A Real Example of an Enlargement

It is easier to understand enlargement with an example.

The diagram below shows an enlargement of a shape. The shape before the enlargement (called the object) is in light blue. The shape after the enlargement (called the image) is in dark blue:

In this example, the shape has been enlarged with a center of enlargement (shown as a red cross) at the origin.

Properties of Enlargement

• Each side of the object is scaled by a scale factor.

  If an enlargement has a scale factor of 2, each side of the image is 2 times larger than the sides of the object.

• The length of sides remain in the same proportion to each other.

• Each line in the image is parallel to the corresponding line in the object.

• All angles remain the same in the object and the image.