Introduction

◼ A set is a collection of specified objects.

◼ The objects that make up a set may be physical
objects, numbers, letters, words which identify a
class of objects.
◼ Elements/members of a set are objects which make
up a set.
◼ These elements are displayed between braces { }
◼ We use capital letters such as A, B, X, Y to identify
individual sets.
Set Notation
−  a member of ...
-  not a member of...
-  is a subset of...
-  intersecti on of...
-  union of...
- X number of elements in X
-  universal set
Ac compliment of set A
 , or{} Empty set
Subset and Equal Set
◼ A set A is a subset of set B if every
element of A is also an element of B.
❑ More formally, A  B  (x, x  A  x  B)
❑ Example1
{1,5}  {1,2,3,4,5}
{1,5}  {1,5}
◼ Two sets A and B are equal if they have
the same elements.
❑ Formally
A = B  ( x  A  x  B) and ( x  B  x  A)
Example2

Are the following two sets equal?

X = {2,1,−1,−2}
Y = {x : x 2 = 4, or , x 2 = 1}
Soln,
X = {2,1,-1,-2}
Y = {2,1,-1,-2}
Set X and Y are equal , although t hey are described differentl y,
they contain th e same elements.
Proper Subset

◼ If A  B, then it is possible that A = B.

◼ When A  B but A  B , we say that A is a
proper subset of B.
◼ We write A  B when A is a proper subset of
B
◼ Note that: A = B iff A⊆B and B⊆A
Example

Consider the following sets

A = {1,3}, B = {1,2,3}, C = {1,3,2}
A and B are both subsets of C; but A is a
proper subset of C, where B is not a proper
subset of C
Exercise

Show that A = {2, 3, 4, 5} is a proper subset

of C = {1, 2, 3,…, 8, 9}.
Operations on Sets

◼ There are various different operations that we

can use to combine any given two sets to give a
new set.
Example3
Consider
R = {x : x is an odd, positive integer less than 6}
S = {x : x 2 - 7x + 10 = 0}
T = {x : x is an even positive integer less than 6}
Find
(i) R  T
(ii) S  T
Soln

◼ The sets R,S and T are as follow

R = {1,3,5}
S = {2,5}
T = {2,4}
(i) R  T is called union of R and T and is defined as
R  T = {x : x  A  x  B }
 R  T = {1,2,3,4,5}
(ii) R  S is called the intersecti on of R and S and is defined as
R  S = {x : x  R  x  S}
 R  S = {5}
Difference and Symmetric Difference

◼ Consider two sets A and B,

◼ The relative complement of B with respect to
A or, simply the difference of A and B,
denoted A\B is the set of elements which
belong to A but which do not belong to B that
is A \ B = {x : x  A  x  B}
◼ From sets R and T above
R\T = {1,3,5}
Difference and Symmetric Difference

◼ A\B is read A minus B. Sometimes A\B is

denoted by A─B or A~B.
◼ The symmetric difference of the sets A and
B, denoted by A B , consists of those
elements which belongs to A or B but not
both A and B. That is,
A  B = ( A  B) \ ( A  B) or A  B = ( A \ B)  ( B \ A)
Example

Consider the sets

A = {1, 2, 3, 4}, B = {3, 4, 5, 6,7},
C = {6,7,8,9}
A  B = {1,2,5,6,7} , A  C = {1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9}
The Empty Set and the Universal Set

◼ A set with nothing in it is called the empty set.

◼ It is written as { } or 
◼ If in a particular problem, all the sets that we
are given are subset of a big set U then U
is called a universal set.
Compliment of a Set

◼ A set of elements not in B is called

Compliment of B and is written as
Bc
Thus Bc = {x : x  B}
Note that Bc is only well - defined if we specify th e universal set.
Example4
let U = {1,2,3,4,5} and A = {1,2}, B = {3},
Then
Ac = {3,4,5}
Example 5

Let U be the set of all positive integers x  10, define

(i) A = {x : x is a prime number},
(ii) B = {x : x is an odd number}.
Find
- (A  B ) c
− Ac  B c
Soln
U = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}
A = {2,3,5,7}
B = {1,3,5,7,9}
A  B = {1,2,3,5,7,9}
( A  B ) c = {4,6,8,10}
Similarly,
Ac = {1,4,6,8,9,10}
B c = {2,4,6,8,10}
Then,
Ac  B c = {4,6,8,10}
Associativity

a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c, for all a, b, c
But
a  (b  c)  (a  b)  c
We therefore say that addition is associativ e but
division is not associativ e.
Associative law for union and intersection

