this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 74 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

What they actually see:

convolution
cross product
dot product
multiplication

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago

The irony is that this meme works in reverse for that. At least, in order of mind blowing as I refreshed my memory, it goes multiplication (very easy), dot (scalars easy), cross (vectors medium) and convolution (integrals hard).

In fact, I never did the later two but convolution looks fun.

[–] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

No. If a is a scalar, which it clearly is, it's all multiplication. And there is no reason to use any of the first three. We say "three apples", not "three x apples".

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

hurr durr maybe it's a vector in ℝ

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I see multiplication in code, Cartesian product, multiplication, multiplication.

I might not count as a mathematician though. If the * was supposed to be convolution the a should have been cursive.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

In latex if you are using * you better mean convolution

[–] Ziglin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Yes (actually \ast though?), but unless you're a maniac in LaTeX latin letters referring to variables in a math environment are cursive (actually a math font I think). Therefore if I am reading a single sentence that may or may not have been made using TeX I tend towards not if variables are in a standard font.