Cartesian product
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The Cartesian product of two sets A and B is the set (usually denoted by A × B) consisting of all ordered pairs (a, b) where <math>a \in A</math> and <math>b \in B</math>. The Cartesian product is named after René Descartes, who invented this concept.
A common example of a Cartesian product is the coordinate plane, <math>\mathbb{R}^2</math>. This is all ordered pairs (a,b) of real numbers a and b. It is used for graphing functions on the real numbers.