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
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