Korruta

Korruta is the Estonian verb meaning to multiply. It is used to describe the action of forming a product by combining numbers, both in everyday language and in mathematical contexts. The related noun korrutamine refers to the operation of multiplication, and the past participle korrutatud means multiplied.

In arithmetic, multiplication is defined as the operation that combines two or more numbers to produce their product. For natural numbers a and b, a × b equals the sum of a added to itself b times. For example, 3 × 4 = 12. Multiplication generalizes to integers, fractions, and real numbers, playing a central role in algebra, geometry, and applied disciplines.

Notation and usage: the multiplication operation is commonly written with the times symbol (×) or, in programming and some calculators, with an asterisk (*) as the operator. In Estonian, phrases such as “korruta kolmega” mean “multiply by three.” The result of a multiplication is called the product.

Properties: Multiplication is commutative (a × b = b × a), associative ((a × b) × c = a × (b × c)), and distributive over addition (a × (b + c) = a × b + a × c). These properties underpin many mathematical techniques, from solving equations to expanding expressions.

Applications: Korruta is fundamental in education, science, engineering, economics, and everyday calculation. It underpins concepts like area, scaling, and proportional reasoning, and it serves as a building block for higher mathematics and computational algorithms.

See also: multiplication, arithmetic, algebra, order of operations.