Pre-Activity #5: Rotational Symmetry
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Student Worksheet

Activity

If a figure can be rotated in degrees around a point in such a way that the resulting image coincides with the original figure, then the figure has rotational symmetry.
You can trace a figure and test it for rotational symmetry. Place the copy exactly over the original, put your pen or pencil point on the center to hold it down, rotate the copy, and try to make the copy and the original coincide. The letter Z has a rotational symmetry of 180 degrees because when if is rotated 180 degrees around a point, the image coincides with the original figure. A figure can have more than one type of rotational symmetry. The figure on the left has rotational symmetries of 120 and 2400 degrees. The figure on the right has rotational symmetries of 90, 180, and 270 degrees.

Can you think of examples of rotational symmetry in nature?

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