Mirrorimaged

Mirrorimaged is an adjective used to describe something that has a mirror image, or a counterpart produced by reflection across a line or plane. In two dimensions, the mirror image of a shape with respect to a line L is formed by reflecting every point across L; in three dimensions, reflection across a plane P yields the mirrorimaged version. An object and its mirrorimaged form are related by a reflection, not by rotation or translation. The term emphasizes the symmetry operation involved rather than other transformations.

In practice, mirrorimaged relationships appear in several fields. In geometry and crystallography, they indicate reflection symmetry. In chemistry, molecules can have mirror images—enantiomers—that are mirrorimaged copies of each other and may be non-superimposable. In biology, bilateral symmetry often yields mirrorimaged left- and right-hand sides of organisms. In computer graphics and vision, algorithms may detect or generate mirrorimaged shapes for rendering or analysis.

Notes: the term is a coined usage and often appears alongside the noun form 'mirror image' (e.g., 'the mirrorimaged form of the object'). Some writers reserve 'mirror image' for the general concept and use 'mirrorimaged' to stress the reflection as the generating operation. The concept relies on the mathematical reflection, an isometry with determinant −1, distinguishing it from rotation.