this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
412 points (97.7% liked)
Memes
53438 readers
703 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don't get the significance. How should the formula be represented?
Most mathematicians, engineers, and scientists don’t use the asterisk symbol for multiplication. Most don’t write any symbol as it’s implicit. If they do use a symbol they would use a dot or x symbol (though never an actual x). In mathematics, the asterisk is mostly only used to represent convolutions.
Most common:
abc
Less common:
a • b • c
a × b × c
Never:
a * b * c
While to most people this doesn’t really matter (and should feel free using * for multiplication). It shows someone with minimal formal experience in mathematics using this formula
I don't know, to me a * b * c is basically just the exact same as a • b • c but just easier to type on a computer. If you were writing it down on paper or a black board they would probably use dots. Coding often uses * because who wants to type in those dots would be a pain in the ass and the * basically looks the closest to a dot.
But they weren't just "typing it on a computer", they were typesetting it in latex, and trying to make it look grandiose. But they just showed to everyone in the know that they don't know what they're doing.