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 (×).
I don’t get the significance. How should the formula be represented?
The only times anyone would use the asterisk as multiplication symbol are
\timesin LaTex), so they just use the asterisk insteadThe US government falls in the second category.
there is a third case:
Or me, doing math for school and being too lazy to type /cdot every time
Just guessing but real mathematicians would know how to properly build the formula. I guess in higher maths we use the ‘x’ rather than ‘*’.
Not a big deal but may show that the people doing it have no idea what they are doing.
Typically you’d use either nothing (just put the symbols next to each other) or in cases where that would be unclear, you’d use the centered dot ⋅
There really isn’t any. It’s just a huge nitpick. * is commonly used for multiplication, especially in online contexts in order to avoid confusing multiplication with the letter x when wider symbols aren’t available.
no one who would have any experience in the field would write it like that.
it’s just a sign that the people who did it have no idea what they are doing.
We’re in no shortage of those signs
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
Yeah, asterisk to indicate multiplication is much, much more common amongst coders.
… And script kiddie DOGE interns.