Matrix Translations (Jump to: Lecture | Video )

Figure 1.

Above we have a triangle graphed on a coordinate plane. Its three points (x, y) are displayed in a vertex matrix.

Matrix addition and subtraction can be used to translate a figure. To translate a figure is to move it without changing its size or shape.

Let's move triangle ABC two units to the left, and two units down.

First, we subtract "2" from each x value in the matrix.

Figure 2.

Next, we subtract "2" from each y value in the matrix.

Figure 3.

Now, we've translated the triangle:

Figure 4.