Week 4: Relations

Section…………………………………………………………………………………………….Page

Section 1: Definition of a Relation and examples..……………………………………………….2

Section 2: Properties of Relations ………………………………………………………………..3

Section 3: Partial Ordering and Linear Ordering Sets……………………………………………5

Section 4: Hasse Diagrams……………………………………………………………………….6

Section 5: Lattices….…………………………..............................................................................8

Section 6: Graphical Representation of Relations ………………………………………………10

Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………….12

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 Section 1: Definition of a Relation and Examples

Given two sets and an ordered pair where , means is related to by

(denoted by ) if and only if satisfies the definition of a relation . And we have as a
domain of and as a co-domain of where a relation from to is a subset of .

means is related to by

means is not related to by

Example 1.1

Given two sets and , and a relation defined by “ is an integer”,

where .

i) Give all ordered pairs in and all ordered pairs in .

ii) Prove if the relations , , and are true.
iii) Give the domain and the co-domain of .
iv) Represent in arrow diagrams of relations all the ordered pairs in R

Solutions 1.1

i) Ordered pairs in are: .

For ordered pairs in , we have:

: because , which is not an integer,
(3,4): 3R4 because , which is an integer,
(3,5): 3R5 because , which is not an integer,
(3,6): 3R6 because , which is an integer,
(6,3): 6R3 because , which is not an integer,
(6,4): 6R4 because , which is an integer,
(6,5): 6R5 because , which is not an integer,
(6,6): 6R6 because , which is an integer

Therefore,
Ordered pairs in R

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 ii) 3R3 is not true because is not an integer
3R4 is true because is an integer
6R6 is true because is an integer
6R3 is not true because is not an integer.

iii) The domain of R is and its co-domain is .

iv)

Example 1.2

Given that S is a relation from to defined by .

i) Is ?
ii) Is ?
iii) Is

Solution 1.2

i) No, because ,
ii) Yes, because ,
iii) Yes, because .

Section 2: Properties of Relations

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 We will look at the three properties of relations, which are the reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity.

Given the relation R on set A,

 R is reflexive
 R is symmetric:
 R is transitive:

In other words,

 Reflexive means each element in A is related to itself.

 Symmetric means, in set A, if any one element (first element) is related to any other element
(second element), then the second element is related to the first.
 Transitive means, in set A, if any one of the elements is related to any other element (second
element) and a second element is related to any other third element, then the first element is
related to the third element.

You can prove that a relation R on a set does not have a property of reflexivity, symmetry or transitivity
by finding a counterexample.

Example

Given the set and two relations defined on set A as follows:

Show if each of the relations and is reflexive, symmetric and transitive on set .

Solutions

Relation R:

Is reflexive because each of the elements in set A is related to itself:

0: (0,0) , 1: (1,1) , 2: (2,2) and 3: (3,3)

Is symmetric because “(0,1) and (1,0): ” and “(0,3) and (3,0): ”

Is not transitive because by counterexample we have (1,0) and (0,3) but we do not have (1,3), which is:

Relation S:

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 Is not reflexive because, by counterexample, we do not have (2,2), which means 2 is not related to
itself .

Is not symmetric because, by counterexample, we have (0,2) but we do not have (2,0), which means

Is transitive because we have (0,2), (2,3) and (0,3) which means

Section 3: Partial Ordering and Linear Ordering Sets

Partial Ordering sets

Given a set and a relation defined on ; we say is a partially ordered set or poset, and is a
partial order relation if for all ,

 The relation is reflexive on set A. This means, .

 The relation is transitive on set A. This means, and .
 The relation is anti-symmetric on set A. This means, and .

Example

Given the set and the relation defined by ( ), where

. Show that the set A is a partially ordered set.

Solution

The relation is reflexive on set A because , .

The relation is transitive on set A because , and . E.g.

, , ,…

The relation is anti-symmetric on set A because , and .

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 A pair of elements of set A is said to be comparable if or , otherwise it is
incomparable.

Example

Given the set and the relation defined by ( ), where

. Give any three pairs of elements of set A which comparable and any three pairs which are
incomparable.

Solution

Three comparable pairs: {3, 6}, {5, 15} and {10, 30}

Three incomparable pairs: {3, 10}, {5, 6} and {6, 15}

Linear Ordering sets

An ordered set A is called linearly ordered (or totally ordered) if every pair of elements in set A is
comparable.

Section 4: Hasse Diagrams

A graphical representation of a partially ordered set built from all comparable pairs of its elements from
bottom to top is called a Hasse Diagram. Each element of a partially ordered set has a point drawn for it
and two points have a line segment joining them according to the following rules:

 If in a partially ordered set, then the point for should appear lower than the point for
in the drawing of the Hasse Diagram.
 The two points for and should be joined by a line segment if and only if and form a
comparable pair.

