KISII UNIVERSITY

COURSE: BUSINESS MATHEMATICS I

COURSE CODE: BBAM 170

Lecturer: Dr Maendo Densford

TOPIC 1

LESSON 1

INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS MATHEMATICS

- Refers to mathematics used in modelling business problems, accounting, inventory

management, marketing, sales forecasting and industry practices to provide solution to business

problems.

Importance of Business Mathematics

1. Helps in understanding the financial formulas, fractions, measurements involved in interest

calculation which help to complete business tasks efficiently.

2. Business mathematics also include statistics and provides solution to business problems

3. Provide an overview of mathematical concepts, tools and techniques for modelling business

problems whose solutions are sought through quantitative approaches.

4. Business mathematics is necessary for profitable operations and accurate record keeping.

5. Aids in modern business management in terms of forecasting and operating procedures

SET THEORY
In our daily life we use phrases like a bunch of keys, a tea set, a pack of cards a team of players,

a class of students, etc. Here the

s also we deal with collections.

A set is a well-defined collection of distinct objects. Each object is said to be an element (or

member) of the set.

The symbol ∈ is used to denote ‘is an element of’ or is a member of’ or ‘belongs to’e,g x ∈A is

read as x is an element of A or x belongs to A.

Consequently y ∈/ A is read as y is not an element of A

Methods of Describing a Set

There are two methods:

• Tabular Method (or Roster Method)

• Selector Method (or Rule Method or Set Builder

Method)

Tabular Method

A set is denoted by capital letter, i.e. A, B, X, Y, P, Q etc.

All the elements are written within brackets ( )or { } or [ ] .

Thus a set may be written again as A = { blue, green, red}.

Selector Method

In this method, if all the elements of a set possess some common property, which distinguishes

the same elements from other non-elements, then that property may be used to designate the set.

For example, if x ( an element of a set B) has the property having odd positive integer such that 3

is less than equal to x and x is less than equal to 17, then in short, we may write,
• = {x : x is an odd positive integer and 3 ≤ x ≤17}

In Tabular method, B = { 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15,

17}

Similarly, C = {x : x is a day beginning with

Monday}.

[Note 1. ‘:’ used after x is to be read as ‘such that’. In some cases ‘I’ (a vertical line) is used

which is also to be read ‘such that’.

2 . If the elements do not possess the common property, then this method is not applicable ]

TYPES OF SETS

• Finite Set

It is a set consisting of finite number of elements.

e.g. : A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; B = { 2, 4, 6, ….., 50}; C = { x : x is number of student in a class}.

• Infinite Set

A set having an infinite number of elements is called an

Infinite set. e.g. : A = { 1, 2, 3, …..} B = { 2, 4, 6, ……}

C = { x : x is a number of stars in the sky}.

• Null or empty or Void Set

It is a set having no element in it, and is usually denoted by φ (read as phi) or { }. As for

Example : The number of persons moving in air without any machine. A set of positive

numbers less than zero.

• = { x : x is a perfect square of an integer 5 < x < 8}.

 • = { x : x is a negative integer whose square is – 1}

Remember : (i) φ ≠ {φ}, as {φ} is a set whose

element is φ.

(ii) φ ≠ {0} is a set whose element is 0.

• Equal set

Two sets A and B are said to be equal if all the elements of A belong to B and all the

elements of B belongs to A i.e., if A and B have the same elements. As for example : A =

{ 1, 2, 3, 4} : B = {3, 1, 2, 4}, or, A = {a, b, c} : B {a, a, a, c, c, b, b, b, b}.

[Note : The order of writing the elements or repetition of elements does not change the

nature of set]

• Equivalent Set

Two sets are equivalent if they have the same number of elements. It is not essential that the

elements of the two sets should be same.

Example

A = {1, 2, 3, 4} B = { b, a, l, 1}.

• Sub-set :

A set N is a subset of a set X, if all the elements of N are members of the larger set X.

Example

If, X = {3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13}

And, N = {5, 11, 13}

Then, N is a subset of X.
 That is, N ⊆ X (where ⊆ means ‘is a subset of’).

