Cartesian Product

🅟 Feb 17, 2026

  🅤 Feb 24, 2026

Set Theory > Sets

DEF-CAR. Cartesian Product.

  • The Cartesian product of $X$ and $Y$ is

    \[X\times Y = \{(x,y)\in\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{P}(X\cup Y)):x\in X\land y\in Y\}.\]
  • Notice that, because in general $((x,y),z)\neq (x,(y,z))$ for arbitrary $x$, $y$ and $z$, $\times$ is technically not associative. Nevertheless, we define

    \[\begin{align*} X\times Y\times Z &= (X\times Y)\times Z, \\ X\times Y\times Z\times U &= (X\times Y\times Z)\times U, \end{align*}\]

    and so on.

  • If $n\in\mathbb{N}^+$, we write

    \[X^n = \underbrace{X\times\cdots\times X}_{\text{$n$ times}}.\]

PROP-CAR-EMP.

For any $X$,

\[X\times\varnothing = \varnothing\times X = \varnothing.\]

PROP-CAR-ITSC.

For any $A$, $B$, $C$ and $D$,

\[(A\cap B)\times(C\cap D) = (A\times C)\cap(B\times D).\]

PROP-CAR-DIST.

For any $A$, $B$ and $C$:

  • $A\times(B\cap C) = (A\times B)\cap(A\times C)$.
  • $A\times(B\cup C) = (A\times B)\cup(A\times C)$.
  • $A\times(B\smallsetminus C) = (A\times B)\smallsetminus(A\times C)$.