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Inversions

Date: 01/09/2002 at 09:22:19
From: David Rader
Subject: Palindromic words

Good morning Dr. Math,

We all know that numbers such as 191 are called palindromes. Is there 
a name for words like SWIMS that look the same after a rotation of 
180 degrees (flipped and upside-down to my grade 3 students)? This 
is a first for me. I hope you can help.

Dave Rader

Date: 01/09/2002 at 10:08:20
From: Doctor Paul
Subject: Re: Palindromic words

It's called an inversion. Scott Kim wrote a book on inversions in 1981 
(ISBN 0716720442).

Samples of his work (the best I've ever seen) are at his website:

   http://scottkim.com/inversions/   

I hope this helps. Please write back if you'd like to talk about this 
more.

- Doctor Paul, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/

Associated Topics:
High School Symmetry/Tessellations

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