7.1-7.3: Transformations Notes:

Transformations

What are they?

• Transformations are ways to move or change shapes on a coordinate grid. You’ll learn how to describe and perform four types of transformations:

  1. Reflection

  2. Rotation

  3. Enlargement

  4. Translation

• Each transformation changes the shape’s position, size, or orientation, but not its basic structure.

Types of Transformations

1. Reflection

• A shape is flipped over a mirror line (e.g. x-axis, y-axis, or a vertical/horizontal line like x = 2).

• The shape stays the same size and orientation, but its position changes.

2. Rotation

• A shape is turned around a fixed point (usually the origin) by a given angle (90°, 180°, 270°).

• You must specify:

  • The center of rotation

  • The angle

  • The direction (clockwise or anticlockwise)

• In the exam, you can do this by tracing the shape on a tracing paper and then rotating it

3. Enlargement

• A shape is resized from a center of enlargement using a scale factor:

  • Scale factor > 1 → shape gets bigger

  • Scale factor < 1 → shape gets smaller

• The shape’s angles stay the same, but side lengths change proportionally.

4. Translation

• A shape is slid from one position to another using a vector.

• Vector is written as: ( x y ) in vertical orientation where:

  • x = movement left/right and y = movement up/down

Vectors

What Are Vectors?

• Vectors show movement from one point to another.

• They have both direction and magnitude (size).