DISCRETE STRUCTURES: SETS AND RELATIONS

Discrete Mathematics is a branch of mathematics involving discrete elements that

uses algebra and arithmetic. It is increasingly being applied in the practical fields of
mathematics and computer science. It is a very good tool for improving reasoning and
problem-solving capabilities.
Mathematics can be broadly classified into two categories −
 Continuous Mathematics − It is based upon continuous number line or the real
numbers. It is characterized by the fact that between any two numbers, there are
almost always an infinite set of numbers.
For example, a function in continuous mathematics can be plotted in a smooth
curve without breaks.
 Discrete Mathematics − It involves distinct values; i.e. between any two points,
there are a countable number of points.
For example, if we have a finite set of objects, the function can be defined as a list
of ordered pairs having these objects and can be presented as a complete list of
those pairs.

WHAT IS LOGIC?

The term "logic" came from the Greek word logos, which is sometimes translated as
"sentence", "discourse", "reason", "rule", and "ratio".

Define logic as the study of the principles of correct reasoning. This is a rough
definition, because how logic should be properly defined is actually quite a controversial
matter. In logic, we study the rules and techniques that allow us to distinguish good,
correct reasoning from bad, incorrect reasoning. A logic is just a set of rules and
techniques for distinguishing good reasoning from bad. A logic must formulate precise
standards for evaluating reasoning and develop methods for applying those standards
to particular instances.

Georg Cantor, in full Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor, (born March 3, 1845, St.
Petersburg, Russia—died January 6, 1918, Halle, Germany), German mathematician
who founded set theory and introduced the mathematically
meaningful concept of transfinite numbers, indefinitely large but distinct from one
another. He had defined a set as a collection of definite and distinguishable objects
selected by the means of certain rules or description.

A set is defined as a collection of distinct objects of the same type or class of objects.
The purposes of a set are called elements or members of the set. An object can be
numbers, alphabets, names, etc.

Examples of sets are:

a. A set of vowels.
b. A set of all positive integers
c. A set of all the planets in the solar system
 d. A set of all the states in India
e. A set of all the lowercase letters of the alphabet

We broadly denote a set by the capital letter A, B, C, etc. while the fundamentals of the
set by small letter a, b, x, y, etc.

If A is a set, and a is one of the elements of A, then we denote it as a ∈ A. Here the

symbol ∈ means -"Element of."

Sets Representation

Sets are represented in two forms: -

a) Roster or tabular form: In this form of representation we list all the elements of the
set within braces { } and separate them by commas.

Example: If A= set of all odd numbers less then 10 then in the roster from it can be
expressed as A={ 1,3,5,7,9}.

b) Set Builder form: In this form of representation we list the properties fulfilled by all
the elements of the set. We note as {x: x satisfies properties P}. and read as 'the set of
those entire x such that each x has properties P.'

Example: If B= {2, 4, 8, 16, 32}, then the set builder representation will be: B={x:
x=2n, where n ∈ N and 1≤ n ≥5}

Standard Notations:

x∈A x belongs to A or x is an element of set A.

x∉A x does not belong to set A.

∅ Empty Set.

U Universal Set.

N The set of all natural numbers.

I The set of all integers.

Other Notations

Symbol Symbol Name

{} set

A∪B A union B
 A∩B A intersection B

A⊆B A is subset of B

A⊄B A is not subset B

A⊂B proper subset / strict subset

A⊃B proper superset / strict superset

A⊇B superset

A⊅B not superset

Ø empty set

P (C) power set

A=B Equal set

Ac Complement of A

a∈B a element of B

x∉A x not element of A

CARDINALITY OF A SETS:

The total number of unique elements in the set is called the cardinality of the set. The
cardinality of the countably infinite set is countably infinite.

Examples:

1. Let P = {k, l, m, n}
The cardinality of the set P is 4.

2. Let A is the set of all non-negative even integers, i.e.

A = {0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10......}.

As A is countably infinite set hence the cardinality.

