Definition:Cartesian Product of Family/Definition 1

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Definition

Let $I$ be an indexing set.

Let $\family {S_i}_{i \mathop \in I}$ be a family of sets indexed by $I$.

The Cartesian product of $\family {S_i}_{i \mathop \in I}$ is the set of all families $\family {s_i}_{i \mathop \in I}$ with $s_i \in S_i$ for each $i \in I$.


This can be denoted $\ds \prod_{i \mathop \in I} S_i$ or, if $I$ is understood, $\ds \prod_i S_i$.


Axiom of Choice

It is of the utmost importance that one be aware that for many $I$, establishing non-emptiness of $\ds \prod_{i \mathop \in I} S_i$ requires a suitable version of the Axiom of Choice.

Details on this correspondence can be found on Equivalence of Formulations of Axiom of Choice.


Also see

  • Results about Cartesian products can be found here.


Source of Name

This entry was named for René Descartes.


Sources