SETS
INTRODUCTION / DEFINITION :
well-defined collection of numbers, objects or basically anything .
Examples : (i) Odd natural numbers less than 10, i.e., 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
(ii) The rivers of India
(iii) The vowels in the English alphabet, namely, a, e, i, o, u
(iv) Various kinds of triangles
(v) Prime factors of 210, namely, 2,3,5 and 7
(vi) The solution of the equation: x^2 – 5x + 6 = 0, viz, 2 and 3.
NOTE : (i) Objects, elements and members of a set are synonymous terms.
(ii) Sets are usually denoted by capital letters A, B, C, X, Y, Z, etc.
(iii) The elements of a set are represented by small letters a, b, c, x, y, z, etc
REPRESENTATION OF SETS
1. Roster or tabular form : In roster form, all the elements of a set are listed, the
elements are being separated by commas and are enclosed within braces { }. For
example, the set of all even positive integers less than 7 is described in roster form
as {2, 4, 6}.
Examples : (a) The set of all natural numbers which divide 42 is {1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14,
21, 42}.
(b) The set of all vowels in the English alphabet is {a, e, i, o, u}.
(c) The set of odd natural numbers is represented by {1, 3, 5, . . .}. The
dots
tell us that the list of odd numbers continue indefinitely.
• 2. Set-builder Form : In set-builder form, all the elements of a set
possess a single common property which is not possessed by
any element outside the set.
For example, in the set {a, e, i, o, u}, all the elements possess a
common property, namely, each of them is a vowel in the
English alphabet, and no other letter possess this property.
Denoting this set by V, we write V = {x : x is a vowel in English
alphabet}
A = {x : x is a natural number and 3 < x < 10} is read as
“the set of all x such that x is a natural number and x lies
between 3 and 10. Hence, the numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are the
elements of the set A.
QUESTION :
Write the following sets in the roaster form.
(i) A = {x | x is a positive integer less than
10 and 2x – 1 is an odd number}
(ii) C = {x : x^2 + 7x – 8 = 0, x ∈ R}
Ans. A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}.
C = {– 8, 1}
JEE PREVIOUS YEAR PYQ : -
QUESTION :
ANS. 15
ANS, 6
TYPES OF SETS :
EMPTY SET : set which does not contain any element is called the
empty set or the void set or null set and is denoted by { } or φ.
Finite and infinite sets : set which consists of a finite number of
elements is called a finite set otherwise, the set is called an infinite
set.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
SUBSETS :
A set A is said to be a subset of set B if every element of A is also an
element of B. In symbols we write A ⊂ B if a ∈ A ⇒ a ∈ B.
EQUAL SETS :
Given two sets A and B, if every elements of A is also an
element of B and if every element of B is also an element
of A, then the sets A and B are said to be equal. The two
equal sets will have exactly the same elements.
INTERVAL AS A SUBSET OF R (REAL
NUMBERS) :-
(a) An open interval denoted by (a, b) is the set of real numbers {x : a < x < b}
(b) A closed interval denoted by [a, b] is the set of real numbers {x : a ≤ x ≤ b)
(c) Intervals closed at one end and open at the other are
given by [a, b) = {x : a ≤ x < b} (a, b] = {x : a < x ≤ b}
POWER SET & UNIVERSAL SET :
VENN DIAGRAMS
Venn Diagrams are the diagrams
which represent the relationship
between sets. For example, the set
of natural numbers is a subset of
set of whole numbers which is a
subset of integers. We can
represent this relationship through
Venn diagram in the following way.
OPERATIONS ON SETS :
IMPORTANT FORMULAE :
Let A, B and C be any finite sets. Then
(a) n (A ∪ B) = n (A) + n (B) – n (A ∩ B)
(b) If (A ∩ B) = φ, then n (A ∪ B) = n (A) + n (B)
(c) n (A ∪ B ∪ C) = n (A) + n (B) + n (C) – n (A ∩ B) – n (A ∩ C) – n (B ∩ C) + n (A ∩
B ∩ C)
Q : In a school there are 20 teachers who teach
mathematics or physics. Of these, 12 teach
mathematics and 4 teach both physics and
mathematics. How many teach physics ?
A) 12 B) 14 C) 16 D) 20
SOLN :-
We, therefore, have n ( M ∪ P ) = 20 , n ( M ) = 12
and n ( M ∩ P ) = 4
We wish to determine n ( P ).
Using the result n ( M ∪ P ) = n ( M ) + n ( P ) – n ( M ∩ P ),
we obtain 20 = 12 + n ( P ) – 4
Thus n ( P ) = 12 Hence 12 teachers teach physics.
Q : In a class of 35 students, 24 like to play cricket
and 16 like to play football. Also, each student likes
to play at least one of the two games, then ……
students like to play both cricket and football ?
Ans. 5
Given n ( X) = 24, n ( Y ) = 16, n ( X ∪ Y ) = 35, n (X ∩ Y) = ?
Using the formula n ( X ∪ Y ) = n ( X ) + n ( Y ) – n ( X ∩ Y ),
we get 35 = 24 + 16 – n (X ∩ Y)
n (X ∩ Y) = 5
ANS, B
THANK YOU
