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ACL9 NP

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21 views6 pages

ACL9 NP

Uploaded by

Wilson Nedanhe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 9: Power sets

Winfried Just
Department of Mathematics, Ohio University

Companion to Advanced Calculus

Winfried Just, Ohio University MATH4/5301, Lecture 9: Power sets


The set of functions from X into Y

For any given sets X , Y , we let Y X denote the set of all functions
with domain X and codomain Y .
The power set axiom of set theory guarantees that whenever X , Y
are sets, then so is X Y .

Example L9.1: Let X = {0} and let Y = {1, 2}.

Question L9.1: What is the set Y X ?


The set Y X = {f1 , f2 } consists of two functions f1 , f2 : X → Y ,
where f1 (0) := 1 and f2 (0) := 2.
In contrast, the set X Y = {f0 } consists only of the constant
function f0 : Y → X that is defined by f0 (1) := 0 and f0 (2) := 0.

Note that in this example Y X has 21 = 2 elements and X Y has


12 = 1 element.

Winfried Just, Ohio University MATH4/5301, Lecture 9: Power sets


What if X = ∅ or Y = ∅?

Example L9.2: Let X = ∅ and let Y be any set.


Then Y X = {∅} is the set that contains only the empty function.

Example L9.3: Let X 6= ∅ and let Y = ∅.

Question L9.2 What is the set Y X in this example?


Here Y X = ∅, as we cannot assign any function value to x ∈ X .

In all of these examples we observed that when X has n elements


and Y has m elements, where m, n are natural numbers, then the
set Y X has mn elements. This is true in general, and we will prove
it later.
However, to cover the case when X = Y = ∅, we must define 00 to
be equal to 1 rather than an undetermined expression, as the
textbook in fact does.

Winfried Just, Ohio University MATH4/5301, Lecture 9: Power sets


Characteristic functions

When Y = {0, 1}, then Y X consists of all characteristic functions


of subsets of X , where for a subset A ⊆ X the characteristic
function χA : X → {0, 1} is defined as the function that takes the
value χA (x) = 1 when x ∈ A and the value χA (x) = 0 when x ∈ / A.

Example L9.4: let X = {a, b, c}, and let A = {a, c}. Then
χA : X → {0, 1} is defined by χA (a) := 1, χA (b) := 0, and
χA (c) := 1.

Note that when X is fixed, every subset A ⊆ X can be represented


by its characteristic function χA because A = B iff, χA = χB .

In particular, there will be as many subsets A of X as there are


elements of {0, 1}X . In particular, if X has n elements, where n is
a natural number, then X will have 2n distinct subsets.

Winfried Just, Ohio University MATH4/5301, Lecture 9: Power sets


The power set of a set X

The power set of a set X is defined as the set of all subsets of X .

It follows from the previous slide that when X has n elements,


where n is a natural number, then there are exactly 2n subsets
of X . For this reason, the textbook uses the notation 2X for the
power set of X .

In the literature, the notation P(X ) is also often used for the
power set.

Example 9.5: 2∅ = {∅}.

Example 9.6: 2{∅} = {∅, {∅}}.

Winfried Just, Ohio University MATH4/5301, Lecture 9: Power sets


Take-home message
This lecture we introduced the following notions for any sets X , Y :
Y X denotes the set of all functions with domain X and
codomain Y .
The characteristic function χA ∈ {0, 1}X of A ⊆ X is defined
as the function that takes the value χA (x) = 1 when x ∈ A
and the value χA (x) = 0 when x ∈ / A.
The power set 2X of a set X is defined as the set of all
subsets of X .

We saw that when X has n elements and Y has m elements,


where m, n are natural numbers, then the set Y X has mn
elements. This requires that we define 00 := 1.
In particular, as every subset A ⊆ X can be represented by its
characteristic function χA ∈ {0, 1}X , when X has n elements,
where n is a natural number, then there are exactly 2n subsets
of X .
Winfried Just, Ohio University MATH4/5301, Lecture 9: Power sets

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