TYPES OF SETS

Sets can be classified into many categories. Some of which are finite, infinite, subset,
universal, proper, power, singleton set, etc.

1. Finite Sets: A set is said to be finite if it contains exactly n distinct element where n
is a non-negative integer. Here, n is said to be "cardinality of sets." The cardinality of
sets is denoted by|A|, # A, card (A) or n (A).

Example:
 a) Cardinality of empty set θ is 0 and is denoted by |θ| = 0
b) Sets of even positive integer is not a finite set.

A set is called a finite set if there is one to one correspondence between the elements in
the set and the element in some set n, where n is a natural number and n is the
cardinality of the set. Finite Sets are also called numerable sets. n is termed as the
cardinality of sets or a cardinal number of sets.

2. Infinite Sets: A set which is not finite is called as Infinite Sets.

 Countable Infinite: If there is one to one correspondence between the elements

in set and element in N. A countably infinite set is also known as Denumerable. A
set that is either finite or denumerable is known as countable. A set which is not
countable is known as Uncountable. The set of a non-negative even integer is
countable Infinite.
 Uncountable Infinite: A set which is not countable is called Uncountable Infinite
Set or non-denumerable set or simply Uncountable.

3. Subsets: If every element in a set A is also an element of a set B, then A is called a

subset of B. It can be denoted as A ⊆ B. Here B is called Superset of A.

Example: If A= {1, 2} and B= {4, 2, 1} the A is the subset of B or A ⊆ B.

Properties of Subsets:

1. Every set is a subset of itself.

2. The Null Set i.e.∅ is a subset of every set.
3. If A is a subset of B and B is a subset of C, then A will be the subset of C. If A⊂B
and B⊂ C ⟹ A ⊂ C
4. A finite set having n elements has 2n subsets.

4. Proper Subset: If A is a subset of B and A ≠ B then A is said to be a proper subset

of B. If A is a proper subset of B then B is not a subset of A, i.e., there is at least one
element in B which is not in A.

Example:

(i) Let A = {2, 3, 4}

B = {2, 3, 4, 5}

A is a proper subset of B.

(ii) The null ∅ is a proper subset of every set.

5. Improper Subset: If A is a subset of B and A = B, then A is said to be an improper

subset of B.

Example
(i) A = {2, 3, 4}, B = {2, 3, 4}

A is an improper subset of B.

(ii) Every set is an improper subset of itself.

6. Universal Set: If all the sets under investigations are subsets of a fixed set U, then
the set U is called Universal Set.

Example: In the human population studies the universal set consists of all the people
in the world.

7. Null Set or Empty Set: A set having no elements is called a Null set or void set. It
is denoted by∅.

8. Singleton Set: It contains only one element. It is denoted by {s}.

9. Equal Sets: Two sets A and B are said to be equal and written as A = B if both have
the same elements. Therefore, every element which belongs to A is also an element of
the set B and every element which belongs to the set B is also an element of the set A.

A = B ⟺ {x ϵ A ⟺ x ϵ B}.

If there is some element in set A that does not belong to set B or vice versa then A ≠ B,
i.e., A is not equal to B.

10. Equivalent Sets: If the cardinalities of two sets are equal, they are called
equivalent sets.

Example: If A= {1, 2, 6} and B= {16, 17, 22}, they are equivalent as cardinality of A
is equal to the cardinality of B. i.e. |A|=|B|=3

11. Disjoint Sets: Two sets A and B are said to be disjoint if no element of A is in B
and no element of B is in A.

Example:

R = {a, b, c}
S = {k, p, m}

R and S are disjoint sets.

12. Power Sets: The power of any given set A is the set of all subsets of A and is
denoted by P (A). If A has n elements, then P (A) has 2n elements.

Example: A = {1, 2, 3}
P (A) = {∅, {1}, {2}, {3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}.

