Discrete Mathematics

LECTURE 11
Basics of Set Theory
Course Instructor:
1 Rida Memon
What is a set?
 A set is a group of “objects”
 People in a class: { Alice, Brad, Chris }
 Courses offered by a department: { CS 101, CS 202, … }
 Colors of a rainbow: { red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet}
 States of matter { solid, liquid, gas, plasma }
 States in the US: { Alabama, Alaska, … }
 Sets can contain non-related elements: { 3, a, red, Virginia }

 Although a set can contain (almost) anything, we will most

often use sets of numbers
 All positive numbers less than or equal to 5: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
 A few selected real numbers: { 2.1, π, 0, -6.32, e }
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Properties of Sets

 Order does not matter

 We often write them in order because it is

easier for humans to understand it that way

 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} is equivalent to {3, 5, 2, 4, 1}

 Sets are notated with curly brackets

 {……}

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Properties of Sets

 Sets do not have duplicate elements

 Consider the set of vowels in the alphabet.
 It makes no sense to list them as {a, a, a, e, i, o, o, o, o, o, u}
 What we really want is just {a, e, i, o, u}
 Consider the list of students in this class
 Again, it does not make sense to list somebody twice

 Note that a sequence or list is like a set, but order does

matter and duplicate elements are allowed
 We will study sequences in upcoming lectures

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Representation of a Set

 Sets are usually represented by a capital letter (A, B, S,

etc.)

 Elements are usually represented by an italic lower-case

letter (a, x, y, etc.)

 Easiest way to specify a set is to list all the elements: A

= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
 Not always feasible for large or infinite sets
 Also called TABULAR or ROSTER form

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 Representation of a Set
 Can use an ellipsis (…) like B = {0, 1, 2, 3, …}
 Can cause confusion. Consider the set C = {3, 5, 7, …}.
What comes next?
 If the set is all odd integers greater than 2, it is 9
 If the set is all prime numbers greater than 2, it is 11

 Can use set-builder notation

D = {x | x is prime and x > 2}
 E = {x : x is odd and x > 2}
 The vertical bar “|” or colon “:” means “such that”
 Thus, set D is read (in English) as: “the set of all elements
x such that x is prime and x is greater than 2”
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Specifying a Set

 A set is said to “contain” the various “members” or

“elements” that make up the set
 If an element a is a member of (or an element of) a set S,
we use then notation a  S
 4  {1, 2, 3, 4}
 0∈N
 If an element is not a member of (or an element of) a set
S, we use the notation a  S
 7  {1, 2, 3, 4}
 Virginia  {1, 2, 3, 4}

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Often used sets

N = {1, 2, 3, …} is the set of natural numbers

 Z = {…, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, …} is the set of
integers
 Z+ = {1, 2, 3, …} is the set of positive integers
(a.k.a whole numbers)
 Q = {p/q | p  Z, q  Z, q ≠ 0} is the set of
rational numbers
 Any number that can be expressed as a fraction of
two integers (where the denominator is not 0)
R is the set of real numbers

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THE UNIVERSAL SET

 U is the universal set: the set of all of elements (or the

“universe”) from which given any set is drawn
 For the set {-2, 0.4, 2}, U would be the real numbers
 For the set {1, 2, 3}, U could be the natural numbers, the
integers, the rational numbers, or the real numbers,
depending on the context

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THE UNIVERSAL SET

 For the set of the students in this class, U would be all the
students in the University (or perhaps all the people in the
world)

 For the set of the vowels of the alphabet, U would be all

the letters of the alphabet

 To differentiate U from U (which is a set operation), the

universal set is written in a different font (and in bold and
italics)

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 Venn diagrams
 Represents sets graphically
 The box represents the universal set
 Circles represent the set(s)
 Consider set S, which is b c d f
U
the set of all vowels in the g h j S
alphabet k l m
n p q e i
 The individual elements a
r s t
are usually not written o u
v w x
in a Venn diagram
y z
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Sets of Sets

Sets can contain other sets

X = {N, Z, Q, R}
How many elements are in this
set?

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THE EMPTY (NULL) SET
 If a set has zero elements – not 0 as an element - it is called the empty (or
null) set
 Written using the symbol 
 Thus,  = { }  VERY IMPORTANT
 If you get confused about the empty set in a problem, try replacing  by { }

 As the empty set is a set, it can be an element of other sets

 { , 1, 2, 3, x } is a valid set

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THE EMPTY (NULL) SET
 Note that  ≠ {  }
 The first is a set of zero elements
 The second is a set of 1 element (that one element being the empty set)
 A set with just one element is called a SINGLETON set.

