Homothetic Transformation

Homothetic Transformation

In mathematics, a homothety (or homothecy, or homogeneous dilation) is a transformation of an affine space determined by a point S called its center and a nonzero number λ called its ratio, which sends

in other words it fixes S, and sends any M to another point N such that the segment SN is on the same line as SM, but scaled by a factor λ. In Euclidean geometry homotheties are the similarities that fix a point and either preserve (if λ > 0) or reverse (if λ < 0) the direction of all vectors. Together with the translations, all homotheties of an affine (or Euclidean) space form a group, the group of homothety-translations. These are precisely the affine transformations with the property that the image of every line L is a line parallel to L.

In Euclidean geometry, a homothety of ratio λ multiplies distances between points by |λ| and all areas by λ2. The first number is called the ratio of magnification or dilation factor or scale factor or similitude ratio. Such a transformation can be called an enlargement if the scale factor exceeds 1. The above mentioned fixed point S is called homothetic center or center of similarity or center of similitude