Video Transcript
What is the product of any number and zero?
Let’s remind ourselves what the word product means in maths. The product of two numbers is the answer when they are multiplied together. So the question is really asking us what is the answer when we multiply any number by zero? Let’s pick some numbers and see what products we can make. Firstly, let’s try three times zero, the product of three and zero. Now, we know what this really means is what is three lots of zero. So to find the answer, we can add zero three times.
Well, zero represents nothing. So if we add three lots of nothing together, we still have nothing. The product of three and zero is zero. And if we stop and think about it, this is going to be the answer whatever the first number is. Five lots of zero is zero; eight lots of zero is still zero. We could multiply any number by zero, and the answer will still be zero. And so we can see that it doesn’t matter how large or how small the numbers that we’re multiplying by zero. The product of any number at all and zero is zero.
