Title: Multiplication
Content:  while the dot denotes taking the dot product of two vectors, resulting in a scalar. In arithmetic, multiplication is often written using the multiplication sign (either or{{char| There are other mathematical notations for multiplication: In computer programming, the asterisk (as in ) is still the most common notation. This is due to the fact that most computers historically were limited to small character sets (such as ASCII and EBCDIC) that lacked a multiplication sign (such as  or  ), while the asterisk appeared on every keyboard. This usage originated in the FORTRAN programming language. {{anchor|Terminology|multiplier}} The numbers to be multiplied are 
Title: Multiplication sign
Content:  avoid being confused with a value called b2 ). This notation is used wherever multiplication should be written explicitly, such as in " ab = a⋅2 for b = 2 "; this usage is also seen in English-language texts. In some languages, the use of full stop as a multiplication symbol, such as a.b , is common when the symbol for decimal point is comma. Historically, computer language syntax was restricted to the ASCII character set, and the asterisk became the de facto symbol for the multiplication operator. This selection is reflected in the standard numeric keypad, where the arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are represented by the keys, , and , respectively.
Title: Multiplication sign
Content:  The multiplication sign, also known as the times sign or the dimension sign, is the symbol, used in mathematics to denote the multiplication operation and its resulting product. While similar to a lowercase X, the form is properly a four-fold rotationally symmetric saltire.
Title: Multiplication
Content: To reduce confusion between the multiplication sign × and the common variable {{mvar|x}}, multiplication is also denoted by dot signs, usually a middle-position dot (rarely period): ; {{math|5 ⋅ 2}} or {{math|5 . 3}} ; The middle dot notation, encoded in Unicode as {{unichar|22C5|dot operator}}, is now standard in the United States and other countries where the period is used as a decimal point. When the dot operator character is not accessible, the interpunct (·) is used. In other countries that use a comma as a decimal mark, either the period or a middle dot is used for multiplication.{{citation needed|date=August 2011}} 
Title: Multiplication sign
Content: (a zero-width space indicating multiplication) ; (the interpunct, may be easier to type than the dot operator) ; (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) (intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors) Other variants and related characters:
Title: Multiplication sign
Content:  The lower-case Latin letter is sometimes used in place of the multiplication sign. This is considered incorrect in mathematical writing. In algebraic notation, widely used in mathematics, a multiplication symbol is usually omitted wherever it would not cause confusion: "a multiplied by b" can be written as ab or a b . Other symbols can also be used to denote multiplication, often to reduce confusion between the multiplication sign × and the common variable x. In some countries, such as Germany, the primary symbol for multiplication is the "dot operator" (as in '' a⋅b ''). This symbol is also used in algebraic notation to resolve ambiguity (for instance, "b times 2" may be written as b⋅2 , 
Title: Algebraic operation
Content:  Multiplication symbols are usually omitted, and implied, when there is no operator between two variables or terms, or when a coefficient is used. For example, 3 × x2 is written as 3x2, and 2 × x × y is written as 2xy. Sometimes, multiplication symbols are replaced with either a dot or center-dot, so that x × y is written as either x. y or x · y. Plain text, programming languages, and calculators also use a single asterisk to represent the multiplication symbol, and it must be explicitly used; for example, 3x is written as 3 * x. Rather than using the ambiguous division sign (÷), division is usually represented with a vinculum, a horizontal line, as in 3⁄x + 1. In plain text and programming languages, a slash (also called a solidus) 
Title: Multiplication
Content:  Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol, by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being addition, subtraction, and division. The result of a multiplication operation is called a product. The multiplication of whole numbers may be thought of as a repeated addition; that is, the multiplication of two numbers is equivalent to adding as many copies of one of them, the multiplicand, as the quantity of the other one, the multiplier. Both numbers can be referred to as factors. Thus the designation of multiplier and 
Title: Multiplication sign
Content:  a number of uses, including In biology, the multiplication sign is used in a botanical hybrid name, for instance Ceanothus papillosus × impressus (a hybrid between C. papillosus and C. impressus) or Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora (a hybrid between two other species of Crocosmia). However, the communication of these hybrid names with a Latin letter "x" is common, when the actual "×" symbol is not readily available. The multiplication sign is also used by historians for an event between two dates. When employed between two dates – for example 1225 and 1232 –  the expression "1225×1232" means "no earlier than 1225 and no later than 1232". A monadic symbol is used by the APL programming language to denote the sign function.
Title: Multiplication sign
Content:  The earliest known use of the symbol to represent multiplication appears in an anonymous appendix to the 1618 edition of John Napier's Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio. This appendix has been attributed to William Oughtred, who used the same symbol in his 1631 algebra text, Clavis Mathematicae, stating:"'Multiplication of species [i.e. unknowns] connects both proposed magnitudes with the symbol 'in' or : or ordinarily without the symbol if the magnitudes be denoted with one letter.'"Two earlier uses of a notation have been identified, but do not stand critical examination.

Question: what is the multiplication sign on the computer?
Answer: a rotationally symmetric saltire.
the symbol ×.
*.