Correct notation to indicate multiplying all elements within a set

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Is there a correct notation to indicate multiplying all elements within a set?

For example, if $M = \left\{n_0, n_1, ..., n_t\right\}$ be the set of elements where I want to multiply all the numbers within the set to create the product, $P$. Is there a better way to indicate this multiplication than writing $P = n_0\times n_1\times...\times n_t$?

I'm not an actual mathematician so any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

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2 Answers

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The general notation you want is the symbol $\prod$ (see also Wikipedia), which works equivalently to the symbol $\sum$ for summation. So, if you're given the context $$M =\{n_0, n_1, \ldots, n_t\}$$ you could write your product $P$ in either of the following ways: $$P=\prod_{i=0}^t n_i=\prod_{n\in M}n $$

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You could write $$P = \prod_{m \in M} m$$ The $\prod$ symbol means 'product'. The bit underneath indexes the set of numbers you're taking the product of, and the bit to the right says what you do to them. Since you're not doing anything to the numbers before you multiply them, you just leave it as $m$.

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