SETS
A SET is a well-defined collection of objects. Use
capital letters to denote sets (A, B, )
The objects in a set are called ELEMENTS or
MEMBERS of the set. Use lower case letters
to represent elements (a, b, )
Sets can be defined by
- listing the elements - the Roster Method
e.g. A = {a, e, i, o, u};
- defining elements by stating a property - the
Set-Builder method
e.g. A = {x | x is a primary vowel}
If a is an element of the set A, write a A.
If a is NOT an element of A, write a A.
The UNIVERSAL SET is the set of all objects or
elements possibly of interest in the problem.
Label it U.
The EMPTY SET is a set containing no objects.
Label it . = { }. (a set with no elements).
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Two sets A and B are said to be EQUAL if and
only if they contain the exact same collection
of objects. Write A = B .
A set A is a SUBSET of a set B if every element
in A is also an element of B. Write A B or
A B .
If A is not a subset of B, write A B .
Note: A = B iff A B and B A .
Every set is a SUBSET of the universal set.
(i.e. A U for every set A)
Every set is a SUBSET of itself (i.e. A A).
The empty set is a subset of every set
(i.e. A for every set A).
A set containing n elements has exactly 2
n
subsets. For example, the 2
3
= 8 subsets of
the set A = {a, b, c} are as follows:
= { }, {a}, {b}, {c},
{a, b}, {a, c}, {b, c}, A = {a, b, c}.
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ALGEBRA OF SETS
The COMPLEMENT of set A is the set
labelled A
C
= A = A' that contains all of
elements in the universal set U that are
NOT contained in the set A.
If e is an element of the set A
C
, then
e is NOT in A .
The INTERSECTION of two sets A and B is
the set labeled A I B that contains all
elements that are in both of sets A and B.
If e is an element of the set A I B , then
e is in A AND e is in B.
(e is in BOTH of A and B)
The UNION of two sets A and B is the set
labelled A U B that contains all elements
in A together with all elements in B .
If e is an element of the set A U B , then
e is in A OR e is in B
(or e is in ONE or BOTH of A and B)
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Two sets A and B are DISJOINT if their
intersection is empty; i.e. A I B = .
For any set A and its complement A
C
,
A A I
C
= and A U A
C
= U .
A PARTITION of a set A is a break-up of the
set into two or more disjoint sets whose
union is the set A.
Examples:
1. A and A
C
form a partition of U .
2. A I B and A B I
C
partition the set A .
SOME SUBSET PROPERTIES
For any two sets A and B,
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1.
2.
3.
A I B A and A I B B
A A U B and B A U B
A I B A U B
