What it means
A raised dot between numbers means multiplication. Between vectors it is the dot product, a single number that measures how much two vectors point the same way.
Read aloud in real formulas
a · b = |a| |b| cos θ
Aethel says
a dot b equals the absolute value of a, times the absolute value of b, times cos theta
the dot product and the angle between vectors
∇ · E = ρ / ε₀
Aethel says
the divergence of E equals rho over epsilon naught
with ∇, the dot gives the divergence
Typing it
- LaTeX
- \cdot
- Unicode
- U+22C5, U+00B7
Questions
How do you say · out loud?
It is usually read “dot”, and also “times”.
What does · mean in maths?
A raised dot between numbers means multiplication. Between vectors it is the dot product, a single number that measures how much two vectors point the same way.
How do you type ·?
In LaTeX, write \cdot. Its Unicode code point is U+22C5, U+00B7.