) = S and G(S) = S we find that F G(S) = F (G(S)) =
F (S) = S and thus F G ∈ G.
(inverses) Finally, if F ∈ G then F (S) = S so F maps S bijectively to S. It follows that
F −1 also maps S bijectively to S, so F −1 ∈ G.

Linearity
Definition. A function F : Rn → Rm is called linear if it satisfies the following properties:

(1) For every x ∈ Rn and every t ∈ R we have F (tx) = tF (x).

(2) For every x, y ∈ Rn we have F (x + y) = F (x) + F (y).

Note: If F is linear, then there exists an m × n matrix A so that the function F is given
by the rule F (x) = Ax.

Definition. We say that a function F fixes x if F (x) = x.


3
Lemma 18.5. Every isometry that fixes 0 is linear.

Proof. Let F ∈ Trans(Rn ) be an isometry that satisfies F (0) = 0. We will show that F
satisfies (1) and (2) in the definition of linear.

To prove (1) let x ∈ Rn and let t ∈ R. If x = 0 then F (tx) = F (0) = 0 = t0. So, we may
assume x 6= 0. Let y = F (x) and observe that since F is an isometry fixing 0 we must have

||x|| = dist(x, 0) = dist(y, 0) = ||y||

Define Lx to be the line Span(x) and Ly to be the line Span(y) and note that Lemma 18.3
shows that F (Lx ) = Ly . Now, tx is the unique point on Lx that has distance ||tx|| to 0 and
distance ||(t − 1)x|| to x. Similarly, ty is the unique point on Ly that has distance ||ty|| to
0 and distance ||(t − 1)y|| to y. It follows that F (tx) = ty = tF (x) as desired.

To prove (2) let x, x0 ∈ Rn . Since F is an isometry, it must map the midpoint between x
and x0 to the midpoint between their images F (x) and F (x0 ), so

F ( 21 x + 21 x0 ) = 12 F (x) + 12 F (x0 ).

It follows from (1) that


1
2
F (x + x0 ) = F ( 12 x + 12 x0 ).

Combining these equations gives F (x + x0 ) = F (x) + F (x0 ) as desired.

Lemma 18.6. Every isometry is an affine transformation.

Proof. Let F ∈ Trans(Rn ) be an isometry and let y = F (0). Now we may define the
transformation G = T−y F and we have

G(0) = T−y F (0) = T−y (y) = 0

It follows from Lemma 18.5 that G is linear, so we may choose a matrix A so that G(x) = Ax.
Now F = (T−y )−1 G = Ty G so F is given by the rule F (x) = Ax + y, so F is an affine
transformation.

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