this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
411 points (97.9% liked)

Memes

49597 readers
1733 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. 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
 

A microblog post by @kareem_carr saying "as soon as i saw they were using asterisks for multiplication symbols, i knew we were in trouble", with an image from the "Office of the United States Trade Representative (Executive Office of the President)" showing the mathematical formula $\Delta \tau_i = \frac{x_i - m_i}{\varepsilon * \varphi * m_i}$. The formula show asterisks (*) instead of multiplication signs (×).

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 40 points 6 days ago (19 children)

I don't get the significance. How should the formula be represented?

[–] seeaya@lemmy.world 132 points 6 days ago (7 children)

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:

abc

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

[–] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What if it's a convolution though 🤔

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

I would love to explain, but it's pretty convoluted

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)