Translation

In mathematics, there are four types of transformation.

The first one we are going to look at is translation.

Translation comes from trans- ‘to change’ and a Latin word latus meaning ‘to carry’. -ion, on the end of the word, shows action. So, translation comes from something like the action of changing something by carrying it.

In mathematics, a translation is moving all the points of a shape by the same distance in the same direction.

Let’s start with just one point.

Here is a point at the origin, (0,0)

Let’s translate it.

To translate the point to the right 3 and up 1. We move it to (3, 1).

This is a translation of the point three to the right and one up.

We can do the same translation with a shape. The red triangle below has been translated three to the right and one up. Every point of the triangle has been translated in the same way.

Check each point on the green triangle corresponds to a translation of three to the right and one up from the corresponding point on the red triangle