 Replace  by { }, and you get: { } ≠ { { } }

 It’s easier to see that they are not equal that way

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THE EMPTY (NULL) SET

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Equality of Sets
 Two sets are equal if they have the same elements
 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = {5, 4, 3, 2, 1}
 Remember that order does not matter!
 {1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2, 1} = {4, 3, 2, 1}
 Remember that duplicate elements do not matter!

A=B ↔ ∀x(x∈A↔x∈B)
 Two sets are not equal if they do not have the same elements
 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ≠ {1, 2, 3, 4}

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 SUBSETS
 Ifall the elements of a set S are also elements
of a set T, then S is a subset of T
 For example, if S = {2, 4, 6} and T = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7}, then S is a subset of T
 This is specified by S  T
 Or by {2, 4, 6}  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
 If
S is not a subset of T, it is written as:
ST
 For example, {1, 2, 8}  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
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SUBSETS
 Note that any set is a subset of itself!

 Given set S = {2, 4, 6}, since all the elements of S are elements of S, S is a
subset of itself

 This is kind of like saying 5 is less than or equal to 5

 Thus, for any set S, S  S

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SUBSETS
 The empty set is a subset of all sets (including
itself!)

 All sets are subsets of the universal set

A logical way to define a subset:

A  B ↔ x( xA  xB )
 English translation: for all possible values of x,
(meaning for all possible elements of a set), if x is an
element of A, then x is an element of B
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PROPER vs IMPROPER Subsets
 If S is a subset of T, and S is not equal to T, then S is a proper subset of T
 Let T = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
 If S = {1, 2, 3}, S is not equal to T, and S is a subset of T
 A proper subset is written as S  T

 Let R = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. R is equal to T, and thus is a subset (but not a proper
subset) of T
 Can be written as: R  T (or just R = T)

 Let Q = {4, 5, 6}. Q is neither a subset or T nor a proper subset of T. R  T

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PROPER vs IMPROPER Subsets

 The difference between “subset” and “proper subset” is

like the difference between “less than or equal to” and
“less than” for numbers

 The empty set is a proper subset of all sets other than

the empty set (as it is equal to the empty set)

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PROPER Subsets: Venn
diagram AB
U
B

A  B ↔ ∀x(x∈A→x∈B) ^ ∃x(x∈B ^ x∉A)

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Cardinality of Sets

 The
cardinality of a set is the
number of elements in a set
 Written as |A|
 Examples
 Let R = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Then |R| = 5
 || =0
 Let S = {, {a}, {b}, {a, b}}. Then |S| =
4
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The POWER Set

 Given the set S = {0, 1}. What are all the possible
subsets of S?
 They are:  (as it is a subset of all sets), {0}, {1}, and {0,
1}
 The power set of S (written as P(S)) is the set of all the
subsets of S
 P(S) = { , {0}, {1}, {0,1} }
 Note that |S| = 2 and |P(S)| = 22 = 4

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The POWER Set

 Let T = {0, 1, 2}.

 Then P(T) = { , {0}, {1}, {2}, {0,1}, {0,2}, {1,2},
{0,1,2} }
 Note that |T| = 3 and |P(T)| = 23 = 8

 P() = {  }
 Note that || = 0 and |P()| = 20 = 1

 If a set has n elements, then the power set will have

2n elements

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TUPLE

 A tuple is a finite ordered list of elements.

 An n-tuple is a sequence of n elements, where n is a

non-negative integer.

 There is only one 0-tuple, an empty sequence, or empty

tuple, as it is referred to.

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TUPLE
 In 2-dimensional space, it is a (x, y) pair of numbers to specify a
location

 In 3-dimensional (1,2,3) is not the same as (3,2,1) – space, it is a (x, y,

z) triple of numbers
+y
 In n-dimensional space, it is a
n-tuple of numbers (2,3)
 Two-dimensional space uses
pairs, or 2-tuples
 Three-dimensional space uses
triples, or 3-tuples +x

 Note that these tuples are

ordered, unlike sets
 the x value has to come first 27
Reading Assignment

 Chapter 2

 Section 2.1
 Complete

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Practice Questions

 Chapter 2

 Section 2.1
 Question 1 to 24
 Question 27 - 44

 Theorem 1
 Page 120
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Thanks

 End of Lecture
 Q/A

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