triangle abc has coordinates of A(–8, –8), B(4, –2), and C(2, 2).

Question

has coordinates of A(–8, –8), B(4, –2), and C(2, 2). Find the coordinates of its image after a dilation centered at the origin with a scale factor of 1.5.

Answer 1

Hi Willow, thank you for your question!

A good place to begin is to identify what the word dilation means. A dilation means a stretch or shrink that maintains the proportions of a shape. Dilations with scale factors less than 1 are shrinks and dilations with scale factors greater than 1 are stretches.

In this case, the triangle is being stretched since the scale factor is 1.5.

To find the coordinates of the new triangle, we simply multiply each coordinate by 1.5. Let's start:

A: (-8, -8) --> (1.5 x -8, 1.5 x -8) --> A': (-12, -12)

B: (4, -2) --> (1.5 x 4, 1.5 x -2) --> B': (6, -3)

C: (2, 2) --> (1.5 x 2, 1.5 x 2) --> C': (3, 3)

The answers written in the bold above should be it! I hope the explanation helps!