How is free vector a same thing as translation?

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Well, I was reading this and according to it, a free vector is the same thing as a translation. But as far as I know a translation is a mathematical operation and free vector is a mathematical quantity, a type of vector. So, how can an operation be same thing as a quantity.? We assign operations between quantities. Right?

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That's right, strictly speaking they're not the same thing. But there is a one-to-one structure-preserving correspondence between vectors $\mathbf{v}$ and translations $T_{\mathbf{v}}(\mathbf{x})=\mathbf{v}+\mathbf{x}$.