Partitions of a Set:
Let S be a nonempty set. A partition of S is a subdivision of S into nonoverlapping,
nonempty subsets. Specifically, a partition of S is a collection {Ai} of nonempty subsets
of S such that:

o Each a in S belongs to one of the Ai.

o The sets of {Ai} are mutually disjoint; that is,

Aj≠ Ak Then Aj ∩ Ak= ∅

The subsets in a partition are called cells.

Fig: Venn diagram of a partition of the rectangular set S of points into five cells,
A1,A2,A3,A4,A5

Venn Diagrams:

Venn diagram is a pictorial representation of sets in which an enclosed area in the plane
represents sets.

Examples:

Operations on Sets

The basic set operations are:

1. Union of Sets: Union of Sets A and B is defined to be the set of all those elements
which belong to A or B or both and is denoted by A∪B.

A∪B = {x: x ∈ A or x ∈ B}
Example: Let A = {1, 2, 3}, B= {3, 4, 5, 6}
A∪B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

2. Intersection of Sets: Intersection of two sets A and B is the set of all those
elements which belong to both A and B and is denoted by A ∩ B.

A ∩ B = {x: x ∈ A and x ∈ B}

Example: Let A = {11, 12, 13}, B = {13, 14, 15}

A ∩ B = {13}

3. Difference of Sets: The difference of two sets A and B is a set of all those elements
which belongs to A but do not belong to B and is denoted by A - B.

A - B = {x: x ∈ A and x ∉ B}

Example:

Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {3, 4, 5, 6} then

A - B = {3, 4} and B - A = {5, 6}

4. Complement of a Set: The Complement of a Set A is a set of all those elements of
the universal set which do not belong to A and is denoted by Ac.

Ac = U - A = {x: x ∈ U and x ∉ A} = {x: x ∉ A}

Example: Let U is the set of all-natural numbers.

A = {1, 2, 3}
Ac = {all natural numbers except 1, 2, and 3}.

5. Symmetric Difference of Sets: The symmetric difference of two sets A and B is the
set containing all the elements that are in A or B but not in both and is denoted by A ⨁
B i.e.

A ⨁ B = (A ∪ B) - (A ∩ B)

Example: Let A = {a, b, c, d}

B = {a, b, l, m}
A ⨁ B = {c, d, l, m}

Cartesian product of two sets:

The Cartesian Product of two sets p and q in that order is the set of all ordered pairs
whose first member belongs to the set p and second member belong to set q and is
denoted by p x q, i.e.,

p x q = {(x, y): x ∈ p, y ∈ q}.

Example: Let p = {a, b, c} and q = {k, l, m, n}.

Determine the Cartesian product of p and q.

Solution: The Cartesian product of p and q is

Multisets

A multiset is an unordered collection of elements, in which the multiplicity of an element

may be one or more than one or zero. The multiplicity of an element is the number of
times the element repeated in the multiset. In other words, we can say that an element
can appear any number of times in a set.

Example:
A = {l, l, m, m, n, n, n, n}
B = {a, a, a, a, a, c}

OPERATIONS ON MULTISETS

1. Union of Multisets: The Union of two multisets A and B is a multiset such that the
multiplicity of an element is equal to the maximum of the multiplicity of an element in A
and B and is denoted by A ∪ B.

Example:
Let A = {l, l, m, m, n, n, n, n}
B = {l, m, m, m, n},
A ∪ B = {l, l, m, m, m, n, n, n, n}

2. Intersections of Multisets: The intersection of two multisets A and B, is a multiset

such that the multiplicity of an element is equal to the minimum of the multiplicity of an
element in A and B and is denoted by A ∩ B.

Example:
Let A = {l, l, m, n, p, q, q, r}
B = {l, m, m, p, q, r, r, r, r}
A ∩ B = {l, m, p, q, r}.

