Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 ib Paper 3 14E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let and . Distance preservation and polarization give . The vectors form an orthonormal basis, and . Hence for an orthogonal matrix . Every Euclidean isometry is therefore .
To decompose , if reflect in the origin plane normal to . This reflection sends to . The remaining orthogonal transformation fixes and acts on its two-dimensional orthogonal complement; repeat with , and then on the last one-dimensional complement. At most three plane reflections are needed. A translation is itself a product of two reflections in parallel planes: for , reflecting first in and then in gives that translation. Thus every isometry is a finite composition of plane reflections, the finite reflection decomposition of a Euclidean isometry.
For an isometry fixing zero, the preceding construction gives . A plane reflection's linear part has . The identity implies that a product of such linear parts has rank of at most , even if the reflecting planes are affine. For central inversion , this rank is three. The reflection length of a Euclidean orthogonal map therefore gives
For the regular tetrahedron, center it at zero. Every permutation of its four vertices determines an isometry, and the orientation-reversing ones correspond to odd permutations in : six transpositions and six four-cycles. Each transposition is a plane reflection fixing the two unswapped vertices; its plane contains their edge and the midpoint of the opposite edge. These give six distinct mirror planes.
The other six are rotoreflections: rotate by or about an axis through the midpoints of a pair of opposite edges, and then reflect in the plane through the center perpendicular to that axis. There are three axes and two senses. For vertices , the map is one such four-cycle; the other axes and inverse rotations give all six. Hence the complete orientation-reversing tetrahedral symmetry list is six mirror reflections and six quarter-turn rotoreflections.