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Transformations on the Cartesian Plane

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24.3 Transformations on the Cartesian plane

Types of transformations

A transformation is a rule that describes a change in the position, orientation or size of a shape. In this section, we look at four types of transformations:

  1. translations (slides)
  2. reflections (flips)
  3. rotations (turns)
  4. enlargements or reductions
translation
a sliding movement over a certain distance
reflection
a flipping movement over a certain line
rotation
a turning movement around a certain point
enlargement or reduction
increasing or decreasing in size

Translating a shape means sliding a shape from one position to another.

Reflecting a shape means flipping a shape over a certain line.

Rotating a shape means turning a shape around a certain point.

Enlarging a shape means making a shape bigger by a certain factor and reducing a shape means making a shape smaller by a certain factor. The value used to make a shape either bigger or smaller is called the scale factor.

scale factor
a ratio between the measurements of an object and the measurements of a representation of that object, where the representation can be bigger or smaller than the actual object