What Is Transformation In Math?

Transformation involves moving an object from its original position to a new position. The object in the new position is called the image. Each point in the object is mapped to another point in the image.

Example:

The original object is ABC and the image is A’B’C’. (A’ is read as A prime etc.)

In these lessons, we will study the following types of transformations in math:

• Translation involves “sliding” the object from one position to another.

• Reflection involves “flipping” the object over a line called the line of reflection.

• Rotation involves “turning” the object about a point called the center of rotation.

• Dilation involves a resizing of the object. It could result in an increase in size (enlargement) or a decrease in size (reduction).

Translation, reflection and rotations are called isometric transformations because the image is the same size and shape as the original object. The original object and the image are congruent.

Dilation is not an isometric transformation because the size of the image is not the same as the object. The original object and the image are similar i.e. they have the same shape but different size.

The following video shows an example of math reflection.

The following video shows an example of math rotation.

The following video shows an example of math dilation.

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