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| × | |
|---|---|
Multiplication sign | |
| In Unicode | U+00D7 × MULTIPLICATION SIGN (×) |
| Different from | |
| Different from | U+0078 x LATIN SMALL LETTER X |
| Related | |
| See also | U+22C5 ⋅ DOT OPERATOR U+00F7 ÷ DIVISION SIGN |
The multiplication sign (×), also known as the times sign or the dimension sign, is a mathematical symbol used to denote the operation of multiplication, which results in a product.[1]
The symbol is also used in botany, in botanical hybrid names.
The form is properly a four-fold rotationally symmetric saltire.[2] The multiplication sign × is similar to a lowercase X (x).
The earliest known use of the × symbol to indicate multiplication appears in an anonymous appendix to the 1618 edition of John Napier's Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio.[3] This appendix has been attributed to William Oughtred,[3] who used the same symbol in his 1631 algebra text, Clavis Mathematicae, stating:
Multiplication of species [i.e. unknowns] connects both proposed magnitudes with the symbol 'in' or ×: or ordinarily without the symbol if the magnitudes be denoted with one letter.[4]
Other works have been identified in which crossed diagonals appear in diagrams involving multiplied numbers, such as Robert Recorde's The Ground of Arts[5][6] and Oswald Schreckenfuchs's 1551 edition of Almagest, but these are not symbolizations.[3]
In mathematics, the symbol × has a number of uses, including
In biology, the multiplication sign is used in a botanical hybrid name, for instance Ceanothus papillosus × impressus (a hybrid between C. papillosus and C. impressus) or Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora (a hybrid between two other species of Crocosmia). However, the communication of these hybrid names with a Latin letter "x" is common, especially when the actual "×" symbol is not readily available.
The multiplication sign is also used by historians for an event between two dates. When employed between two dates – for example 1225 and 1232 – the expression "1225×1232" means "no earlier than 1225 and no later than 1232".[8]
A monadic × symbol is used by the APL programming language to denote the sign function.
The lower-case Latin letter x is sometimes used in place of the multiplication sign. This is considered incorrect in mathematical writing.[citation needed]
In algebraic notation, widely used in mathematics, a multiplication symbol is usually omitted wherever it would not cause confusion: "a multiplied by b" can be written as ab or a b.[1]
Other symbols can also be used to denote multiplication, often to reduce confusion between the multiplication sign × and the common variable x. In some countries, such as Germany, the primary symbol for multiplication is the "dot operator" ⋅ (as in a⋅b). This symbol is also used in compound units of measurement, e.g., N⋅m (see International System of Units § Lexicographic conventions). In algebra, it is a notation to resolve ambiguity (for instance, "b times 2" may be written as b⋅2, to avoid being confused with a value called b2). This notation is used wherever multiplication should be written explicitly, such as in "ab = a⋅2 for b = 2"; this usage is also seen in English-language texts. In some languages, the use of full stop as a multiplication symbol, such as a.b, is common when the symbol for decimal point is comma.
Historically, computer language syntax was restricted to the ASCII character set, and the asterisk * became the de facto symbol for the multiplication operator. This selection is reflected in the numeric keypad on English-language keyboards, where the arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are represented by the keys +, -, * and /, respectively.
Other variants and related characters:
Multiplicatio speciosa connectit utramque magintudinem propositam cum notâ in vel ×: vel plerumque absque notâ, si magnitudines denotentur unica litera
