Math Playground
Activities

Symmetry of Shapes

Fold paper shapes — some halves match perfectly, some don't.

Fold paper shapes in half. Do the two halves match? If yes, that fold is a line of symmetry.

Lines of symmetry

  • Square — 4 (two diagonals + horizontal + vertical)
  • Rectangle — 2 (horizontal + vertical)
  • Equilateral triangle — 3
  • Circle — infinite
  • Scalene triangle — 0

Regular polygons of n sides always have exactly n lines of symmetry. Asymmetric shapes have zero.

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