Times
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol "×") is the mathematical operation of scaling one number by another. It is one of the four basic operations in elementary arithmetic (the others being addition, subtraction and division).
Because the result of scaling by whole numbers can be thought of as consisting of some number of copies of the original, whole-number products greater than 1 can be computed by repeated addition; for example, 3 multiplied by 4 (often said as "3 times 4") can be calculated by adding 4 copies of 3 together:
Here 3 and 4 are the "factors" and 12 is the "product".
Educators differ as to which number should normally be considered as the number of copies, and whether multiplication should even be introduced as repeated addition. For example 3 multiplied by 4 can also be calculated by adding 3 copies of 4 together:
Multiplication of rational numbers (fractions) and real numbers is defined by systematic generalization of this basic idea.
Multiplication can also be visualized as counting objects arranged in a rectangle (for whole numbers) or as finding the area of a rectangle whose sides have given lengths (for numbers generally). The area of a rectangle does not depend on which side you measure first, which illustrates that the order numbers are multiplied together in doesn't matter.
In general the result of multiplying two measurements gives a result of a new type depending on the measurements. For instance:
The inverse operation of multiplication is division. For example, 4 multiplied by 3 equals 12. Then 12 divided by 3 equals 4. Multiplication by 3, followed by division by 3, yields the original number.
Multiplication is also defined for other types of numbers (such as complex numbers), and for more abstract constructs such as matrices. For these more abstract constructs, the order that the operands are multiplied in sometimes does matter.
Read more about Times: Notation and Terminology, Computation, Products of Measurements, Properties, Axioms, Multiplication With Set Theory, Multiplication in Group Theory, Multiplication of Different Kinds of Numbers, Exponentiation, See Also
Other articles related to "times, time":
... To help compare orders of magnitude of different times, this page lists times between 10−3 seconds and 100 seconds (1 millisecond and one second) ... See also times of other orders of magnitude ...
... Reviewing the book for The Times, John Nicholson wrote it was "endearingly dotty", but doubted its commercial potential ... Austin MacCurtain of the Sunday Times reviewed the paperback edition in 1988, saying that it was "more of the same" as Hitchhiker's, and that the "cosmic romp is stretched thin at times but will not disappoint ... it, I turned back to page one and read it straight through again – the only time I have ever done that, and I wrote to tell him so ...
... twice, fewest walks per 9 innings five times, complete games nine times, and home runs allowed seven times ...
... This is a massive star with more than 10 times the mass of the Sun and seven times the Sun's radius ... The total luminosity of this star is about 12,100 times that of the Sun, and eight times the luminosity of its companion ... star is smaller than the primary, with about 7 times the mass of the Sun and 3.6 times the Sun's radius ...
... Ondieki received All-America accolades six times at Iowa State ... several occasions, earning NCAA runner-up honors three times and third-place status three times ... His time broke the mark set by Richard Chelimo only five days earlier in Stockholm by over 9 seconds ...
Famous quotes containing the word times:
“I tried self-sacrifice a couple of times in my youth.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“There were times when I felt that I could bear no more. It was the Emergency Ward which almost broke me. I stood one night beside a man who had been caught in a flywheel, and whose body felt like jelly. I wanted him to die quickly, not to go on breathing. Oh, stop breathing. I can’t stand it. Die and stop suffering. I can’t stand it. I can’t.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
“Watt’s need of semantic succour was at times so great that he would set to trying names on things, and on himself, almost as a woman hats.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)