Triangle and triangle are similar. Find a sequence of translations, rotations, reflections, and dilations that shows this.
Hexagon and hexagon are similar. Find a sequence of translations, rotations, reflections, and dilations that shows this.
12.3
Activity
Let’s look at a square and a rhombus.
Priya says, “These polygons are similar because their side lengths are all the same.” Clare says, “These polygons are not similar because the angles are different.” Do you agree with either Priya or Clare? Explain your reasoning.
Now, let’s look at rectangles and .
Jada says, “These rectangles are similar because all of the side lengths differ by 2.” Lin says, “These rectangles are similar. I can dilate and using a scale factor of 2 and and using a scale factor of 1.5 to make the rectangles congruent. Then I can use a translation to line up the rectangles.” Do you agree with either Jada or Lin? Explain your reasoning.
12.4
Activity
Your teacher will give you a card. Find someone else in the room who has a card with a polygon that is similar but not congruent to yours. When you have found your partner, work with them to explain how you know that the two polygons are similar.
Student Lesson Summary
Let’s show that triangle is similar to triangle :
Two figures are similar if one figure can be transformed into the other by a sequence of translations, rotations, reflections, and dilations. There are many correct sequences of transformations, but we only need to describe one to show that two figures are similar.
One way to get from triangle to triangle follows these steps:
Reflect triangle across line
Rotate counterclockwise around
Dilate with center and scale factor 2
Another way to show that triangle is similar to triangle would be to dilate triangle by a scale factor of with center of dilation at , then translate to , then rotate it clockwise around , and finally reflect it across the vertical line containing so it matches up with triangle .
When two polygons are similar:
Every angle and side in one polygon has a corresponding angle and side in the other polygon.
All pairs of corresponding angles have the same measure.
Each side length in one figure is multiplied by the same scale factor to get the corresponding side length in the other figure.
Two figures are similar if one can fit exactly over the other after transformations.
This figure shows triangle is similar to triangle .
Rotate triangle around point .
Then dilate it with center point .
The image will fit exactly over triangle .
A sequence of transformations. Triangle ABC is rotated around point B and and then dilated with center point O to fit exactly over Triangle DEF. Triangle ABC is similar to triangle DEF.