Independent elastic stiffness counts ($21=6\cdot 7/2$)

The two minor symmetries of the elastic stiffness tensor make it a map between six-dimensional spaces of symmetric strain and stress. An elastic energy gives major symmetry, so the matrix of this map is symmetric and has 21 independent entries. For a symmetry operation acting on strains with parity spaces of dimensions $m$ and $6-m$, invariance eliminates the mixed block and leaves $m(m+1)/2+(6-m)(7-m)/2$ independent coefficients.