ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Reflection through the origin

Imagine you are looking at yourself in a mirror. The mirror shows you an exact copy of yourself, but everything is backwards. If you raise your right hand, the reflection raises its left hand.

When we talk about reflection through the origin, we're talking about a different kind of reflection. Instead of looking in a mirror, we're looking at a graph. A graph is like a map that shows us a picture of numbers and shapes.

The origin on a graph is the point where the x-axis and y-axis meet. It's like a big red dot that says "you are here" on a map.

When we talk about reflection through the origin on a graph, we are flipping the picture over like a pancake. Everything on the left side of the origin goes to the right side, and everything on the bottom goes to the top.

For example, let's say you have a point on the graph like (3, 4). That means you go 3 steps to the right and 4 steps up from the origin. If we reflect this point through the origin, we flip it over like a pancake, and it becomes (-3, -4). Now you go 3 steps to the left and 4 steps down from the origin.

That's how reflection through the origin works on a graph. Instead of seeing your reflection in a mirror, you get a new picture that's flipped over like a pancake.