Translation

In Geometry, "Translation" simply means Moving ...

... without rotating, resizing or anything else, just moving.

 

To Translate a shape:

 

Every point of the shape must move:

  • the same distance
  • in the same direction.
To see how this works, try translating different shapes here:

View Larger

Note: You can translate either by angle-and-distance, or by x-and-y.

Try both to see what happens.

Writing it Down

Sometimes we just want to write down the translation, without showing it on a graph.

Example: if we want to say that the shape gets moved 30 Units in the "X" direction, and 40 Units in the "Y" direction, we can write:

This says "all the x and y coordinates will become x+30 and y+40"

 

 
Search :: Index :: About :: Contact :: Contribute :: Cite This Page :: Privacy

Copyright © 2011 MathsIsFun.com