Congruent
If one shape can become another using Turns, Flips and/or Slides, then the shapes are Congruent:
| Rotation |  |
Turn! |
|---|---|---|
| Reflection |  |
Flip! |
| Translation |  |
Slide! |
 |
After any of those transformations (turn, flip or slide), the shape still has the same size, area, angles and line lengths. |
Examples:
Here are 3 examples of shapes that are Congruent:
 |
 |
 |
| Congruent (Rotated and Moved) |
Congruent (Reflected and Moved) |
Congruent (Reflected, Rotated and Moved) |
Congruent or Similar?
The two shapes need to be the same size to be congruent.
When we need to resize one shape to make it the same as the other, the shapes are Similar.
| When we ... | Then the shapes are ... | |
|---|---|---|
| ... only Rotate, Reflect and/or Translate | |
Congruent |
| ... also need to Resize | |
Similar |
Congruent? Why such a funny word that basically means "equal"? Maybe because they are only "equal" when placed on top of each other. Anyway it comes from Latin congruere, "to agree". So the shapes "agree".