When we talk about shapes in geometry, it’s important to know about two terms: enlargement and dilation. These terms deal with changing the size of shapes, and understanding them is really helpful, especially in Year 10 Math.
Enlargement is when we make a shape bigger or smaller, but the shape still looks the same. When we enlarge a shape, we do this from a central point called the centre of enlargement.
To tell how much we are changing the size, we use a scale factor. This tells us how much bigger or smaller the shape will be.
For example, let’s look at a triangle with points A(1, 2), B(3, 4), and C(5, 2). If we enlarge this triangle with a scale factor of 2, we double each point:
Dilation is a more general term that means changing the size of shapes, whether that means making them bigger or smaller. Like enlargement, dilation also has a center point and is defined by a scale factor.
When we say "dilation," it can mean the shape just changes size but doesn’t specify if it gets bigger or smaller. This means every enlargement is a dilation, but not every dilation makes a shape larger.
For instance, if we use the same triangle and apply a scale factor of 0.5 (to make it smaller), we would get:
In summary, knowing the difference between enlargement and dilation is very important. Both help us change shapes in geometry. Understanding when to use each word is key to discussing size changes clearly in math. Keep practicing these ideas, and soon, working with transformations will feel easy!
When we talk about shapes in geometry, it’s important to know about two terms: enlargement and dilation. These terms deal with changing the size of shapes, and understanding them is really helpful, especially in Year 10 Math.
Enlargement is when we make a shape bigger or smaller, but the shape still looks the same. When we enlarge a shape, we do this from a central point called the centre of enlargement.
To tell how much we are changing the size, we use a scale factor. This tells us how much bigger or smaller the shape will be.
For example, let’s look at a triangle with points A(1, 2), B(3, 4), and C(5, 2). If we enlarge this triangle with a scale factor of 2, we double each point:
Dilation is a more general term that means changing the size of shapes, whether that means making them bigger or smaller. Like enlargement, dilation also has a center point and is defined by a scale factor.
When we say "dilation," it can mean the shape just changes size but doesn’t specify if it gets bigger or smaller. This means every enlargement is a dilation, but not every dilation makes a shape larger.
For instance, if we use the same triangle and apply a scale factor of 0.5 (to make it smaller), we would get:
In summary, knowing the difference between enlargement and dilation is very important. Both help us change shapes in geometry. Understanding when to use each word is key to discussing size changes clearly in math. Keep practicing these ideas, and soon, working with transformations will feel easy!