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Set Theory: Reading: Chapter 1 (1-17) From The Textbook

1. Set theory is the study of sets, which are collections of objects. Basic concepts include membership, subsets, unions, intersections, complements, and ordered pairs. 2. Power sets are sets whose elements are all the subsets of a given set. Power sets are always larger than the original set. 3. Unions combine the elements of two sets into a new set containing elements that are in either of the original sets. Intersections contain only elements that are common to both original sets.

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150 views17 pages

Set Theory: Reading: Chapter 1 (1-17) From The Textbook

1. Set theory is the study of sets, which are collections of objects. Basic concepts include membership, subsets, unions, intersections, complements, and ordered pairs. 2. Power sets are sets whose elements are all the subsets of a given set. Power sets are always larger than the original set. 3. Unions combine the elements of two sets into a new set containing elements that are in either of the original sets. Intersections contain only elements that are common to both original sets.

Uploaded by

Vivek Shah
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Set Theory

Reading: Chapter 1 (1-17)


From the textbook

1
Basic Set Theory

• A set is just a collection of things. Here is some


of the notation we use to talk about sets.
• The simplest example of a set is Ø, the empty
set, which has no members or elements
belonging to it.
• x ∈ X means “x is a member of X”.
• {x, y} means “the set whose members are x
and y”.
2
Basic Set Theory

• {x | P} means “the set of all values of x that


have the property P”. For example,
• { x | x is an even integer } is the set of all even
integers.
• X = Y means “X and Y have the same
members”.
• We abbreviate “if and only if” by “iff”.

3
Some Familiar Sets
• Ø is the smallest set, with no members. We say
that the cardinality of Ø is zero, written | Ø | = 0.
• Much bigger are the number sets, which have
infinitely many members (too many to write
down).
• ℕ is the set of positive integers 1, 2, 3,…
(Warning: Other textbooks often use ℕ as
the name for the set of non-negative integers
0, 1, 2, 3,…). 4
Some Familiar Sets
• ℤ is the set of all integers …-2, -1, 0, 1, 2,…
• ℝ is the set of all real numbers, consisting of
all decimal numbers including the integers,
rational numbers like -3/4 and 22/7 , and
irrational numbers like √2 and π.
• We can build new sets from these familiar
sets by forming subsets, powersets, unions,
intersections, complements, and ordered pairs.
5
Subsets
• We write X ⊆ Y to say “X is a subset of Y ”,
by which we mean that every member of X also
belongs to Y .
• Ø ⊆ Y since every member of Ø is a member
of Y . How do we know this? Since Ø has no
members, we can say anything we like about its
members, for example that they are all pink, and
no-one can refute our claim by giving a
counterexample. 6
Subsets
• If X ⊆ Y and Y ⊆ X then X and Y must have
exactly the same members, so that X = Y .
• Sometimes all the sets of interest to us are
subsets of some big set U, which we call our
universal set for that situation.
• To describe subsets of U we give some property
the elements have to satisfy, for example if U = ℝ
we could use the property x > 0 to form the
subset of positive real numbers {x | x > 0}. 7
Powersets
• Let X = {2, 3}. The subsets of X are Ø, {2}, {3} ,
and { 2, 3}. If we collect these subsets of X as
the elements of one big set we form the
powerset
• P(X) = {Ø, {2}, {3}, { 2, 3} }.
• A set like {2} can itself be a member of another
set.

8
Powersets
• But there is a difference between the relations
⊆ and ∈, for example {2} ⊆ X but {2} ∉ X while
{2} ∈ P(X) but {2} ⊈ P(X).
• The powerset P(X) is bigger than the original
set X, leading to the questions: Is P(X) always
bigger than X? Can we predict the size of P(X)
if we know the size of X?

9
Unions
• The union of X and Y is the set X ∪ Y where
z ∈ X ∪ Y iff z belongs to at least one of X and Y .
• Example: {2, 3} ∪ {3, 4, 5 } = { 2, 3, 4, 5 }.
• Note that the union does not get two copies of
the element 3, even though 3 belongs to { 2, 3}
and also to { 3, 4, 5 }. We put (a single copy of) 3
into the union of X = { 2, 3} and Y = { 3, 4, 5 }
because 3 belongs to at least one of X and Y .

10
Unions
• Notice that the union in our example is bigger than
either of the two original sets.
• This invites two questions: Is X ∪ Y always bigger
than (have more elements than) X and bigger than
Y?
• Can we predict the size of X ∪ Y if we know the
sizes of X and of Y ?
• Notice that X ⊆ X ∪ Y since every member of X
belongs to X ∪ Y . Is Y also a subset of X ∪ Y ?
11
Intersections
• The intersection of X and Y is the set X∩ Y where
z ∈ X ∩ Y iff z belongs to both X and Y .
• Example: {2, 3} ∩ { 3, 4, 5 } = { 3 }.
• Note that although 3 belongs to both X = { 2, 3 } and
Y = { 3, 4, 5 }, only one copy of 3 is put into the
intersection.
• Example: { 2, 3} ∩ { 6, 7, 8 } = Ø, since there are
no elements common to X ={ 2, 3 } and Y = { 6, 7, 8}.
• If X ∩ Y = Ø, we say that the sets X and Y are disjoint.
12
Intersections
• Two questions to ponder are: Must X ∩ Y
always be smaller (have fewer elements than) than
X and smaller than Y ?
• Can we predict the size of X ∩ Y if we know the
sizes of X and of Y ?
• Notice that X ∩ Y ⊆ X since every member of
X ∩ Y belongs to X as well as to Y .
• Is X∩ Y also a subset of Y ? Is X∩ Y a subset of X∪ Y ?
13
Complements
• The complement of Y relative to X is the set X-Y
where z ∈ X - Y iff z belongs to X but not to Y .

• Example: {2, 3} - { 3, 4, 5 } = { 2 }.

• If we have a universal set U, then U - Y is


abbreviated to Y’ and we call Y’ simply “the
complement of Y ”.
14
Complements
• Example: Suppose our universal set is U = ℝ.

• Let Y = {x | x ≥ 0}. Then Y’ = { x | x < 0}.

• Questions: Suppose we take any subset X of


some universal set U.
• What is X ∩ X’ equal to?
• What is X ∪ X’ equal to?
15
Ordered Pairs
• In the set {2, 3}, the order in which we list the
members 2 and 3 is not important: {2, 3} = {3,2}
since the two descriptions single out the same
elements.
• But if the order of elements is important, we
may change the braces { and } to parentheses
and write (2, 3).
• We read (2, 3) as “the ordered pair with 2 as first
co-ordinate and 3 as second co-ordinate”.
16
Ordered Pairs
• Although {2, 3} = {3,2}, since the members are
the same, (2, 3) ≠ (3, 2) since the order of
coordinates is different.
• We write X ⨉ Y to say “the Cartesian product of
X and Y ”.
• X ⨉ Y is the set of all ordered pairs (x, y) such
that x ∈ X and y ∈ Y .
• Example: {2, 3} ⨉ { 5, 6 } = {(2, 5), (2, 6), (3, 5),
(3, 6) }.
17

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