The union operation is associative i.e for any

set A, B and C,
( A  B)  C = A  ( B  C )
Theorem 1
( A  B)  C = A  ( B  C )
Proof
To show that ( A  B )  C  A  ( B  C ), we start by taking any
x  ( A  B )  C.
Then, either x  (AUB) or x  C.But x  A  B means that either
x  A or x  B.
Hence x  A or x  B. or x  C. That is, x  A or x  B  C, which
means that x  A  (B  C)
Proof cont’d
We have now proved that
(A  B)  C  A  (B  C)........................................1
To show that A  (B  C)  (A  B )  C, we start by taking any
x  A  (B  C). Then, either x  A or x  (B  C). But x  (B  C)
means that x  B or x  C. So x  A or x  B or x  C.
That is x  A  B or x  C, which means that x  (A  B)  C
We have now proved that
A  (B  C)  (A  B)  C...................................2
The combinatio n of 1 and 2 proves that A  (B  C) = (A  B )  C
Theorem2

◼ For any sets A, B and C

(A  B)  C = A  (B  C)
◼ Proof (Ex)
Distributivity

a  (b + c) = (a  b) + (a  c) for all a, b, c

◼ We say that multiplication is distributive over

addition and in contrast, addition is not
distributive over multiplication.
 Theorem 3
A  ( B  C ) = ( A  B)  ( A  C )
Proof
We first prove that A  ( B  C )  ( A  B)  ( A  C ). Let x  A  ( B  C ).
Then x is in A and x is in B  C. So x is in A and either x is in B or C.
Hence, either x is in A and x is in B, or x is in A and x is in C.
Thus, x  ( A  B) or x  A  C).
Hence, x  ( A  B)  ( A  C ). This proves that
A  ( B  C )  ( A  B)  ( A  C )................................(1)
 Proof cont’d

We now need to prove that

(A  B)  ( A  C )  A  (B  C ).Le x  (A  B)  ( A  C ).
Then x is in A and B or x is in A and C. So x is in A and x is in
either B or C. Hence, x  A  (B  C ).This proves that
(A  B)  ( A  C )  A  (B  C )....................................(2)
Equation (1) and (2) proves that (A  B)  ( A  C ) = A  (B  C )
Theorem 2

A  (B  C ) = ( A  B)  (A  C )
Proof (Ex)
De Morgan’s Laws

◼ De Morgan’s laws are

❑ The compliment of the union of two sets is
equivalent to the intersection of the compliments
of the two sets.
◼ i.e (A  B ) c
= A c
 B c

❑ The compliment of the intersection of two sets is

equivalent to the union of the compliment of the
two sets.
◼ i.e
( A  B ) c = Ac  B c
Theorem 5

◼ For any two sets A and B

(i) (A  B) c = Ac  B c
(ii)(A  B) c = Ac  B c
Proof
(i) (A  B) c = Ac  B c
We first show that (A  B) c  Ac  B c .Let x  (A  B) c .
Then x is not in either A or B, so x  A and x  B,
Hence x  A c and x  Bc .Thus x  A c  Bc .
Therefore (A  B) c  Ac  B c
 Proof cont’d

We again have to show that Ac  B c  (A  B) c .Let x  Ac  B c .

Then x is not in A and not in B, so x is neither in A nor in B
Thus x  ( A  B), which means that x  (A  B) c
Therefore Ac  B c  (A  B) c
Thus (A  B) c = Ac  B c
Exercise

1 Prove the following

a) A  (B  C) = (A  B)  (A  C)
b) (A  B)  C = A  (B  C)
Power Sets

◼The set of all subsets of a set B is called the

power set of B, denoted by P (B).
Example 1
Let A ={1,2,3}. Find the power of A
Soln
P(A)={{ },{1},{2},{3},{1,2},{1,3},{2,3},{1,2,3}}
 Theorem1

A set X with 3 elements has 23 subsets.

