A second key example of a vector space is provided by pairs of real numbers x and y. The order of the components x and y is significant, so such a pair is also called an ordered pair. Such a pair is written as (x, y). The sum of two such pairs and the multiplication of a pair with a number is defined as follows: ( x 1 , y 1 ) + ( x 2 , y 2 ) = ( x 1 + x 2 , y 1 + y 2 ) , a ( x , y ) = ( a x , a y ) .