Multiplication is one of the four basic arithmetic operations. It can be thought of as repeated addition. Multiplying two numbers is equivalent to adding as many copies of one of the numbers, called the multiplicand, as many times as indicated by the other number, called the multiplier. The result is called the product. As indicated in the diagram above, multiplication can be represented with the sign ×. However, there are other ways to represent this operation. Another common notation is using a mid-line dot ⋅. It is important to notice that the order in which the operation is performed does not affect the result. This property is known as the Commutative Property of Multiplication. Because of this property, both the multiplicand and multiplier could play each other's role. Thus, it is very common to refer to both indistinctly as factors.