CS 2336

Discrete Mathematics

Lecture 10
Sets, Functions, and Relations: Part II

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 Outline
• What is a Function ?
• Types of Functions
• Floor and Ceiling Functions
• An Interesting Result

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 What is a Function ?
• Suppose that each student in a mathematics class
will be assigned a grade A, B, C, D, F
• Let us say the grades for the students are :
Nobita (F), Shizuka (A), Takeshi (F), Suneo (B)
A

F
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 What is a Function ?
• The previous is an example of a function
Let A and B be two nonempty sets
A function f from A to B is an assignment of
exactly one item of B to each item of A.
This relationship is denoted by
f:AB
We write f(a) = b if b is the unique item of B
assigned by f to the item a of A, and we say
b is the image of a
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 Terminology
• Function is also called mapping or transformation

• Given a function f : A  B
A is called the domain
B is called the codomain
The subset of B that contains all images,
{ b | f(a) = b for some a in A },
is called the range

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 Test Your Understanding
A

• What is the domain, codomain, and range in the

above function ?

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 Types of Functions
A function from A to B is said to be one-to-one,
or injective, or an injection, if no two items of A
have the same image in B

• Which of the following are one-to-one functions ?

• f : Z  Z, with f(x) = x2
• g : N  Z, with g(x) = x2

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 Types of Functions
A function from A to B is said to be onto, or
surjective, or a surjection, if every item of B is
the image of at least one item of A
Equivalently, when range equals to codomain

• Which of the following are onto functions?

• f : Z  Z, with f(x) = 2x
• g : R  R, with g(x) = 2x

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 Types of Functions
A function is said to be one-to-one onto, or
bijective, or a bijection, if it is both one-to-one
and onto

• Which of the following are bijections?

• f : Z  Z, with f(x) = 2x
• g : R  R, with g(x) = 2x

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 Some Counting Problems
• Let A and B be two sets, with |A| = m, |B| = n

• Problems :
1. How many distinct injections from A to B ?
2. How many distinct surjections from A to B ?
3. How many distinct bijections from A to B ?

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 Floor and Ceiling Functions
• Let x be a real number
The floor function of x, denoted by  x , is the
largest integer that is smaller than or equal to x
The ceiling function of x, denoted by  x , is the
smallest integer that is larger than or equal to x

• Examples:
 0.5  = 0, 0.5 = 1, –1.1  = –2, –1.1 = –1
7 = 7, 7 = 7, –4  = –4, –4 = –4
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 Floor and Ceiling Functions
• Some useful properties ( n is an integer ):
1. x=n  n  x  n+1
2. x=n  n–1  x  n
3. x=n  x–1  n  x
4. x=n  x  n  x+1
5.  –x  = –  x 
6.  –x  = –  x 

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 Challenges
• Which of the following are correct ?
1.  x + n  =  x  + n, where n is an integer
2.  x + y  =  x  +  y 
3.  2x  =  x  +  x + 0.5 

• Let z be a positive real. What is the maximum

integer k such that
 kz   n,
when n is a positive integer ?
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 Answers to the Challenges
• 1 is correct.
Proof : Suppose  x  = m, where m = integer.
 m  x  m+1
 m+n  x+n m+n+1
 x+n = m+n = x+n

• 2 is wrong. Counter-example: x = 0.5, y = 0.5

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 Answers to the Challenges
• 3 is correct.
Proof : Consider the value { x } = x –  x  . Then,
LHS =  2  x  + 2 { x }  = 2  x  +  2 { x } 
There are two cases :
(i) 0  { x }  0.5  0  2{ x }  1
 LHS = 2  x  = RHS
(ii) 0.5  { x }  1  1  2{ x }  2
 LHS = 2  x  + 1 = RHS

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 Answers to the Challenges
• To find the maximum integer k with  kz   n,
such a k must be the maximum integer with
kz  n + 1, or k  (n + 1) / z
• There are two cases :
(i) if (n + 1) / z is not an integer
 k =  (n + 1) / z  =  (n + 1) / z  – 1
(ii) if (n + 1) / z is an integer
 k = (n + 1) / z – 1 =  (n + 1) / z  – 1
So it is always true that k =  (n + 1) / z  – 1
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 An Interesting Result
• For a positive real number z, we define the
spectrum of z,
Spec(z) = {  z ,  2z ,  3z   4z , … }

• Examples :
Spec( 2 ) = { 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, … }
Spec( 2+ 2 ) = { 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, … }

• Anything special about the above spectrums ?

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 An Interesting Result
• Examples :
Let  = ( 1 +  5 ) / 2 = 1.6180339887…
= golden ratio
Then 2 =  + 1 = 2.6180339887…

Spec(  ) = { 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, … }

Spec(2) = { 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18, … }

• Anything special about the above spectrums ?

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 An Interesting Result
• In general, we have the following theorem :
Let  and  be two positive irrational numbers
such that
1 /  + 1 /  = 1.
Then, the spectrums
Spec() and Spec()
cover all the positive integers, and they have no
common items

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