Unordered pair
Unordered pair
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Unordered pair

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Unordered pair

In mathematics, an unordered pair or pair set is a set of the form {ab}, i.e. a set having two elements a and b with no particular relation between them, where {ab} = {ba}. In contrast, an ordered pair (ab) has a as its first element and b as its second element, which means (ab) ≠ (ba) unless a=b.

While the two elements of an ordered pair (ab) need not be distinct, modern authors only call {ab} an unordered pair if a ≠ b. But for a few authors a singleton is also considered an unordered pair.[citation needed] It is typical to use the term unordered pair even in the situation where the elements a and b could be equal, as long as this equality has not yet been established.[citation needed]

A set with precisely two elements is also called a 2-set or (rarely) a binary set.[citation needed]

In axiomatic set theory, the existence of unordered pairs is required by an axiom, the axiom of pairing.

More generally, an unordered n-tuple is a set of the form {a1a2, ..., an}.

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