It may also be used to signify the multiplication operation when a more appropriate glyph is unavailable.
It is a cartesian product as a set, but with a particular multiplication operation.
The system of equations can then be solved using the multiplication operation defined on matrices.
This ensures that the multiplication operation is continuous.
Other mathematical systems that include a multiplication operation may not have all these properties.
They are often used to avoid the need for expensive multiplication operations when performing address calculation on an array element.
Also, the multiplication operation in a field is required to be commutative.
The integers under the multiplication operation, however, do not form a group.
This multiplication operation can also be shown to obey the distributive property together with the addition operation of the field.
The very same addition and multiplication operations of matrices extend to this setting, too.