ORDERED SETS SA
1 Introduction
In a non-empty set, one of the ways to express a relationship between the elements of it
is to use ordered pairs involving a relation within two. Thus, the set of ordered pairs are
called binary relations. Ifa set X is ordered in a reasonable way, then there is a natural
way to define an “order topology” on X. Most interesting will be ordered sets that
satisfy a very strong ordering condition: that every nonempty subset contains a smallest
clement. Such sets are called well-ordered. The most familiar example of a well-ordered
set is the set of natural number (IN) and it is the well-ordering property that lets us do
mathematical induction in N
2 Partial Ordered Sets QO
set or poset: A relation
is called a partial order if < is
Example: Show whether the oe R, if, x > y defined on the set of positive
integers is a partial order relat
\
Solution: Consider the set So containing four positive integers. Find the re-
lation for this set stich as F— {(2y1), (3,1), (8,2), (4,1), (4,2), (4,3), (1, 1), (2,2), (8,3), (4, 4)}
Now, we verify the followings-
1. Reflexive: The relation is reflexive as for every a € A. (aa), ie. (1,1), (2,2), (3,3), (4,4) €
R
2. Antisymmetric: The relation is antisymmetric as whenever aRb and bRa, we
have a= b.
3. Transitive: The relation is transitive as whenever aRb and bRe, we have aRe. As
for example 4R2 and 2R1, implies 4R1.
RKMVCC ©pdpersonal Department of MathematicsORDERED SETS SA
As the relation is reflexive, antisymmetsic and transitive, thus this is a partial order e-
lation.
Linearly ordered set:
that,
Linear extension: Let (X,<) be a partially ordered set. An ordering L is called an
extension of X if x < y in X implies x
a (b> a) to mean the same thing,
asa 2 —> y= for ally eX
2
Upper bound and least upper bound (sup): Let (X,<) is a poset and A CX then
an element x € X is called an upper bound for A if a ade