Symmetry attracts us. Studies comparing people’s reactions to different faces have shown, for example, that they find highly symmetrical faces more attractive than less symmetrical faces. The symmetry ...

To most people, “symmetry” means the bilateral symmetry exhibited by, say, a butterfly, or the human face. That is, if you take a picture of a butterfly and draw a straight line down the middle of the ...

To begin to understand what mathematicians and physicists see in the abstract structures of symmetries, let’s start with a familiar shape. We are fond of saying things are symmetric, but what does ...