Dilation (mathematics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mathematics, a dilation is a function f from a metric space into itself that satisfies the identity
- d(f(x),f(y)) = rd(x,y)
where d(x,y) is the distance from x to y and r is some positive real number.
Dilation is yet another name for similarity of a Euclidean space.
Another way to look at a dilation is as a transformation that changes the size but not the shape of an object or figure. Every dilation has a fixed point that is called the center of dilation.
[edit] See also
- homothety
- Isometric dilation
- Unitary dilation
- Dilation (non mathematical uses)
