TeXipedia

sdot

Represents multiplication using a centered dot operator, commonly used in mathematical expressions to indicate scalar products or general multiplication.

Overview

Provides a clean, professional way to denote multiplication in mathematical formulas, particularly favored in academic and scientific writing.

  • Widely used in linear algebra for scalar (dot) products between vectors
  • Preferred over the standard multiplication symbol (×) in advanced mathematics
  • Common in physics equations where scalar multiplication needs to be distinguished from vector operations
  • Appears frequently in computer science and engineering notation for element-wise multiplication

Examples

Multiplication using the solid dot operator in a physics equation for work.

W=F⋅dW = F \sdot d 
W = F \sdot d

Vector dot product notation in linear algebra.

a⃗⋅b⃗=∣a⃗∣∣b⃗∣cos⁡θ\vec{a} \sdot \vec{b} = |\vec{a}| |\vec{b}| \cos \theta 
\vec{a} \sdot \vec{b} = |\vec{a}| |\vec{b}| \cos \theta

Rate of change notation in calculus.

x˙⋅y˙=vxvy\dot{x} \sdot \dot{y} = v_x v_y 
\dot{x} \sdot \dot{y} = v_x v_y