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What Is A Set?

Sets are collections of well-defined objects enclosed in curly braces. A set contains elements but not duplicates or order. The cardinality of a set is the number of elements. There are finite, infinite, singleton, null, and universal sets. A subset contains elements of another set. The power set is all possible subsets. Sets can be equal, equivalent, disjoint, or described by roster, verbally, or with set-builder notation. Common set operations are union, intersection, difference, complement, and Cartesian product.

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215 views

What Is A Set?

Sets are collections of well-defined objects enclosed in curly braces. A set contains elements but not duplicates or order. The cardinality of a set is the number of elements. There are finite, infinite, singleton, null, and universal sets. A subset contains elements of another set. The power set is all possible subsets. Sets can be equal, equivalent, disjoint, or described by roster, verbally, or with set-builder notation. Common set operations are union, intersection, difference, complement, and Cartesian product.

Uploaded by

Jenica Mariel Gabaisen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SETS

What is a set?

Introduced by Georg Cantor (1845 – 1918)


A collection of well-defined objects
Enclosed with braces { } and is represented by a capital letter
Each member of the set is separated by a comma
The members of the set are called elements and is denoted by the
symbol ∈
If a is an element of A, then we can say

a  A  4 ∈ {1, 2, 3, 4}

If not, then we have


a ∉ A  7 ∉ {1, 2, 3, 4}

Examples

People in a class: { Alice, Bob, Chris }


Classes offered by a department: { M100, GE3, Educ4, … , PE4 }
Colors of a rainbow: { red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo,
violet }
Although a set can contain (almost) anything, we will most often use sets
of numbers
All positive numbers less than or equal to 5: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
All integers between -5 and +5: { -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 }
Cardinality of Set

The cardinality of a set is the number of elements in a set


 Written as A

Examples

Let R = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Then R= 5


Ø = 0
Let S = {Ø, {a}, {b}, {a, b}}. Then S = 4

Properties of Sets

Order does not matter


 we often write them in order because it is easier for humans to
understand it that way
 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} is equivalent to {3, 5, 2, 4, 1}
Sets do not have duplicate elements
 Consider the set of vowels in the alphabet.
 It makes no sense to list them as

{a, a, a, e, i, o, o, o, o, o, u}

 What we really want is just


{a, e, i, o, u}
Kinds of Sets

Finite Set
a set is a finite set if and only if there is a number that describes
exactly how many elements it contains.
Example: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} , {1, 2, 3, …, 10}
Infinite Set
A set is an infinite set if it has infinitely many elements.
Example: {1, 2, 3, 4, …} , {2, 4, 6, 8, …}
Singleton Set
A set with only one element
Examples: set of positive integers greater than 3 but less than
5, set of even prime numbers
Null Set
A set containing no element
Examples: set of integers greater than 4 but less than 5, set of
yellow carabao
Universal Set
U is the universal set – the set of all of elements (or the “universe”
from which given any set is drawn
Often Used Sets
Subsets
If A and B are sets, then A is called a subset of b, written A  B if
and only if every element of A is also an element of B

A  B means that “For all elements x, if x ∈ A, then x ∈


B”

If all the elements of a set S are also elements of a set T, then S is


a subset of T
 For example, if S = {2, 4, 6} and T = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, then
S is a subset of T
 This is specified by S  T
 Or by {2, 4, 6}  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
If S is not a subset of T, it is written as such: S  T
 For example, {1, 2, 8}  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
Proper Subset – if S is a subset of T, and S is not equal to T, then
S is a proper subset of T
 Let T = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
 If S = {1, 2, 3}, S is not equal to T, and S is a subset of T
 A proper subset is written as S  T

Improper Subset
 Let T = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
 Let R = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. R is equal to T, and thus is a subset
(but not a proper subset) of T
 Can be written as: R  T and R  T (or just R = T)
 Let Q = {4, 5, 6}. Q is neither a subset or T nor a proper
subset of T
Power Sets
Given the set S = {0, 1}. What are all the possible subsets of S?
 They are: Ø (as it is a subset of all sets), {0}, {1}, and {0, 1}
 The power set of S (written as P(S)) is the set of al the
subsets of S
 P(S) = { Ø, {0}, {1}, {0, 1} }
 Note that S = 2 and P(S) = 4
 Let T = {0, 1, 2}.
 The P(T) = { Ø, {0}, {1}, {0, 1}, {0, 2}, {1, 2}, {0, 1, 2} }
 Note that T = and P(T) = 8
 P(Ø) = { Ø }
 Note that Ø = 0 and P(Ø) = 1
 If a set has n elements, then the power set will have 2 n
elements
Equal Set
Two sets are equal if they have exactly the same elements (A=B)
 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = {5, 4, 3, 2, 1} Remember that order does not
matter.
 {1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2, 1} = {4, 3, 2, 1} Remember that duplicate
elements do not matter.

However,

 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ≠ {4, 3, 2, 1}
Equivalent Set
Two sets are equivalent if they have the same number of elements
Denoted by A ↔ B
 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ↔ {a, b, c, d, e}
Disjoint Sets
Two sets are disjoint if their intersection is the empty set

Examples:
 {1, 2, 3} and {3, 4, 5} are not disjoint
 {New York, Washington} and {3, 4} are disjoint
 {1, 2} and Ø are disjoint
 Their intersection is the empty set
 Ø and Ø are disjoint
 Their intersection is the empty set

Ways of Describing Sets

Roster Method – listing down the elements


{a, e, i, o, u}
Verbal Description – describe the set
Set of vowels
Set-Builder Notation I make a rule for the set
{x | x is a vowel}

Operations of Sets

Union ( A  B )
Set of all elements that are either A or in b or in both sets.
 A  B = { x | x  A or x  B }

 Examples:
 {1, 2, 3} U {3, 4, 5} = {1 , 2, 3, 4, 5}
 {New York, Washington} U {3, 4} = {New York,
Washington, 3, 4}
 {1, 2} U Ø = {1, 2}
Intersection ( A  B )
Set of all elements that are in both A and B
 A  B = { x | x  A and x  B }

 Examples
 {1, 2, 3}  {3, 4, 5} = {3}

 {New York, Washington}  {3, 4} = Ø


o No elements in common
 {1, 2}  Ø = Ø
o Any set intersection with the empty set yields
the empty set
Difference ( A — B )
Set of all elements that are in A but not in B.
 A  B = { x | x  A but x  B }

 Examples
 {1, 2, 3}  {3, 4, 5} = {1, 2}

 {New York, Washington}  {3, 4} = {New York,


Washington}
 {1, 2} – Ø = {1, 2}
o The difference of any set S with the empty set
will be the set S
Complement ( A’ ) or ( Ā )
Set of all elements that are in the universal set but not in A
 A’ = { x | x  U (universal set only), x  A }
Cartesian Product ( A x B )
Set of all ordered pairs (a, b) where a  A and b  B
 A x B = { (a, b) | a  A and b  B }
 Denoted by A x B, and uses parenthesis (not curly brackets)
 Example:
 Given A = { a, b } and B = { 0, 1 }, what is their
Cartesian product?
 A x B = { (a,0), (a,1), (b,0), (b,1) }
 B x A = { (0,a), (1,a), (0,b), (1,b) }
 Let S = { Alice, Bob, Chris } and G = { A, B, C }
 S x G = { ( Alice, A), (Alice, B), (Alice, C), (Bob, A),
(Bob, B), (Bob, C), (Chris, A), (Chris, B), (Chris,
C) }
 How about G x S?

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