• Proper Sub-set :

If each and every element of a set A are the elements of B and there exists at least one element of B that

does not belongs to A, then the set A is said to be a proper sub-set of B (or B is called super-set of A). This

is denoted by
A ⊂ B. A ⊂ B can be expressed by

Example: If E = {a, c}, F = {a, b, c}, G = {a, c, b} then E and F are both subset of G, but E
is proper subset of G whereas F is not a proper subset G since

Example Let A={5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 1}, B = {1, 3, 5} and C={3, 5, 1} .

Then

- A is a proper subset of B if A ⊆ B and A ≠ B.

Note:

(i) A set is not proper sub-set of itself.

• Number of proper sub-sets of a set A containing n elements is 2n –1

(iii) φ is not proper sub-set of itself].

• Power set :

The set of all subsets of a set S is called the power set of S.

It is denoted by P(S) or 2S. Every power set of any set A must contain the set A itself
and the empty set, In particular,
If
Example
 Thus when the number of elements of A is 1, then the number of sub-sets is 2; when the

number of elements of A is 2; then the number sub-sets is 4 = 2 2 and when it is 3, the

number of sub-sets is 8 = 23. So, if S has n elements, P(S) will have 2n sub-sets.

• Universal Set :

In mathematical discussion, generally we consider all the sets to be sub-sets of a fixed set,

known as Universal set or Universe, denoted by U. A Universal set may be finite or infinite.

Example

• A pack of cards may be taken as universal set for a set of diamond or spade.

• A set of integers is Universal set for the set of even or odd numbers.

• Cardinal Number of a set :

The cardinal number of a finite set A is the number of elements of the set A. It is denoted by

n{A). e.g If A = {1, m, n}, B = {1, 2, 3} then n(A) = n(B)

-We use some special symbols for some sets .Unless otherwise specified

C = set of complex numbers

Q = set of rational numbers
Formally: A = B ↔ A ⊆ B ∧ B ⊆ A.
Set operations
 Given a domain U and two sets A, B.
The union of two sets A, B denoted A ∪ B, is the set of all objects that are members
of A, or B, or both is defined by

General union of several sets:

The union of {a, b, c} and {b, c, d} is the set {a, b, c, d}.

The intersection of two sets is the set consisting of those elements that elements of
both sets. The intersection of two sets A and B is denoted by A ∩ B.

The intersection of {a, b, c} and {b, c, d} is the set {b, c}.

Two sets A and B are called mutually exclusive if their intersection is empty. Mutually
exclusive sets are also called disjoint.
then A and B are said to be disjoint.
For example, if a single coin is tossed, the two sets, {heads} and {tails}, are mutually
exclusive since {tails} cannot occur when {heads} has already occurred and vice versa.
General intersection of several sets:

The complement of a set A, denoted by A C, is the set of elements which belong to U

but which do not belong to A.is defined by

The difference between sets A and B, denoted A − B is the set containing the
elements of A that are not in B. Formally:

is also called the complement of B with respect to A.

The relative complement of is {a}, while, conversely, the relative complement is {d} .
The symmetric difference between sets A and B, denoted is
the set containing the elements of A that are not in B or vice-versa.
Formally:
Example: Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4}, B = {3, 4, 5, 6},where U={1, 2, 3, …..}
Then
AC = {5, 6, 7, ….}
Venn diagrams
When an expression describing a set is small it can be viewed pictorially as a Venn
diagram in which sets are represented as regions in the plane. In each diagram below the
outer rectangle represents the universe U and the circles represent the sets A,B,C.

Example From a survey of 100 college students, a marketing research company

found that 75 students owned stereos, 45 owned cars, and 35 owned cars and
stereos.
i. How many students owned either a car or a stereo?
ii. How many students did not own either a car or a stereo?
Solution:
b. Fill in the number of students who own both cars and stereos, which would be in
the intersection of the two sets:

• Fill in the remaining numbers for the two sets. In this case, since a total of 45
students own cars, and 35 have already been listed, then 45 - 35 = 10 students own
cars only. Similarly, since 75 students own stereos and 35 have already been listed,
then 75 - 35 = 40 students who own stereos only:

Since there are 100 students in the universe, then the complement is founded
by subtracting those who own either a car or stereo from the total number of
students surveyed.

