In
mathematics,
matrix multiplication is a
binary operation that takes a pair of
matrices, and produces another matrix.
Numbers such as the
real or
complex numbers can be
multiplied according to
elementary arithmetic. On the other hand, matrices are
arrays of numbers, so there is no unique way to define "the" multiplication of matrices. As such, in general the term "matrix multiplication" refers to a number of different ways to multiply matrices. The key features of any matrix multiplication include: the number of rows and columns the original matrices have (called the "size", "order" or "dimension"), and specifying how the entries of the matrices generate the new matrix.