Korrutatust

Korrutatust is the Estonian term for multiplication, the arithmetic operation that combines two numbers to produce a product. In mathematical discourse, korrutatust describes how quantities scale and interact, such as calculating the total area of a rectangle or the value of a scaled quantity. The word korrutatust appears in Estonian math education and texts as a reference to the concept of multiplication; the verb is korrutada, and korrutus denotes the operation in many contexts.

In standard arithmetic, korrutatust is a binary operation on numbers that satisfies several key properties. It is commutative for real, rational, and complex numbers (a · b = b · a), meaning the order of the factors does not affect the product. It is associative (a · (b · c) = (a · b) · c), allowing grouping without changing the result. It distributes over addition (a · (b + c) = ab + ac), which underpins algebraic expansions. The identity element is 1, since a · 1 = a, and 0 acts as an absorbing element, since a · 0 = 0.

The operation extends beyond ordinary numbers. For matrices, multiplication is defined by the dot product of rows and columns and requires compatible dimensions, and it is generally not commutative. Polynomial multiplication combines coefficients with shifted terms, and vector or tensor multiplication uses specialized definitions. In practical computation, korrutatust can be performed by manual methods like long multiplication or by algorithms designed for efficiency, such as Karatsuba for large integers or convolution-based methods for polynomials.

Korrutatust is foundational in mathematics and its applications, including geometry, algebra, physics, economics, and computer science. See also multiplication, korrutus, and matrix multiplication for related concepts.

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