TOPIC TITLE: Language of Mathematics

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the topic session the students are expected to:

Cognitive:

Define Sets and its basic operations.

Identify relations between sets

Distinguish the main difference between relations and

functions.

The Language of Sets

Discrete mathematics is concerned with structures that involves sets

such as graphs (sets of vertices and edges), and Boolean algebras
(sets with certain operations defined on them).

The concept of a set is so fundamental that we will not attempt to give

a precise definition. There have been many attempts to find such a
definition but problems seem to arise.

Definition 12

A set is a well-defined collection of objects. Capital letters are usually

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Page 1 of 23
 Discrete Structures

used to denote a and not too large, it can be written by listing the elements.
set.
Example:
If a set is finite
A = { 2,4,6,8}
The example above describes a set A made up of 4 elements: 2, 4, 6
and 8.
On the other hand, if the set is a large finite set or an infinite set, it can
be written by listing a property necessary for membership.
Example:
B={x| x is a positive integer}
The above example describes a set B whose elements are positive
integers.

Remarks:
1. If A is a set, the cardinality of A, denoted by |A|, is the number
of elements of A.
2. The set with no elements is called an empty set (or null set)
denoted by φ (i.e. φ ={ } and |A| = 0)
3. The set of all subsets of a set A is called the power set of A
denoted by P(A) and | P(A)| = 2n , where n = |A|
Example:
A = {1, 2, 3}.
Then |A| = 3
P(A) = { φ ,1,2,3, {1,2}, {1,3},{2,3},{1,2,3}}
|P(A)| = 23 = 8

Language of Mathematics
 [See The Language of Sets, Page 3 of 42]

Definition 13

Let A and B be any two sets. A and B are equal if A and B has exactly
the same elements.

Notation : A = B

Example:

A = { 2,4,6,8}

B ={ x| x is a positive even integer less than 10}

Then, A=B

 Note:
a. Order is not important in sets.
Example : {a, b} = {b, a}

b. Sets are not affected by multiple appearances of

elements.
Example: {1, 2] = {1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2}

c. Sets are not affected by the statements describing

them.
Example: Set B in the example above can also be writte
as B ={ x| x is a positive even integer less than 10}
. = {x| x is an integer and x>0}
= {x| x is a natural number less than 10}

[See Operation on Sets, Page 4 of 42]

Operations on Sets

Let A and B be any sets.

 The union of A and B, denoted by A U B is the set consisting

of all elements belonging to either A or B.

A U B = {x| x ε A or x ε B }

 The intersection of A and B denoted by A ∩ B is the set

consisting of all elements belonging to both A and B.

A ∩ B = {x| x ε A and x ε B}

 The difference of B from A denoted by A – B (read as A minus

B or A complement B) is the set consisting of all elements in A
not contained in B.
A – B = { x| x ε A and x ∉ B}

Language of Mathematics
 Examples:
A= {1,2,3,4,5}
B= {x| x is an even positive integer less than 10}

A U B = {1,2,3,4,5,6,8}
A ∩ B = {2,4}
A – B = { 1,3,5}
B – A = { 6,8}

Remarks:

1. If A ∩ B = φ, then A and B are called disjoint sets.

2. The Universal set denoted by U is the set containing all sets.
3. The complement of A denoted by Ā is the set U - A.

Example:
1. U = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7}
A = {1,2,3,4,5}
B= {5,6,7}
A and B are not disjoint since A ∩ B = 5
Ā = {6,7}

2. U = {x| x is a positive integer}

A = {x| x is a positive even integer}
B= {x| x is a positive odd integer}

A and B are disjoint since A ∩ B = φ

Ā = {x| x is a positive odd integer} = B

Definition 14

Let A and B be sets. The Cartesian product A x B is the set of ordered

pairs (a, b) where a is in A and b is in B.
A x B = {(a, b)| a ε A and b ε B}

Example:
If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {x, y}

A x B = {(1,x),(2,x), (3,x), (1,y), (2,y), (3,y)}

B x A = {(x,1), (x,2), (x,3), (y,1), (y,2),(y,3)}
A x A = {(1,1), (1,2),(1,3) , (2,1), (2,2), (2,3), (3,1), (3,2), (3,3)}
B x B = {(a,a), (a,b), (b,a),(b,b)}

Language of Mathematics
 7.

Definition 15

Let A and B be sets. Then a pairing of the elements of A with the

elements of B is called a one-to-one correspondence if every element
of A is paired with exactly one element of B.

