What is "dot product"

n. (context linear algebra English) A scalar product.

n. a real number (a scalar) that is the product of two vectors [syn: scalar product, inner product]

In mathematics, the dot product or scalar product (sometimes inner product in the context of Euclidean space, or rarely projection product for emphasizing the geometric significance), is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors) and returns a single number. This operation can be defined either algebraically or geometrically. Algebraically, it is the sum of the products of the corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers. Geometrically, it is the product of the Euclidean magnitudes of the two vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. The name "dot product" is derived from the centered dot " · " that is often used to designate this operation; the alternative name "scalar product" emphasizes that the result is a scalar (rather than a vector).

In three-dimensional space, the dot product contrasts with the cross product of two vectors, which produces a pseudovector as the result. The dot product is directly related to the cosine of the angle between two vectors in Euclidean space of any number of dimensions.