Scribd
Upload
4 views

L1-Set Theory

This document provides an overview of set theory, including definitions of sets, elements, and various notations such as roster and set builder notation. It explains operations on sets like union, intersection, and difference, as well as concepts like subsets, cardinality, and infinite sets. Additionally, it introduces the principle of mathematical induction and its application in proving propositions related to sets.

Uploaded by

Nevil Desai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
4 views

L1-Set Theory

This document provides an overview of set theory, including definitions of sets, elements, and various notations such as roster and set builder notation. It explains operations on sets like union, intersection, and difference, as well as concepts like subsets, cardinality, and infinite sets. Additionally, it introduces the principle of mathematical induction and its application in proving propositions related to sets.

Uploaded by

Nevil Desai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 17

Basics of Sets

• A set is an unordered collection of distinct objects, called elements or


members of the set.

• A set is said to contain its elements.

• We write a ∈ A to denote that a is an element of the set A.

• The notation a ∉ A denotes that a is not an element of the set A.

• The notation {a, b, c, d} represents the set with the four elements a,
b, c, and d. This way of describing a set is known as the roster
method.
• Another way to describe a set is to use set builder notation. We
characterize all those elements in the set by stating the property or
properties they must have to be members.
• The general form of this notation is {x ∣ x has property P} and is read
“the set of all x such that x has property P.”
• O = {x ∣ x is an odd positive integer less than 10}
• O = {x ∈ Z+ ∣ x is odd and x < 10}.

• Two sets are equal if and only if they have the same elements. If A
and B are sets, then A and B are equal if and only if ∀x(x ∈ A ↔ x ∈
B). We write A = B if A and B are equal sets.
• Are {1, 3, 5} and {3, 5, 1} equal?
• A = {9, 2, 7, -3}, B = {7, 9, -3, A=B
2} :
• A = {dog, cat, horse},
B = {cat, horse, squirrel, dog} A != B
:•
A = {dog, cat, horse},
B = {cat, horse, dog, dog} : A=B

• THE EMPTY SET: There is a special set that has no elements. This set is
called the empty set, or null set, and is denoted by ∅.
• A set with one element is called a singleton set.
• Is the set A={∅} empty? Or singleton?.
• The set A={∅} is a singleton set.
AB “A is a subset of B”
A  B if and only if every element of A is also

an element of B.
We can write it as:
A  B  x (xA xB)

Examples:
A = {3, 9}, B = {5, 9, 1, 3}, A true
B?
A = {3, 3, 3, 9}, B = {5, 9, 1, 3}, A true
B?
A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {2, 3, 4}, A false
B?
Useful rules:
A = B  (A  B)  (B A)
(A  B) (B  C)  A  C
  A for any set A (but   A may not hold for any set A)
A  A for any set A

For every set S, (i) ∅ ⊆ S and (ii) S ⊆ S.


Let S be a set. If there are exactly n distinct elements in S
where n is a nonnegative integer, we say that S is a finite set
and that n is the cardinality of S.
The notation n(S) or |S| will denote the number of elements in
a set S.

EXAMPLE 1 Let S be the set of letters in the English


alphabet. Then |S| = 26.
EXAMPLE 2 Because the null set has no elements, it follows
that |∅| = 0.
A set is said to be infinite if it is not finite. (We will come back
to this in a while)
Set Operations
• Let A and B be sets. The union of the sets A and B, denoted by A ∪ B,
is the set that contains those elements that are either in A or in B, or
in both.
• Let A and B be sets. The intersection of the sets A and B, denoted by
A ∩ B, is the set containing those elements in both A and B.
• Two sets are called disjoint if their intersection is the empty set.
• Let A and B be sets. The difference of A and B, denoted by A − B, is
the set containing those elements that are in A but not in B. The
difference of A and B is also called the complement of B with respect
to A.

The difference of sets A and B is sometimes denoted by A∖B.


EXAMPLE
The difference of {1, 3, 5} and {1, 2, 3} is the set {5}; that is,
{1, 3, 5} − {1, 2, 3} = {5}. This
is different from the difference of {1, 2, 3} and {1, 3, 5},
which is the set {2}.

EXAMPLE
Let A = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9} and B = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}. Because A ∩ B =
∅, A and B are disjoint.
• Let U be the universal set. The complement of the set A,
denoted by A’, is the complement of A with respect to U.
• Therefore, the complement of the set A is U − A.

EXAMPLE Let A = {a, e, i, o, u} (where the universal set is the set of letters of the English
alphabet). Then
A’ = {b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z}.

EXAMPLE Let A be the set of positive integers greater than 10 (with universal set the set
of all positive integers). Then A’ = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}.The set of positive integers
is infinite.
EXAMPLE Suppose a list A contains the 30 students in Discrete Mathematics class, and a
list B contains the 35 students in an Communication skills class, and suppose there are
20 names on both lists. Find the number of students:
(a) only on list A, (b) only on list B, (c) on list A or B (or both), (d) on exactly one list.

SOLUTION: (a) List A has 30 names and 20 are on BOTH lists, hence 30 − 20 = 10 names
are only on list A.
(b) Similarly, 35 − 20 = 15 are only on list B.
(c) We find n(A ∪ B).
By inclusion–exclusion,
n(A ∪ B) = n(A) + n(B) − n(A ∩ B) = 30 + 35 − 20 = 45.
In other words, we combine the two lists and then cross out the 20 names which appear
twice.
(d) By (a) and (b), 10 + 15 = 25 names are only on one list
VENN DIAGRAMS
A Venn diagram is a pictorial representation of sets in which
sets are represented by enclosed areas in the plane.

EXAMPLE
Infinite sets: We already know, that a set which is not finite is
called an infinite set.

But, let us be more precise about the size of infinite set.

A set is said to be countably infinite set if there is one-to-one


correspondence between the elements in the set and elements
in the set of natural numbers N. i.e. If a set is countably infinite,
we can make a list of its members in such a way that each one
corresponds uniquely to a natural number.

Example 1: The set of even positive integers {2,4,6,8, . . . . . } is


a countable set.
To show this, we derive one-to-one correspondence between
this set and a set of natural numbers.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .......

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 .......
To confirm the one-to-one correspondence, we pair every n of N with 2n
set of even positive integers. By pairing each n in N with 2n in the said
set, we get pairs as (n and 2n) which is unique pair of each number in
set of even positive integers.

Example 2: The set of even integers?


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .......

0 -2 2 -4 4 -6 6 .......

A set, which is not countably infinite, is called uncountably infinite set


or simply uncountable set.
Example: The set R of all positive real numbers less than 1.
MATHEMATICAL INDUCTION

An essential property of the set N = {1, 2, 3, …} of positive integers follows

Principle of Mathematical Induction I: Let P be a proposition defined on the positive integers N; that is, P(n)
is either true or false for each n ∈ N. Suppose P has the following two properties:
(i) P (1) is true.
(ii) P (k + 1) is true whenever P(k) is true.
Then P is true for every positive integer n ∈ N.

Example 1: Let P be the proposition that the sum of the first n odd numbers is ; that is,
P(n) : 1 + 3 + 5+ ・ ・ ・ +(2n − 1) =
(The kth odd number is 2k −1, and the next odd number is 2k +1.)

Solution: Observe that P(n) is true for n = 1; namely,


P(1) =
Assuming P(k) is true, we add 2k + 1 to both sides of P(k), obtaining
1 + 3 + 5+ ・ ・ ・ +(2k − 1) + (2k + 1) − + (2k + 1) =
which is P(k + 1).
In other words, P(k + 1) is true whenever P(k) is true.
By the principle of mathematical induction, P is true for all n.

You might also like