3. Difference of Multisets: The difference of two multisets A and B, is a multiset such

that the multiplicity of an element is equal to the multiplicity of the element in A minus
the multiplicity of the element in B if the difference is +ve, and is equal to 0 if the
difference is 0 or negative

Example:
Let A = {l, m, m, m, n, n, n, p, p, p}
B = {l, m, m, m, n, r, r, r}
 A - B = {n, n, p, p, p}

4. Sum of Multisets: The sum of two multisets A and B, is a multiset such that the
multiplicity of an element is equal to the sum of the multiplicity of an element in A and
B

Example:
Let A = {l, m, n, p, r}
B = {l, l, m, n, n, n, p, r, r}
A + B = {l, l, l, m, m, n, n, n, n, p, p, r, r, r}

5. Cardinality of Sets: The cardinality of a multiset is the number of distinct elements

in a multiset without considering the multiplicity of an element

Example:
A = {l, l, m, m, n, n, n, p, p, p, p, q, q, q}

The cardinality of the multiset A is 5.

Ordered Set

It is defined as the ordered collection of distinct objects.

Example:
Roll no {3, 6, 7, 8, 9}
Week Days {S, M, T, W, W, TH, F, S, S}

Domain and Range of Relation

Domain of Relation: The Domain of relation R is the set of elements in P which are
related to some elements in Q, or it is the set of all first entries of the ordered pairs in
R. It is denoted by DOM (R).

Range of Relation: The range of relation R is the set of elements in Q which are
related to some element in P, or it is the set of all second entries of the ordered pairs in
R. It is denoted by RAN (R).

Example:

Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4}
B = {a, b, c, d}
R = {(1, a), (1, b), (1, c), (2, b), (2, c), (2, d)}.

Solution:

DOM (R) = {1, 2}

RAN (R) = {a, b, c, d}
Complement of a Relation

Consider a relation R from a set A to set B. The complement of relation R denoted by R

is a relation from A to B such that

R = {(a, b): {a, b) ∉ R}.

Example:

Consider the relation R from X to Y

X = {1, 2, 3}
Y = {8, 9}
R = {(1, 8) (2, 8) (1, 9) (3, 9)}
Find the complement relation of R.

Solution:

X x Y = {(1, 8), (2, 8), (3, 8), (1, 9), (2, 9), (3, 9)}

Now we find the complement relation R from X x Y

R = {(3, 8), (2, 9)}

Representation of Relations

Relations can be represented in many ways. Some of which are as follows:

1. Relation as a Matrix: Let P = [a1,a2,a3,.......am] and Q = [b1,b2,b3......bn] are finite

sets, containing m and n number of elements respectively. R is a relation from P to Q.
The relation R can be represented by m x n matrix M = [Mij], defined as

Mij = 0 if (ai,bj) ∉ R
1 if (ai,bj )∈ R

Example

Let P = {1, 2, 3, 4}, Q = {a, b, c, d}

and R = {(1, a), (1, b), (1, c), (2, b), (2, c), (2, d)}.

The matrix of relation R is shown as fig:

2. Relation as a Directed Graph: There is another way of picturing a relation R when
R is a relation from a finite set to itself.

Example

A = {1, 2, 3, 4}
R = {(1, 2) (2, 2) (2, 4) (3, 2) (3, 4) (4, 1) (4, 3)}

3. Relation as an Arrow Diagram: If P and Q are finite sets and R is a relation from P
to Q. Relation R can be represented as an arrow diagram as follows.

Draw two ellipses for the sets P and Q. Write down the elements of P and elements of Q
column-wise in three ellipses. Then draw an arrow from the first ellipse to the second
ellipse if a is related to b and a ∈ P and b ∈ Q.

Example

Let P = {1, 2, 3, 4}
Q = {a, b, c, d}
R = {(1, a), (2, a), (3, a), (1, b), (4, b), (4, c), (4, d)

The arrow diagram of relation R is shown in fig:

4. Relation as a Table: If P and Q are finite sets and R is a relation from P to Q.

Relation R can be represented in tabular form.
Make the table which contains rows equivalent to an element of P and columns
equivalent to the element of Q. Then place a cross (X) in the boxes which represent
relations of elements on set P to set Q.

