Transformations

Reflection, rotation, translation, enlargement, negative enlargement, and combined transformations.

The Shape Shifters

You have learned to describe movement with vectors. Now let us see four ways to move, flip, spin, and resize shapes on a grid.

Transformations change the position, orientation, or size of a shape. There are exactly four types: reflection (flip across a mirror line), rotation (spin around a fixed point), translation (slide without turning), and enlargement (change size from a centre point).

Rule

Every transformation takes an original shape (the object) and produces a new shape (the image). The exam skill is describing which transformation happened and giving its precise details.

Key idea

Four details to look for: the mirror line (reflection), the centre and angle (rotation), the column vector (translation), or the centre and scale factor (enlargement).

What You Will Learn

You will start with reflections — flipping shapes across horizontal, vertical, and diagonal mirror lines. Then rotations — spinning shapes 90, 180, or 270 degrees around a centre point.

Next comes translation — the simplest transformation, described by a column vector. Then enlargement — changing size from a centre point using a scale factor, including negative scale factors that flip the image.

Steps

1
Reflections: flip across a mirror line.
2
Rotations: spin around a centre by a given angle.
3
Translations: slide by a column vector.
4
Enlargements: resize from a centre with a scale factor.
5
Combined transformations: apply two in sequence.

Key idea

Given a before and after, you figure out exactly what happened — like being a shape detective.

Practise transformations now

Interactive visual aids, then real past-paper questions marked on your working like the exam. Free to start.

Practise free on Lemmara

Lemmara is an independent study tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Cambridge International Education or Pearson Edexcel. The lessons and worked examples are Lemmara’s own.