Is a single value considered a product?

[AvgStudent]

I'm wondering if [imath]k \in \Complex[/imath] can be viewed as a product under mathematical definition i.e. [imath]\prod_{i=1}^{1} k_i[/imath]?
The definition of the product seems to insist that "product" is strictly a binary operation between two operands. However the product operation is associative, so I think it's ok to interpret a "product" of any finite number of operands, namely one, or even 0.

 

[Dr.Peterson]

I'm wondering if [imath]k \in \Complex[/imath] can be viewed as a product under mathematical definition i.e. [imath]\prod_{i=1}^{1} k_i[/imath]?
The definition of the product seems to insist that "product" is strictly a binary operation between two operands. However the product operation is associative, so I think it's ok to interpret a "product" of any finite number of operands, namely one, or even 0.

Yes, when we talk about products we typically include the extreme case of a "product" of one number; every integer can be written as a product of primes (including a single prime), just as we can define a polynomial as a sum of terms even though there can be only one.

And a product of zero numbers would be 1, just as the sum of zero numbers is 0. Here is a brief discussion.