Consider a line of atoms A-O-B, separated by distance a. Rotate the entire row by θ = +2π/n and θ = −2π/n, with point O kept fixed. After the rotation by +2π/n, A is moved to the lattice point C and after the rotation by -2π/n, B is moved to the lattice point D. Due to the assumed periodicity of the lattice, the two lattice points C and D will be also in a line directly below the initial row; moreover C and D will be separated by r = ma, with m an integer. But by trigonometry, the separation between these points is:
Equating the two relations gives:
This is satisfied by only n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6.