Proof
let the elements of X be x1 , x 2 , x 3 . For any subset, A, either x 1  A
or x1  A, either x 2  A, or x 2  A, and either x 3  A or x 3  A. So there
are two possibilit ies for x1 , two for x 2 and two for x 3 .So there are
2  2  2 = 8 different subsets altogether .
In general a set X with n elements has 2 n subsets.
Products and Partitions
▪ Consider the following menu being offered in a certain hotel:
▪ Main dishes
▪ Chicken
▪ Beef
▪ Beans
▪ Vegetable
▪ Side dishes
▪ Rice
▪ Chips
▪ potatoe

▪ What are the different meal combinations that can be

ordered?
Products and Partitions

◼ Let M be the set of main dishes

{chicken,beef,beans,vegetable } and S the set of
side dishes {rice, chips, potatoe}.
◼ We define the product of two sets M and S to be the
set whose elements consist of all possible pairs
(m,n) where m is an element of m and s is an
element of S.
◼ We write the product of two set as
MxS
Products and Partitions

▪ M x S = {(chicken, rice),(ckicken,chips),
(chicken, potatoe), (Beef, rice), (beef, chips),
(beef, potatoe), (bean, rice), (bean,
chips),(beans, potatoe), (vegetable, rice),
(vegetable, chips),(vegetable, potatoe)}
▪ M x S is a set of ordered pairs, called 2-
tuples.
▪ The product of n sets will produce a set
whose elements are n-tuples.
Example2

Let A = {a,b,c}, B = {2,4} and C = {T,F}.

Find the product of A, B and C.
Soln
AxBxC=
{(a,2,T),(a,2,F),(a,4,T),(a,4,F),(b,2,T),(b,2,F),(
b,4,T),(b,4,F),(c,2,T),(c,2,T),(c,4,T),(c,4,F)}.
AxBxC has 12 elements and each element
has 3-tuples.
Partition

◼ Consider a set of students who are first years doing

discrete maths.
◼ We can define two subsets out of this by putting all
the boys into one subset and all the girls into the
other.
◼ In this grouping, a student by no doubt, will belong
to one of the subsets.
◼ But if we classify the same set by putting into one
set all the student who play volleyball,
Partition

◼ and into the other all the students who take

regular exercise.
◼ some of the students may end up in both
subsets, while other may end up in neither.
◼ Definition
We say that a collection of non-empty sets
Y1 ,..., Yn is a partition of a set X if the union of the sets is X and
the sets are disjoint, so that
Y1  ...  Yn = X and Yi  Yj =  , for all j  i
 Partition

So if S = {students} , Y1 = {boys} and Y2 = {girls}, then Y1 , Y2

is a partition of S. But if Y1 = {volleybal l players} and Y2 = {exercisers}
then Y1 , Y2 is not a partition of S.
Example3
Let A = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8} write down the partition of A.
Soln
{1,2}, {3,4}, {7}, {5,6,8} is the partition of A
Inclusion and Exclusion
Example 1
Out of 200 students, 50 of them take Mathemetic s, 140 take
Economics, and 24 of them take both. Both courses have an
exams tommorow. Only students not taking an exams will go
for a party tonight.
(a) How many students will be at the party?
(b) Suppose that 60 of the 200 students are women, of whom 20
take Mathematic s, 45 take Economics and 16 take both. How
many men will be at the party?
Soln
Soln.
(a) Let
E = set of Economics students,
M = set of Mathematic s students
From the venn diagram we can see that if we simply
add the number of students taking economics to the number
taking Mathematic s, the students who are taking both
will be counted twice. Thus
EM = E + M − EM
So E  M = 50 + 140 - 24 = 166. The remaining 200 - 166 = 34
students are taking neither Economic nor maths. thus, there
will be 34 students at the party.
(b)
Let
W = set of women students
Number of women who are taking only Maths
and only Economics = 20 +45-16=49
Number of women taking neither Maths nor
Econonomics = 60-49 = 11
Number of men who will be at the party
= 34 – 11 = 23
Using Venn diagram

◼ WE can use Venn diagram to solve this same

problem
 E  M  W = 87 + 8 + 16 + 29 + 87 + 11 + 4 + 22 = 177
Then number of men at the party is 200-177=23
Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion

T o obtain the number of elements in the union of

two sets we have to add the numbers of elements
In A and in B, but this will count elements in the
intersection of A and B twice, so we subtract
A  B to get

A B = A + B − A B
;

For the union of three sets we again count all three sets,
but then we will have counted the elements in the
intersections of each pair of sets twice, and the elements of
A  B  C three times.

So we first subtract the numbers of elements in the

intersections of each pair of sets. Since there are three
pairs (A and B, A and C, Band C), we will now have removed
altogether the elements in A  B  C
So to get the right answer, we must add back is A  B  C
A B C = A + B + C − A B − AC − B C + A B C