[Math] Are the only transformations which preserve distances between points translation, rotation and reflection

euclidean-geometrygeometry

There are many sources which define rigid/isometric transformations as "transformations which preserve the distance between points", going on to say that "rotation, translation and (maybe) reflection are all types of rigid transformation".

What is not clear from this is whether these transformations are the only transformations which preserve pairwise distances, or whether there might be some more complex transformations which also do so.

Turning the question around: If I have a set of points, are translations, rotations and reflections the only transformation I can possibly apply if I wish to maintain distances between points?

Best Answer

They're not the only ones: Consider $$ (x,y) \mapsto (x,-y) \mapsto (x+1,-y). $$ This is not a reflection about a line, nor a translation, nor a rotation. However, it is a composition of a reflection and a translation. The answer should be that translations, reflections, and rotations GENERATE the group of all isometries of the plane, i.e. every isometry is a composition of finitely many those. (Auxiliary question: How many? Do we ever need more than two?)

("Glide reflection" is a term I've seen used for isometries like the one displayed above. I don't know what degree of standardness that term has.)

In three dimensions, you could also rotate through a $1^\circ$ angle and then translate along the axis of rotation. By contrast, in two dimensions, if you rotate and then translate, what you get is just a rotation about a different center.