Translation (geometry) Translation (geometry) In Euclidean geometry, a translation is a geometric transformation that moves every point of a figure or a space by the same distance in a given direction. In Euclidean geometry a transformation is a one-to-one correspondence between two sets of points or a mapping from one plane to another. A translation can be described as a rigid motion: the other rigid motions are rotations, reflections and glide reflections. A translation can also be interpreted as the addition of a constant vector to every point, or as shifting the origin of the coordinate system. A translation operator is an
Distance from a point to a plane the closest point to the origin may be expressed more succinctly using notation from linear algebra. The expression formula_19 in the definition of a plane is a dot product formula_20, and the expression formula_21 appearing in the solution is the squared norm formula_22. Thus, if formula_23 is a given vector, the plane may be described as the set of vectors formula_24 for which formula_25 and the closest point on this plane is the vector Written in Cartesian form, the closest point is given by formula_27 for formula_28 where and the distance from formula_30 to the hyperplane is Thus in formula_32