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dot product

dot product

6.1
A number made by multiplying pairs of numbers from two lists and adding them
  • noun
  • /dɑt ˈprɒdʌkt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : producto punto
  • The dot product of the velocity vector and the displacement vector helps determine the work done.
  • compute dot product

Examples

  • And I take the dot product of the two vectors.

  • So if we take the dot product of those two vectors gives us the angle.

  • So that will be the dot product of U with itself.

  • This is some dot product with the X vector.

  • OK, the next one, let's do the dot product V dot W.

  • It is the dot product of A with itself.

  • So this term is a dot product of the two BS.

  • One way to do that is to take the dot product of this with both U&V.

  • The normal component of displacement was calculated as the dot product of the fatal displacement and the area normal unit vector.

    Academic text (1991)
  • The symbol * refers to the dot product, and Formula omitted is an element-wise rectified linear unit function.

    Academic text (2018)

Synonyms

inner product
vsdot product
  • Specialized
1 8.0

A number you get from two lists of numbers by multiplying and adding matching parts

is the particular componentwise multiplication case of that broader operation
scalar product
vsdot product
  • Specialized
7.0

A single number you get by multiplying pairs of numbers from two vectors and adding them

is the same calculation described in the key concept

Surface Forms

dot product singular
dot products plural

Morphology

dot + product

The component 'product' transparently signals a multiplication-like operation, so learners might correctly guess that the MWE involves some form of multiplying. However, 'dot' (a small mark) does not by itself convey the vector-specific procedure or the idea of multiplying components and summing to get a scalar; the precise mathematical meaning is specialized and not derivable by a B1 learner from the parts alone.

Etymology

Dot product comes from the writing of a small dot to show multiplication and the word product meaning the result of that multiplication. In the operation you multiply matching parts of two lists of numbers called vectors and add those results to get a 'single number', so the name helps you remember to 'dot' for multiply and make a 'product' meaning one number.