Determine whether two polygons are similar (formal mode)

The  exercise appears under the Geometry Math Mission. This exercise practices mapping one onto the other using angle-preserving transformations, and determine whether they are similar. Transformations are done in "formal mode."

Types of Problems
There are two types of problems in this exercise:


 * 1) Find if the shapes are similar: This problem provides two shapes on a graphing plane that may possibly be similar. If they are similar, the student is expected to perform a sequence of angle-preserving transformations that maps one figure onto another. Determine whether two polygons are similar (formal mode).PNG

Strategies
Knowledge of similitudes and familiarity with coordinate planes are encouraged to ensure success on this exercise.
 * 1) One way to effective find a correct sequence of transformations is to translate a point in one polygon to a corresponding point on the other one. Once this is completed reflecting, rotating and dilating as needed may be more obvious.
 * 2) Transformations of rotation, reflection, dilation and translation are all similitudes. Therefore using these preserves similarity.

Real-life Applications

 * 1) Similarity is the foundation of trigonometry and its multitude of applications in the sciences.