A bounding box is the smallest axis-aligned rectangle that contains a set of points or shapes. It is defined by the minimum and maximum x and y coordinates.
For points (1,2), (3,7), and (5,1), the bounding box has corners (1,1) and (5,7). The width is 5-1=4 and the height is 7-1=6.
Bounding boxes are used in collision detection, spatial indexing, and rendering optimizations.