Similarity transformations (rigid motions followed by dilations) define similarity in the same way that rigid motions define congruence, thereby formalizing the similarity ideas of "same shape" and "scale factor" developed in the middle grades

Similarity transformations (rigid motions followed by dilations) define similarity in the same way that rigid motions define congruence, thereby formalizing the similarity ideas of "same shape" and "scale factor" developed in the middle grades. These transformations lead to the criterion for triangle similarity that two pairs of corresponding angles are congruent.