Notes on Relation

 Cartesian Product of Sets:

Let A and B be any two non-empty sets. The set of all ordered pairs  a , b  such that a  Aand b  B is
called the Cartesian Product of sets A and B and is denoted by A  B . Thus,
A  B   a , b  : a  A and b  B

If A   or B   , then we define A  B    B  A.
 Graphical Presentation of Cartesian Product of Sets:

 1, 4   3,4 
1,4 

 2,2   1, 2  3, 2 

1 1

A  B where A  1, 2, 3 , B  2,4 A  B where A  1, 3 , B   2,4

Example: Let A  1, 2,3 and B  a , b , then

A  B   1, a  ,  1, b  ,  2, a  ,  2, b  ,  3, a  ,  3, b 
B  A   a ,1 ,  a ,2  ,  a ,3  ,  b,1 ,  b,2  ,  b, 3 
A  A   1,1 ,  1, 2  ,  1,3  ,  2,1 ,  2, 2  ,  2, 3  ,  3,1 ,  3,2  ,  3, 3 
B  B   a , a  ,  a , b  ,  b.a  ,  b, b 

 Matrix Presentation of Cartesian Product of Sets:

 Analyzation of the Members of Cartesian Product:

 Important Facts:
 Two ordered pairs are equal if and only if their corresponding elements are equal, i.e.,
 a , b    c , d   a  c and b  d .
 If A  B   , then A  B  B  A

 If n  A   m and n  B   n , then n  A  B   n  B  A   mn , for any two Sets A, B .

 A  B  C   a , b, c  : a  A, b  B , c  C  , for any three Sets A, B , C .

 A   B  C    A  B    A  C  , for any three Sets A, B , C .

 A   B  C    A  B    A  C  , for any three Sets A, B , C .

  A  B   C   A  C    B  C  , for any three Sets A, B , C .

  A  B    C  D    A  C    B  D  , for any four Sets A, B , C , D.

  A  B    B  A    A  B    B  A  , for any two Sets A, B .

 Case Study:
1. For finding two sets when their Cartesian Product is given, we write first elements of each ordered
pair in first set, say A and corresponding second elements in second set, say B .
If there are p elements in set A and q elements in set B , then there will be pq elements in A  B

i.e., if n  A   p and n  B   q , then n  A  B   pq .

 Based on the above topic, answer the following questions.

(i) If A  B   a ,1 ,  b, 3  ,  a , 3  ,  b,1 ,  a , 2  ,  b,2  , then find the sets A and B .

(ii) If the Set A has 3 elements and Set B has 4 elements , then find the number of elements in
A  B.
(iii) If A and B are two sets given in such a way that A  B contains 6 elements and three elements

of A  B are  1, 3  ,  2,5  and  3, 3  , then find A, B .

OR
(iii) The Cartesian Product P  P has 16 elements among which are found  a ,1 and  b, 2  . Then

find the set P .

2. The ordered pair of two elements of a and b is denoted by  a , b  where a is the first element (or first
component) and b is second element (or second component).
Two ordered pairs are equal if and only if their corresponding elements are equal, i.e.,
 a , b    c , d   a  c and b  d .

 a, b    c, d 
Based on the above topic, answer the following questions.
(i) If  a  3, b  7    3,7  , find the value of a , b.
(ii) If  x  6, y  2    0,6  , find the value of x , y .
(iii) For two sets A and B , n  A  B   10 . Also, 1,2,3,4  A and B has more than one member.
Then, find the number of members of the set A.
OR
(iii) If n  A  B   45 , the what are the possible values for n  A  ?

 MCQ:

1. For two sets A and B if A is a null set, then Cartesian Product A  B will be
(a) A (b) B (c)  (d) A  B
 a 2  5 1
2. If   1, b     ,  , then the values of a and b are
3 3  3 3
(a) a  2, b  1 (b) a  1, b  2 (c) a  0, b  1 (d) a  1, b  0
3. If sets A and B are having 5 members in common, then number of members common in
A  B and B  A is
(a) 5 (b) 20 (c) 25 (d) can ' t be said .

