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Supporting Australian Mathematics Project: Middle years.

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Year 5

Measurement and Geometry

Enlargement transformations

Three-year-old Emily drew a butterfly. Her cousin Hannah copied and enlarged it. The butterfly on the left is Emily's original. The middle butterfly has been enlarged so that it is two times taller and two times wider than the original. The third butterfly on the right is three times larger in height and in width than the original.

Three butterflies in a row.
Detailed description

Enlargements, such as those shown above, are a type of transformation that uses mathematics to make something bigger. The enlargement has exactly the same shape as the original object, but a different size. In the following pages you will see how to use enlargement transformations to enlarge two-dimensional shapes and hand-drawn pictures.