Introduction to Set Theory

(Tigran Melkonyan, University of Nevada, Reno)

1. Basics Definition: A set is a collection of objects. Definition: The objects contained in a set S are called the elements (or members) of S. To know S, it is necessary and sufficient to know all elements of S. Definition: being an element/member of . x S means that x is an element of S (also read x is a member of S, or x is contained in S, or x belongs to S, or x is in S, etc.). x, y S means that both x S and y S. Similarly, for any natural number n, x1,...,xn S means that xi S for all i =1,...,n. Definition: If x S is a false statement, then we write x S, and read x is not an element of S.
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Definition: Sets A and B are identical, denoted by A = B, if and only if A and B have exactly the same elements (i.e. x A iff x B). Otherwise, A B. Definition: A is a subset of B (also A is a set in Bor A is contained in B), denoted by A B (or B A), if every member of A is also a member of B. Result: A =B iff both A B and B A. Definition: A is said to be a proper subset of B, denoted by A B (or B A), if A B and A B.

2. Cardinality of sets Definition: Set S is finite if it contains finitely many elements. Definition: When S is finite, |S| denotes he total number of elements of S. |S| is called the cardinality of S. Definition: S is called a singleton if |S|=1. Definition: S is called infinite if it contains infinitely many elements (|S| = ). If A B then |A| |B|. If A B and |A|< , then |A| < |B|.

3. Different methods to specify sets 1. Specify a set by enumerating its elements. Examples: {x,y,z}, {x1,...,xn}, naturals N = {1,2,...}. 2. Specify a set as a collection of all objects x that satisfy a given property P. If P(x) stands for the (logical) statement x satisfies property P, then we can write S ={x : P(x) is a true statement}, or simply S ={x : P(x)}. If A is a set and B is the set that contains all elements x of A such that P(x) is true, we write B ={x A : P(x)}. Example: The collection of all real numbers greater than or equal to 15 can be written as {x R : x 15}, where R denotes the set of all real numbers.

4. The empty set and the power set Definition: The empty set, denoted by , is the set that contains no elements (i.e., || = 0). We can define as the set {x: x x}. We have that S for any set S Definition: Set S is nonempty if S , For example, {} is a nonempty set. Definition: The power set of X, denoted by 2 , is the X set of all subsets of S, i.e. 2 = {T : T X}, Why notation 2 ? The power set of a set that contains n elements has n exactly 2 elements.
X X

5. Set operations Definition: The union of A and B, denoted by AB, is the set {x : x A or x B}. Definition: The intersection of A and B, denoted by AB, is the set {x : x A and x B}. Definition: A and B are disjoint if A B =. Definition: The difference between sets A and B, denoted by A\B, is defined as {x : x A and x B}. Definition: If A is a subset of X, we define the ~ complement of A relative to X, denoted by Ac or A , as the set of elements in X that are not in A: Ac = {x X: x A}. We have that A Ac = X.

Exercise Set 1 Exercise 1: Show that: (i) If A B, then A B = B and A B = A. (ii) S = S and S = for any set S. Exercise 2: Lets fix a given set X and consider sets X that are elements of 2 (that is, we consider complements relative to X). Show that (i) c = X; (ii) Xc = ; (iii) A Ac = ; (iv) A B if anf only if Bc Ac. Exercise 3: Show that for any set A (i) A\ = A, (ii) A\A =, and \A =. Exercise 4: Show that A\B = B\A if and only if A = B for any sets A and B.

6. Selected properties of set operations Union and intersection are commutative operations: A B = B A and A B = B A for any sets A and B. Union and intersection are associative operations: A (B C) = (A B) C and A (BC) = (AB) C for any sets A, B, and C. Union and intersection are distributive operations: A(BC)=(AB)(AC) and A(BC)=(AB)(AC) for any sets A, B, and C. De Morgans Laws: 1. (A B)c = Ac Bc 2. (A B)c = Ac Bc

Exercise Set 2 Exercise 5: Prove the commutative, associative, and distributive laws of set theory. Exercise 6: Prove De Morgans laws. Exercise 7: Prove that (i) For any sets A, B, and C, A\(B C)= (A\B)(A\C); (ii) For any sets A, B, and C, A\(BC) = (A\B)(A\C).

7. Collections of sets

Definition: By a sequence of subsets of X we mean a X X sequence from 2 (that is, a mapping of N into 2 ).

Definition: If <Ai> is an infinite sequence of subsets of X we write U Ai for the union of the range of the
i =1

sequence. Thus, U Ai = {x X : i such that x Ai }.

Definition: If <Bi> is an infinite sequence of subsets of X we write I Bi for the intersection of the range of
i =1

the sequence. Thus,

I B = {x X : i, x B }.
i i i =1

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Let denote an index set. Definition: An indexed collection of subsets of X is a function on an index set to X: {A : }. Definition: The union of an indexed collection of subsets of X is defined as U A = {x X : such that x A }.

Definition: The intersection of an indexed collection of subsets of X is defined as I B = {x X : , x B }.

Let A denote a collection of sets. We frequently write U A and I A .

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Exercise Set 3 Exercise 8: Prove De Morgans laws for arbitrary unions and intersections. Exercise 9: Show that
B I U A = AA

AA

U (A I B) .

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8. Cartesian Products Definition: Cartesian product of sets A and B, denoted by A B , is the set of all ordered pairs (a, b) for which a A and b B. Formally, A B = {( a, b) : a A and b B} .

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