2,014
edits
Changes
Talk:Multiplication (view source)
Revision as of 20:46, September 3, 2008
, 20:46, September 3, 2008→Symbol
::::In the UK when I was at school, a long time ago before the liberals ruined education with "modern math", it used to be the convention that X was the symbol for multiplication and x was the symbol for an unknown quantity.[[User:Malakker|Malakker]] 10:08, 3 September 2008 (EDT) (sorry, hit the wrong button first time.)[[User:Malakker|Malakker]] 10:08, 3 September 2008 (EDT)
::::In the UK when I was at school, a long time ago before the liberals ruined education with "modern math", it used to be the convention that X was the symbol for multiplication and x was the symbol for an unknown quantity.[[User:Malakker|Malakker]] 10:08, 3 September 2008 (EDT) (sorry, hit the wrong button first time.)[[User:Malakker|Malakker]] 10:08, 3 September 2008 (EDT)
:::::An asterisk * is often sometimes used for multiplication (and / for division), especially on computer systems such as Microsoft Excel, although I have also seen it in printed documents as well. I believe (although I may be wrong) that this originates from its use in early computer programming languages such as BASIC. [[User:Sideways|Sideways]] 10:39, 3 September 2008 (EDT)
:::::An asterisk * is often sometimes used for multiplication (and / for division), especially on computer systems such as Microsoft Excel, although I have also seen it in printed documents as well. I believe (although I may be wrong) that this originates from its use in early computer programming languages such as BASIC. [[User:Sideways|Sideways]] 10:39, 3 September 2008 (EDT)
::::::Yes, that should be added to the list. I actually used it in place of the dot when I was writing the above while I went and searched for the code for the "dot product" symbol. And, yes, the 'sterisk goes back at least to BASIC. I think it's mostly because the dot isn't in the basic ASCII character set (also, it's not on your keyboard...). By the way, who added the incorrect "parentheses" example at the end of the article? [[User:Human|Human]] 16:46, 3 September 2008 (EDT)