Or 100 - 85 = 15.
Algebra of sets
Explains the basic properties and laws of sets, i.e. the set -theoretic operations
of union, intersection, and complementation. Some of the useful properties/operations
on sets are as follows: Letting A, B, C range over subsets of U

Idempotence: Union and intersection of a set with itself are

1.

Associativity: If we have three sets A, B and C, then

2. (

Commutativity: Union and intersection of two sets are commutative. Hence,

3.
Distributiv HYPERLINK "http://math.tutorvista.com/number-system/distributive-
property.html"HYPERLINK "http://math.tutorvista.com/number-
system/distributive-property.html" HYPERLINK "http://math.tutorvis
ta.com/number-system/distributive-property.html"ity: In set theory, we have two
distribution laws as
4.

Identity: if is an empty set, A is any given set and U is universal set then:
5.

6.

Proof
….. (1)

from (1) and (2)

Complements : shows the behavior of any set and its complement with
respect to one another.

7.

8.

Proof

9. (Ac)c = A
De-Morgan's laws: In set theory, we have two laws related to this law
10.
Example
Proof
We may prove then prove
1. Definition of complement
Definition of intersection
Definition of complement

Definition of union
Definition of subset
2.
Definition of union
Definition of complement
Definition of intersection
Definition of complement
Definition of subset
∴ From 1 and 2 we have
if and only if
Duality
Suppose E is an equation of set algebra, the dual E* of E is the equation obtained by
replacing each occurrence of in E by and U respectively.
For example, the dual of .
)
Observe that the laws in 1.6.1 are duals for each other.

Operations of finite sets

Theorem 1: If A and B are disjoint finite set, then is finite and
If a set A is finite, we let n(A) denote the number of element of A.
Theorem 2: If A and B are finite sets, then are finite and:

Example If A and B be two sets containing 3 and 6 elements respectively, what can
be the maximum number of elements in ? Find also, the minimum number of elements
in .   

Solution          
We have,
This show that ) is minimum or maximum according as  
  is maximum or minimum respectively.  
Case 1: When is minimum, i.e. . This is possible only when . In this case,

Case 2: When is maximum  

This is possible only when A ⊂ B.  
In this case            

Theorem 3 If A, B and C are finite sets, then so is and;

Example suppose that 100 of 120 students at a college take at least one of the
languages French, German and Russian, also suppose 65 study French, 45 study
German, 42 study Russian, 20 study French and German, 25 study French and
Russian and 15 study German and Russian.
Find number of students who study all three languages and to fill in correct number
of students in each of the eight regions.
 Solution
Let F, G and R denote the sets of students studying French, German and Russian
respectively. Then the Venn diagram shown as below

study the three languages.

20 – 8 = 12 study French and German but not Russian.
25 – 8 = 17 study French and Russian but not German.
15 – 8 = 7 study German and Russian but not French.
65 – 12 – 8 – 17 = 28 study only French.
45 – 12 – 8 – 7 = 18 study only German.
42 – 17 – 8 – 7 = 10 study only Russian.
120 – 100 = 20 do not study any of the language.

18 + 10 + 28 = 56 students study only one language.

Partition

Definition Let S be a nonempty set. A partition of S is a subdivision of S into non

overlapping, nonempty subsets. Precisely, a partition of S is a collection {Ai } of
nonempty subsets of S such that:
(i) Each a in S belongs to one of the Ai .
(ii) The sets of {Ai } are mutually disjoint; that is, if
The subsets in a partition are called cells.

S of points into six cells,

Example Consider the following collections of subsets of S = {1, 2, …,10}:

(i) [{1, 3, 5 }, {2, 7}, {4, 8, 9, 10}]
(ii) [{2, 3, 7, 10}, {1, 4, 5, 8}, {6, 7, 9}]
(iii) [{1, 4, 5}, {2, 3, 7, 8, 10}, {6, 9}]

Then (i) is not a partition of S since 6 in S does not belong to any of the subsets.
Furthermore, (ii) is not a partition of S since {2, 3, 7, 10} and {6, 7, 9} are not disjoint.
On the other hand, (iii) is a partition of S.