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 Note: only line segments, and not arrows, should be used when joining two points in Hasse Diagrams.

Example

Draw Hasse Diagrams for the following sets provided that the relation is defined by
( ), where and are elements of the sets.

i)
ii)

Solution

i) The set of comparable pairs from A is

Therefore, the Hasse Diagram is

ii) The set of comparable pairs from A is

Therefore, the Hasse Diagram is

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 Maximum and Minimum Elements

From a Hasse diagram,

 A set of Maximal Elements is a collection of elements which are not succeeded by any other
element
 A set of Minimal Elements is a collection of elements which are not preceded by any other
element
 A Maximum Element (if it exists) is an element succeeding all other elements
 A Minimum Element (if it exists) is an element preceding all other elements

Please take note that there exists only a unique maximum element and a unique minimum element in a
Hasse Diagram.

Examples

In our immediate previous example:

The first Hasse Diagram has as a set of Maximal elements and as a set of Minimal elements.

The second Hasse Diagram has 12 as a maximum/greatest element and 1 as a minimum/least element.

Section 5: Lattices

A lattice is a special type of partially ordered set (poset) which we will define following the definitions of some
terms.

Definition 5.1

Let be a partially ordered set on which is defined a partially ordered relation and let be any pair of
elements of ,

 The meet of and , denoted by , is the greatest lower bound for and , also denoted as

 The join of and , denoted by , is the least upper bound for x and y. also denoted as

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 Definition 5.2

A partially ordered set on which is defined a partially ordered relation is called a lattice if and only if
every pair of elements in has both a meet and a join.

We can also easily identify a lattice from its Hasse Diagram, i.e. the Hasse Diagram of a lattice is
wholly connected as a single component graph without any isolated point.

Example

Show that a poset of the divisors of 60, ordered by divisibility, is a lattice. Interpret its meet and join.

Solution

A set of divisors of 60 is {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60}; from all of its comparable pairs, we
have the following as its Hasse diagram:

Since the Hasse diagram wholly connected, i.e. without any isolated point, we conclude that we have
that the poset of the divisors of 60, ordered by divisibility, is a lattice.

Interpretation:

The meet of two divisors is their greatest common divisor; example:

.

The join of two divisors is their least common multiple; example:

.

Basic Properties of Meet and Join

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 The following are two propositions giving some properties of meet and join:

Proposition 5.1

Let be a lattice with a partially ordered relation , where ; we have

 ,
 if and only if ,
 if and only if ,
 and ,
 .

Proposition 5.2

Let be a lattice with a partially ordered relation , where ; we have

 Commutativity: ,
 Associativity: and ,
 Idempotence: and ,
 Absorption: and .

Section 5: Graphical Representation of Relations

While we can represent relations graphically as tables, an arrow diagram and other ways, here we will look at
representing relations graphically as directed graphs.

A directed graph is a set of nodes connected to each other by uni-directed edges (arrows). Each node represents a
point for one element of a given set and arrow between two points represents a relationship between those two
points.

The number of nodes in the graph equals the number of elements in the set on which the relation is
defined. Given a set and ; on the graph, there will
be a directed edge (arrow) from the node for to the node for A special case of an ordered pair
will present a self-loop on the node for

Example

Given a set on which is defined a relation . Represent the

relation R in a directed graph.

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 Solution

The directed graph is able to indicate if the relation is reflexive, symmetric and/or transitive.

 Reflexive: each node will have a self-loop. E.g. The graph in figure 5.1 indicates the relation is
not reflexive because point 2 and point 3 have no self-loops.

 Symmetric: each arrow from one point to another will always have another arrow in the
opposite direction. E.g. The graph in figure 5.1 indicates the relation is not symmetric because,
for example, it has an arrow from point 1 to point 2 but has no arrow from point 2 to point 1.

 Transitive: if there is an arrow from the first point to the second point and another arrow from
the second point to the third point, there will always be another arrow from the first point to the
third point. E.g.The graph in figure 5.1 indicates the relation is transitive.

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 Bibliography

Gersting J. L. (2014). Mathematical Structures for Computer Science (7th ed.).

W.H. Freeman and Company.

Jongsma C. (2016). Discrete Mathematics: Chapter 7, Posets, Lattices, &

Boolean Algebra. Faculty Work: Comprehensive List. Paper 427

Rosen K. H. (2011). Discrete Mathematics and its applications (7th ed.).

McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

Susanna S. E. (2010). Discrete Mathematics with Applications. (4th ed.).

Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning

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