Erklärung: Homothetic:
Two figures are homothetic if they are related by an expansion or geometric contraction. This means that they lie in the same plane and corresponding sides are parallel; such figures have connectors of corresponding points which are concurrent at a point known as the homothetic center.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 6 hrs 33 mins (2005-11-25 20:21:34 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Everyone agrees on the basic idea of incrementally or proportionally scaled sizes in general, but the question is why the clients chose the mathematically precise but arcane word homothetic in the French. Is it of interest or importance to the audience/clients? I do not know for sure but perhaps the creators of the orthopedic surgery product consider it a market-important specification. Classic context and audience question.
Erklärung: amalgamating Richard and Marilyn's suggestions
femoral canal. Incrementally sized Magnetic Neck Trunions in standard and ...
the distal femoral canal to a level appropriate to the size component ... www.biomet.com/filelibrary/Y-BMT-745_022802.pdf
You could probably also use "homoscedastic", which is I believe the same sort of phenomenon in statistics as homothety is in maths.
Put simply, "homothety" iswhat in photo software they call "keeping the same proportions", i.e. if you have a photo of dimensions 4x3 and you enlarge it to 8x6 or 12x9 you are enlarging it homothetically, but if you want an enlargement (of either only part of the picture or with deformation) meaasuring 11x8, it is not homothetic, you have not retained the original proportions.
Whether having homothetic sizing for prostheses makes sense or not I don't know, but what I think it means in your case is that if the length increases 2%, so does the diameter, etc. This assumes that a person with a longer femur also has a bigger-diameter femur, which is not necessarily the case, I'm sure.
Look at shoe leather. I have always regretted that the soles of shoes are not made homothetically, i.e. that they are not thicker for larger shoe sizes. Since what is a sufficiently strong thickness for a person of average shoe size is too thin for me, the raised portion of sole ahead of the heel (on heeled shoes, of course) inevitably sags abruptly after a short time.
Same applies to clothes. Ideally a suit or a shirt for a large man should be made of a heavier/thicker material than one for Tom Cruise, i.e. the size/thickness ratio should be homothetic. A small suit of a nice Italian fabric might look good on him, but a suit of the same material on me would flap around like a bed sheet in a strong wind.
Bourth Frankreich Muttersprache: Englisch PRO-Punkte in Kategorie: 87
7 sizes, increasing in dimensions by homothetic progression
Erklärung: Homothetic:
Two figures are homothetic if they are related by an expansion or geometric contraction. This means that they lie in the same plane and corresponding sides are parallel; such figures have connectors of corresponding points which are concurrent at a point known as the homothetic center.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 6 hrs 33 mins (2005-11-25 20:21:34 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Everyone agrees on the basic idea of incrementally or proportionally scaled sizes in general, but the question is why the clients chose the mathematically precise but arcane word homothetic in the French. Is it of interest or importance to the audience/clients? I do not know for sure but perhaps the creators of the orthopedic surgery product consider it a market-important specification. Classic context and audience question.
The translation workplace 
