scalar product

Also called the dot product, the scalar product is a special method of multiplying two vectors that gives as a result a scalar (that is, a quantity with magnitude but no direction). The scalar product has special significance in many physical situations.

The scalar product of two vectors A and B is represented by

and is defined as c, where

Here θ is the angle between the two vectors A and B . The Scalar Product c is thus equal to the area of the parallelogram having as two of its sides the vectors A and B.