For example:
1. A = {a,b,c} and B = {1,2,3}. There is in one-to-one
correspondence between the sets A and B since we
can pair
aα1
bα 2
cα 3

2. A= {a, b, c} and B= {c, d, e}.There is a one to one

correspondence between A and B even though c appears
twice since we can pair
a α c
bα d
cα e

Definition 16

Two sets A and B are equivalent if there is a one-to-one

correspondence between the elements of A and B. Clearly speaking,
two sets are equivalent if they have the same size.

Example:

1. A = {1, 3, 5, 7} and B = {2, 4, 6, 8} are equivalent since there

is a one-to-one correspondence between sets A and B.

2. Let X be the set of registered cars and Y be the set of plate

numbers. Thus, X and Y are equivalent.

A set A is said to be finite if it is either the empty set or if there is a

one-to-one correspondence between the elements of A and the
elements of a set of the form S = {1, 2, 3, 4, …, n} for some positive
integer n. Otherwise, then we say that the set is infinite.

Language of Mathematics
 Example:

1. A = {a, 7, #, 3, $} is finite since there is a one-to-one

correspondence between the elements of A and the elements
of the set S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}.

2. Let N = {0, 1, 2, 3 …} of naturals numbers is infinite, since we

cannot find a one-to-one correspondence between its
elements and the elements of the set S = {1, 2, 3… n}.

Theorem 2

Let A and B be sets.

i. If A is a finite set, and B is a subset of A, then B is also finite.

ii. If A is an infinite set, and B is a superset of A, then B is also
infinite.
Note: B is a subset of A if all elements of B are contained in A
while B is a superset of A if all elements of A are contained in
B.

Example.

1. Let B = {a, 7, #} and A = {a, 7, #, 3, $}. Clearly, B is a subset

of A. Since A is finite, then B is also finite.
2. The set Ζ of all integers, the set Q of all irrational numbers
and the set R of all real numbers are infinite sets since they
are superset of the set N of all natural numbers.

Language of Mathematics
 Discrete Structures

Relations

The world is full of relationships. There are father-son relationship,

mother-daughter relationship, employee-employer relationship,
student-teacher relationship and so on. This relationship defines and
separates the interrelated jobs of an individual. In the same way, in
the world of mathematics we also have relationships.

As an example, in our previous lessons, we have the greater than and

less than relationship, subset and subsequence relationship, equality
and logical equivalence. However, we use the word relations in
describing these terms rather than relationship.

In general, relations can be thought of as a table that lists the

relationship of elements to other elements. Abstractly, we define
relation to be a set of ordered pairs.

In this setting, we consider the first element of the ordered pair to be

related to the second element of the ordered pair.

Definition 22

A (binary) relation R from a set X to a set Y is a subset of the

Cartesian product X x Y. Thus, the elements are of the form (x, y)
where x  X and y  Y .

If (x, y)  R , we write xR y and say that x is related to y. In the case

X =Y, that is xR x, we call R a (binary) relation on X.

The set { x  X | (x, y)  R for some y  Y } is called the domain of

R .

The set { y  Y | (x, y)  R for some x  X } is called the range of

R.
[See Relations, Pages 23 and 24 of 42]

Example:

1. Let X = {shoes, pants, pencil} and Y = {socks, shirt, paper}. If

we define the relation R as objects that are usually used together,
then, R = {(shoes, socks), (pants, shirt), (pencil, paper)}. Note
that we may write shoes R socks since (shoes, socks)  R

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 Discrete Structures

2. Let X = {2, 3, 4} and Y = {3, 4, 5, 6}. Define the relation R from X

to Y by (x, y)  R if x divides y. Thus, we obtain

R = {(2, 4), (2, 6), (3, 3), (3, 6), (4, 4)}

The domain of R is the set {2, 3, 4} and the range is the set {3, 4,
5, 6}.
Relations,
3. Let R be the relation on the set X = {1, 2, 3, 4} defined by (x, y) 
Page 24 of 42
R if x ≤ y, where x, y X. Thus , we obtain

R = { (1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 2), (2, 3), (2, 4), (3, 3), (3,
4), (4, 4)}.

The domain and the range of R is the set X.