4. If the ordered pairs  x , 1  and  5, y  belong to the set  a , b  : b  2a  3 , then the values of a , b

are
(a) x  3, y  7 (b) x  2, y  7 (c) x  1, y  7 (d)
x  3, y  3

5. If A  1, 2, 3 , B  3,4 and C  1, 3,5 , then the number of elements in A   B  C  is

(a) 10 (b) 15 (c) 12 (d) 18

6. If A  1, 2 and B  1, 3 , then  A  B    B  A  is

(a)  1,1 ,  2,1 (b) 1,1 (c) 1,2  (d) 1,1 , 1, 3
7. Let A  2 , B  3,4,5 , C  5,6 , then number of elements in A   B  c  is

(a) 1 (b) 2 (c) 6 (d) 3

8. If A   ,  ,   , B   ,   , C   ,  ,  , the number of elements in A   B  C  is

(a) 3 (b) 4 (c) 6 (d) 5

9. If A  1, 2 , B  3,4 , then A   B    is the set

(a) A (b) A  B (c)  (d) None of these.

10. If a  2,4,6,9 , b  4,6,18, 27 , then maximum possible number of ordered pairs  a , b  such that

a divides b and a  b is
(a) 4 (b) 6 (c) 2 (d) 8
 Answer Key of MCQ:
1. (c) 6. (b)
2. (a) 7. (b)
3. (c) 8. (a)
4. (c) 9. (c)
5. (c) 10. (b)

 Relation Between Two Sets:

Let A and B be two sets. Then a Relation R from A to B is a subset of A  B .

Thus, R is a relation from A to B  R  A  B and R is a relation from B to A  R  B  A
The empty set  and A  B are two extreme relations from A to B .
 Example: Consider a relation R in the set A  1, 2, 3, 4 given by R   a , b  : a – b  10 . This is
the empty set, as no pair  a , b  satisfies the condition a – b  10. Similarly, R   a , b  : a – b  0 is
the whole set A  A, as all pairs  a , b  in A  A satisfy a – b  0. These two extreme examples lead us to
the following definitions.
Empty Relation: If no element of A is related to any element of B , i .e ., R    A  B , then the
relation R is called empty relation from A to B .
Universal Relation:
If each element of A is related to every element of B , i .e ., R  A  B , then the relation R is said to be
universal relation from A to B .
Both the empty relation and the universal relation are sometimes called trivial relations.

Example-1: Let A be the set of students of Class XII of a school and B be the set of students of Class
XI of the same school. Then some of the examples of relations from A to B are
(i) { a , b   A  B : a is brother of b} (ii) { a , b   A  B : a is sister of b}

(iii) { a , b   A  B : age of a is greater than age of b}

(iv) { a , b   A  B : total marks obtained by a in the final examination is less than the total
marks obtained by b in the final examination}

(v) { a , b   A  B : a lives in the same locality as b}

Example-2: If A  1, 2,3 , B  a , b, c , then R   1, b  ,  2, c  ,  1, a  ,  3, a  ,being a subset of A  B ,

_
is a Relation from A to B . We can write 1 Rb , 2 Rc ,1 Ra and 3 Ra . But,  2,b   R , so we write 2 R b .

Example-3: Let A  1, 3,5,7 and B  2,4,6,8 be two sets and R be a relation from A to B defined

as  x , y   R  x  y for x  A, y  B . Let’s try to write R in roaster form.

We see that 3  2,5  2,5  4,7  2,7  4,7  6 . So, R   3,2  ,  5,2  ,  5,4  ,  7, 2  ,  7,4  ,  7,6 

Example-4: Let T be the set of all triangles in the Euclidean plane, and let a relation R on T be
defined as  a , b  R  or , aRb  if a is congruent to b a , b  T .
Then, two Equilateral triangles in the Euclidean plane with sides 5 cm each, are related by the Relation
R but an Equilateral Triangle is not related by the Relation R with another triangle in the Euclidean plane
with sides 3 cm , 4 cm & 5 cm .
 Example-5: Let us define a relation R in  as aRb if a  b. Then we observed the following things

(i)  0, 0  ,  2,2  ,  0.1, 0.1   R i .e ., in general  a , a   R ; a  

(ii)  5,3   R but  3,5   R i .e ., there may exist a , b  such that  a , b   R but  b , a   R

(iii)  5, 3   R ,  3, 2   R and also  5, 2   R i .e ., in general  a , b   R ,  b, c   R   a , c   R ; a , b, c   .

