of two sets S and T. The set of all ordered pairs of the form (s,t) with the property that s is a member of S and t is a member of T; this is usually written as S × T. Formally,
If
R denotes the set of real numbers, then
R ×
R is just the set of points in the (Cartesian) plane or it can be regarded as the set of complex numbers, hence the name.
The concept can be extended to deal with the Cartesian product of n sets,
This is the set of ordered
n-tuples
with the property that each
si is in
Si. In the case where each
Si is the same set
S, it is customary to write
S n for