What is a transformation? And what are the four types of transformations?

1 Answer
Dec 10, 2015

The most frequently occurring transformations are translation, rotation, reflection and scaling.

Explanation:

In plane geometry a transformation is a process of changing the position of every point on a plane in a way that satisfies certain rules.

Transformations are usually symmetric in a sense that, if there is a transformation that transforms point A to point B, there is another transformation of the same type that transforms B to A.

For instance, translation (shift) by 5 of all points on a plane in certain direction has a symmetrical counterpart - shift by 5 in the opposite direction.
Reflection relative to a straight line is a counterpart to itself since the same reflection repeated again transforms a point back to its original position.

Transformations are usually transitive in a sense that, if one particular type of transformation of some type transforms point A to point B and another one of the same type transforms point B to point C, there is a transformation of the same type that combines the first two transformations and transforms point A into point C.

For instance, rotation of all points on a plane around some fixed point counterclockwise by 90^o and another one, rotating around the same point by 30^o clockwise can be combined into one rotation - rotation by 60^o counterclockwise around the same point.

In every type of transformation we have the one that does nothing. For example, scaling by a factor of 1, translation (shift) by a distance 0 or rotation- by an angle 0^o. This property of transformations is called _reflexivity.