4. An informative way to picture relation on a set is to draw a digraph.

To illustrate this, we can have the following :

Let X = {a, b, c} and define R = {(a, a), (c, b), (b, c) } then its
digraph is

Relations,
Page 25 of 42

The vertices of the digraph are the elements of the set X. The
arrow (called the directed edge) represents the elements of the
relation. The element (c, b) is represented by the arrow from the
point c going to the point b.

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 Discrete Structures

Functions,
Page 34 of 42 [See Functions, Page 34 of 42]

Functions

One of the most important concepts in mathematics is that of a

Definition 26
function. A function is a special kind of relation.
A function f : X →Y is a relation from X to Y
satisfying the following properties:

i. The domain of f is X
ii. If (x, y), (x y’) f, then y = y’
Definition 26

A function f :X →Y is a relation from X to Y satisfying the following

properties:

i. The domain of f is X
ii. If (x, y), (x y’)  f , then y = y’.

If x X, then the elements of Y assigned to x will be denote by f (x) .

f (x) is called the image of x under f .
Loosely speaking, a function is also a subset of the Cartesian product
that assigns each elements of X to distinct elements of Y. That is, two
distinct elements of the domain of a function cannot have the same
image.

The following is a useful visualization of functions.

while the following does not illustrate a function.

Language of Mathematics
 Discrete Structures

Examples:

1. Let X = {1, 2, 3} and Y = {a, b, c}. Define f = {(1, a), (2, b), (3, c)}.
Then f is a function.

2. Let X = {1, 2, 3, 4} and Y = {a, b, c}. Define f = {(1, a), (2,b), (3,c)}
and g = {(1,a), (2, a), (3,b), (4, c)}. Then f is not a function while g
is a function.

3. f = {(1, a), (2, b), (3, c), (1, b)} is not a function.

4. Let X be the set of real numbers and Y be the set of all non-
negative real numbers. Define f (x) = x2. Then, f is a function. In
particular, we can have
f (1) = 122 = 1;
f (2) = 2 = 4;
f (-2) = -22 = 4.

5. Let X be the set of real numbers and Y be the set integers. Define
the function f (x) = [x], where [x] is the largest integer less than or
equal to x. In particular,
f (2.5) = 2
f (0.25) = 0
f (-7/3) = -3
f (1) =1
Such function is called the greatest integer function

6. Let A and B be non- empty sets. Then the function f :AxB → B is

sometimes called a transition function. One reason that such
functions is called like this is illustrated by the following :

Let A = {sad, happy, ecstatic} and B = {bad news, good news}.

Thus
f (sad, bad news) = sad
f (sad, good news) = sad
f (happy, bad news) = happy
f (happy, good news) = happy
f (ecstatic, bad news) = ecstatic
f (ecstatic, good news) = ecstatic

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 Discrete Structures

Functions, [See Functions, Page 41 of 42]

Page 41 of 42

Definition 29

Suppose that g: X→ Y and f :Y→ Z. The composition function

Definition 29 denoted by f o g is defined as
Suppose that g : X→Y and f :Y→ Z. The composition
function denoted by f o g is defined as

f o g (x) = f (g (x))
f o g (x) = f(g (x))

[See Functions, Page 42 of 42]

Functions,
Page 42 of 42
Examples:

1. Let g = { (1, a), (2, a), (3, c)}, a function from X = {1, 2, 3} to Y= {a,
b, c} and f = {(a, y), (b, x), (c, z)}, a function from Y to Z = {x, y, z}.
Then, f og = { (1, y), (2, y), (3, z)}.

2. Let X = {a, b, c}, Y = {1, 2, 3, 4}, Z = { a, 2, -6 }.

Let g: X →Y defined by g (a) = 2, g (b) = 2 , g (c) = 1 and
Let f: Y→ Z defined by f(1) = a , f(2) = - 6 , f(3) = - 6, f(4) = a.
Then f og : X→ Z is the function given by

fog (a) = f(g(a)) =f(2) =- 6

fog (b) = f(g(b)) = f(2) = - 6
fog (c) = f(g(c)) = f(1) = a
3. Let X =Y = Z = R (set of real numbers).
Let f: R→ R be defined by f(x) = x2 + 1 and
Let g: R → R be defined by g(x) = 2x – 1. Then fog (x) = f(g(x)) =
f(2x – 1) = (2x – 1 )2 + 1 = 4x2 -4x + 2.

Note: In general, the composition fog is not the same as the

function gof. In fact, it is usually the case that only one of the
compositions can even be defined.

Language of Mathematics