 Domain and Range of a Relation:

Let R be a relation from a set A to B . Then, the set of all first components of the ordered pairs
belonging to R is called the Domain of R , while the set of all second components of the ordered pairs
belonging to R is called the Range of R . Thus,

Domain  R   a : a , b   R Range  R   b : a , b   R

Example: If R is a relation from set A  2,4,5 to set B  1, 2, 3,4,6,8 defined by

xRy  x divides y , for x  A, y  B , find R in roster form and also the domain and range of R .
Solution: Clearly, 2 R 2,2 R4,2 R6,2 R8,4 R4 and 4 R8

So, R   2, 2  ,  2,4  ,  2,6  ,  2,8  ,  4,4  ,  4,8  . Domain  2,4 . Range  2, 4,6,8

 Number of Relations from a set to another: Let’s take a case study on this.
Case study- 1 :
Let A  1, 2,..., m and B  1, 2,..., n be two sets. Then n  A   m and n  B   m . So,
n  A  B   mn Now, elements of A  B can be shown in the following arrangements.
 1,1  1, 2  . . .  1, n 
 2,1  2,2  . . .  2, n 
. . . . . .
 m ,1  m , 2  . . .  m, n
Now, while making subsets of A  B , for each element of A  B , we have two possibilities - either we’ll
take that into the subset or we’ll not take that. So, total number of subsets of A  B  total number of
possibilities for mn elements of A  B  2  2  ...  2  mn times   2mn .

Based on the above topic, answer the following questions.

(i) If a set A is having 5 members, then find the number of elements in A  A .
(ii) If A   ,  ,  ,   , find the number of non-empty relations on A .
(iii) If A  1,2, 3,4,5 , find the number of relations on A containing the members
 1,1 ,  2,2  ,  3,3  ,  4,4  ,  5,5  of A A .
OR
(iii) If A  1,2, 3,4,5 , find the number of relations on A not containing all the pairs
 1,1 ,  2,2  ,  3,3  ,  4,4  ,  5,5  .
 Solution: (i) if n  A   5 , then n  A  A   n  A   n  A   5  5  25
(ii) Here, n  A   4 , so, n  A  A   4  4  16 . Then total number of relations on A is 216 and
between them one relation is Null relation. So, total number of non-empty relations on A is
216  1
(iii) Here, n  A   5 , so n  A  A   5  5  25 . Now, by question, out of that 25 pairs, a relation
must contain the given 5 pairs. So, for the given 5 pairs, we have only one possibility- we’ve to
take that into the relation and for the remaining  25  5   20 members of A  A , we have two
possibilities - either we’ll take that into the relation or we’ll not take that. So, total number of such
Relations  total number of possibilities for 25 elements of A  B
 1  1  ...  1  2  2  ...  2  where 1 appeares 5 times and 2 appeares 20 times   15  220  220 .
OR

(iii)Total number of relations on A not containing all of the pairs  1,1  ,  2, 2  ,  3, 3  ,  4,4  ,  5,5 

 Total number of relations on A  Total number of relations on A containing all of the pairs

 1,1 ,  2, 2  ,  3, 3  ,  4,4  ,  5,5   225  220

 Types of Relation: We first consider three types of relations, namely reflexive, symmetric and
transitive.
(i) A relation R in a set A is called Reflexive , if  a , a   R, for every a  A.

(ii) A relation R in a set A is called Symmetric , if  a , b   R implies that  b , a   R, for all a,b  A.

(iii) A relation R in a set A is called Transitive , if  a , b   R and  b, c   R implies that  a , c   R,

for all a,b,c  A

 Equivalence Relation: A relation R in a set A is said to be an Equivalence Relation if R is reflexive,

symmetric and transitive.
Example: Let L be the set of all lines in a plane and R be the relation in L defined as

R  L1 , L2  : L1 is perpendicular to L2  . Let’s check R is symmetric but neither reflexive nor

transitive.
R is not reflexive, as a line L1 cannot be perpendicular to itself, i .e .,  L1 , L1   R ; L1  L.

