# Cartesian Product

• June 3rd 2009, 09:25 AM
Ruun
Cartesian Product
Hi!

I'm trying to self-study some math and I've decided to "forget" almost but high school math and start from the beggining.

I have a seriously easy question about Cartesian Product.

It is true that $(\mathbb{R}^{2} \times \mathbb{R}=\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^{2}=\mathbb{R}^3)$ ?

I've thougth that the first equality is false since the first one is $\mathbb{R}^2 \times \mathbb{R}= \{(x,y) : x \in \mathbb{R}^2$ and $y \in \mathbb{R} \}$ and in the second one $\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^2 = \{(x,y) : x \in \mathbb{R}$ and $y \in \mathbb{R}^2 \}$ but then I thought that both are equal to $\mathbb{R}^{3}$.

(Hi)
• June 3rd 2009, 11:20 AM
HallsofIvy
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruun
Hi!

I'm trying to self-study some math and I've decided to "forget" almost but high school math and start from the beggining.

I have a seriously easy question about Cartesian Product.

It is true that $(\mathbb{R}^{2} \times \mathbb{R}=\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^{2}=\mathbb{R}^3)$ ?

I've thougth that the first equality is false since the first one is $\mathbb{R}^2 \times \mathbb{R}= \{(x,y) : x \in \mathbb{R}^2$ and $y \in \mathbb{R} \}$ and in the second one $\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^2 = \{(x,y) : x \in \mathbb{R}$ and $y \in \mathbb{R}^2 \}$ but then I thought that both are equal to $\mathbb{R}^{3}$.

$R^2\times R= \{((x,y),z)\}$
$R\times R^2= \{(x, (y,z))\}$
$R^3= \{(x, y, z)\}$