Example

Let P = {1, 2, 3, 4}
Q = {x, y, z, k}
R = {(1, x), (1, y), (2, z), (3, z), (4, k)}.

The tabular form of relation as shown in fig:

Types of Relations

1. Reflexive Relation: A relation R on set A is said to be a reflexive if (a, a) ∈ R for

every a ∈ A.

Example: If A = {1, 2, 3, 4} then R = {(1, 1) (2, 2), (1, 3), (2, 4), (3, 3), (3, 4), (4,
4)}. Is a relation reflexive?

Solution: The relation is reflexive as for every a ∈ A. (a, a) ∈ R, i.e. (1, 1), (2, 2), (3,
3), (4, 4) ∈ R.

2. Irreflexive Relation: A relation R on set A is said to be irreflexive if (a, a) ∉ R for

every a ∈ A.

Example: Let A = {1, 2, 3} and R = {(1, 2), (2, 2), (3, 1), (1, 3)}. Is the relation R
reflexive or irreflexive?

Solution: The relation R is not reflexive as for every a ∈ A, (a, a) ∉ R, i.e., (1, 1) and
(3, 3) ∉ R. The relation R is not irreflexive as (a, a) ∉ R, for some a ∈ A, i.e., (2, 2) ∈ R.

3. Symmetric Relation: A relation R on set A is said to be symmetric iff (a, b) ∈ R ⟺

(b, a) ∈ R.

Example: Let A = {1, 2, 3} and R = {(1, 1), (2, 2), (1, 2), (2, 1), (2, 3), (3, 2)}. Is a
relation R symmetric or not?
Solution: The relation is symmetric as for every (a, b) ∈ R, we have (b, a) ∈ R, i.e., (1,
2), (2, 1), (2, 3), (3, 2) ∈ R but not reflexive because (3, 3) ∉ R.

Example of Symmetric Relation:

1. Relation ⊥r is symmetric since a line a is ⊥r to b, then b is ⊥r to a.

2. Also, Parallel is symmetric, since if a line a is ∥ to b then b is also ∥ to a.

Antisymmetric Relation: A relation R on a set A is antisymmetric iff (a, b) ∈ R and (b,

a) ∈ R then a = b.

Example1: Let A = {1, 2, 3} and R = {(1, 1), (2, 2)}. Is the relation R antisymmetric?

Solution: The relation R is antisymmetric as a = b when (a, b) and (b, a) both belong
to R.

Example2: Let A = {4, 5, 6} and R = {(4, 4), (4, 5), (5, 4), (5, 6), (4, 6)}. Is the
relation R antisymmetric?

Solution: The relation R is not antisymmetric as 4 ≠ 5 but (4, 5) and (5, 4) both
belong to R.

5. Asymmetric Relation: A relation R on a set A is called an Asymmetric Relation if for

every (a, b) ∈ R implies that (b, a) does not belong to R.

6. Transitive Relations: A Relation R on set A is said to be transitive iff (a, b) ∈ R and

(b, c) ∈ R ⟺ (a, c) ∈ R.

Example1: Let A = {1, 2, 3} and R = {(1, 2), (2, 1), (1, 1), (2, 2)}. Is the relation
transitive?

Solution: The relation R is transitive as for every (a, b) (b, c) belong to R, we have (a,
c) ∈ R i.e, (1, 2) (2, 1) ∈ R ⇒ (1, 1) ∈ R.

7. Identity Relation: Identity relation I on set A is reflexive, transitive and symmetric.

So, identity relation I is an Equivalence Relation.

Example: A= {1, 2, 3} = {(1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3)}

8. Void Relation: It is given by R: A →B such that R = ∅ (⊆ A x B) is a null relation.

Void Relation R = ∅ is symmetric and transitive but not reflexive.

9. Universal Relation: A relation R: A →B such that R = A x B (⊆ A x B) is a universal

relation. Universal Relation from A →B is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. So this is
an equivalence relation.