# What's the difference between Euclidean & Cartesian space?

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What's the difference between Euclidean & Cartesian space?

fresh_42
Mentor
What's the difference between Euclidean & Cartesian space?
One exists, the other doesn't.
One doesn't speak of Cartesian spaces. What you mean is probably Euclidean spaces and thus there is no difference, but only because you invented a term. One speaks of Cartesian coordinates in Euclidean spaces, which means the coordinate directions are pairwise perpendicular. Euclidean space mean, there is no curvature. E.g. the surface of the moon is curved and so no Euclidean space. The screen on which I read this now is flat, and thus Euclidean.

Mark44
Mentor
What's the difference between Euclidean & Cartesian space?
I've never heard the term "Cartesian space," but if I search for it on the web, I find some hits. More often I see "Cartesian coordinates."

From one of the definitions I saw, a Cartesian space is one of either two or three dimensions, in which the axes are mutually perpendicular.

A Euclidean space also has mutually perpendicular axes, but can represent spaces of higher than three dimensions.

jedishrfu
Mentor
Most likely authors are conflating the terms of Cartesian space to mean Cartesian coordinates in a Euclidean space.

fresh_42
Mentor
Most likely authors are conflating the terms of Cartesian space to mean Cartesian coordinates in a Euclidean space.
Better than what had happened to me here on PF. I innocently abbreviated orthonormal system ...