Figure 1

Intuitive meaning of similarity and complementarity. (A) If three persons are similar (e.g. they are all scientists) and we know that one of them (top) knows the other two (bottom) it is quite likely that they know each other too (dashed line). Thus, the relation is transitive. (B) If one wine (red) goes well with (is complementary to) bread and cheese and another wine (white) also goes well with the bread, then it is likely that it is a good match for the cheese too (dashed line). However, this does not imply that both wines will be drunk together, so the relation is not transitive.