R is symmetric as  L1 , L2   R  L1 is perpendicular to L2  L2 is perpendicular to L1   L2 , L1   R

Thus, R is symmetric as  L1 , L2   R   L2 , L1   R L1 , L2  L.

R is not transitive. Indeed, if L1 is perpendicular to L2 and L2 is

perpendicular to L3 , then L1 can never be perpendicular to L3 .

In fact, L3 is parallel to L3 , i .e .,  L1 , L2   R,  L2 , L3   R

but  L1 , L3   R for any L1 , L2 , L3  L.

 Equivalence Class: Let R be an Equivalence Relation on a non-empty set A and a  A . Then,

Equivalence Class of a , denoted by  a  or a and is defined by  a    x  A : x , a   R

Facts: Consider an arbitrary equivalence relation R in an arbitrary set X .

 Then  a  X ,  a    as a   a  a  X .

 For a , b  X , if b   a  , then  a    b  and if b   a  , then  a    b    i .e ., any two equivalence classes

are either equal or they are disjoint. This means that if two equivalence classes are not disjoint then they
must be equal.
 R divides X into mutually disjoint subsets Ai called partitions or subdivisions of X satisfying:

(i) All elements of Ai are related to each other, for all i .

(ii) No element of Ai is related to any element of A j , i  j .

(iii)  A j  X and Ai  A j   , i  j .

If R is an Equivalence Relation on a set X , then the Equivalence Classes form a Partition on X .

 Important Questions:

1. The relation R defined on the set  by R   x , y  : x   y for some rational number   . Check

2. Find the maximum number of non-equivalence relations on the set A   p, q , r  .

3. Let A  1, 2, 3,...,9 , and R be the relation on A  A defined by  a , b  R  c , d  if a  d  b  c

  a , b  ,  c , d   A  A .Prove that R is an equivalence relation and also obtain the equivalence class of

the element  2,5  i .e .,  2,5   .

4. If a relation R on the set {1,2, 3} be defined by R  {(1, 1)}, then Check whether R is Reflexive,
Symmetric, Transitive or Not.
5. Find the number of Reflective Relations that can be defined on a finite set having 5 elements i.e.,
cardinal number of the finite set is 5 .
6. The Earth has 24 time zones, defined by dividing the Earth into 24 equal longitudinal segments. These
are the regions on Earth that have the same standard time. For example, USA and India fall in different
time zones, but Sri Lanka and India are in the same time zone.
A relation R is defined on the set U   All people on the Earth such that

R   x , y  : the time difference between the time zones x and y reside in is 6 hours .

i) Check whether the relation R is reflexive, symmetric and transitive.

ii) Is relation R an equivalence relation? Show your work.
7. An organization conducted bike race under 2 different categories-boys and girls. In all, there were
250 participants. Among all of them finally three from Category 1 and two from Category 2 were
selected for the final race. Ravi forms two sets B and G with these participants for his college project.
Let B   b1 , b2 , b3  , G   g1 , g2  where B represents the set of boys selected and G the set of girls

who were selected for the final race.

Ravi decides to explore these sets for various types of relations.
On the basis of above information answer the following questions:
(i) Ravi wishes to form all the relations possible from B to G . How many such relations are possible?
(ii) Among these relations, how many functions can be formed from B to G ?
8. Let , R*    0 and  be a Relation on  *   * defined by  x , y    z , t   xt  yz

  x , y  ,  z , t    *   * . Check whether the Relation  is Reflexive, Symmetric, Transitive or not.

9. Prove that the relation R on  defined by  a , b   R iff  a  b  is divisible by 5 for a , b  is an

equivalence relation. Also, find the equivalence class  7  .

10. Let A  1, 2,3,...,50 , and R be the relation on A  A defined by  a , b  R  c , d  if

ad  b  c   bc  a  d    a , b  ,  c , d   A  A .Prove that R is an equivalence relation and also obtain

the equivalence class of the element  2,5  i .e .,  2,5   .