shear

In this shear transformation of an image of the Mona Lisa, the picture was deformed in such a way that its central vertical axis was not modified.

In mathematics, a shear is a particular kind of linear mapping.

Elementary form

In the plane {(x,y): x,y ∈ R }, a horizontal shear (or shear parallel to the x axis) for m ≠ 0 of vertical lines x = a into lines y = (x - a)/m of slope 1/m is represented by the linear mapping

One can substitute 1/m for m in the matrix to get lines y = m(x - a) of slope m if desired.

A vertical shear (or shear parallel to the y axis) of lines y = b into lines y = mx + b is accomplished by the linear mapping

These are special cases of shear matrices, which allow for generalization to higher dimensions. The shear elements here are either m or 1/m, case depending.

Advanced form

For a vector space V and subspace W, a shear fixing W translates all vectors parallel to W.

To be more precise, if V is the direct sum of W and W′, and we write vectors as

v = w + w′

correspondingly, the typical shear fixing W is L where

L(v) = (w + w′M) + w′

where M is a linear mapping from W′ into W. Therefore in block matrix terms L can be represented as

with blocks on the diagonal I (identity matrix), with M below the diagonal, and 0 above.

Mathematical shears are also called transvections.

See also

• Equi-areal mapping

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