cartesian product

2 definitions found

cartesian product - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Cartesian product
      n 1: the set of elements common to two or more sets; "the set of
           red hats is the intersection of the set of hats and the set
           of red things" [syn: intersection, product, Cartesian product
           ]

cartesian product - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Cartesian product
  
     <mathematics> (After Renee Descartes, French philosper and
     mathematician) The Cartesian product of two sets A and B is
     the set
  
     	A x B = (a, b) | a in A, b in B.
  
     I.e. the product set contains all possible combinations of one
     element from each set.  The idea can be extended to products
     of any number of sets.
  
     If we consider the elements in sets A and B as points along
     perpendicular axes in a two-dimensional space then the
     elements of the product are the "Cartesian coordinates" of
     points in that space.
  
     See also tuple.
  
     (1995-03-01)