Lecture 1

Review of Fundamentals

Major parts with MIT Press, Pearson and Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
To Start Off
…the goals for this lecture

1. The student will be able to identify, use set properties and set notation,
perform set operations, and solve applications involving sets.

2. The student will be able to distinguish numbers

3. The student will understand properties of point set in Rn

4. The student will understand different functions and know how to construct
mathematical models

1
Agenda
Today’s Setup

1. Sets and subsets

2. Numbers

3. Some properties of point sets

4. Functions

2
 Sets and subset

Sets and Elements

A set is a collection of items, referred to as the elements of
the set.

Visualizing a Set

3
 Sets and subset

Quick Examples

We usually use a capital W = {Amazon, eBay, Apple}

letter to name a set and N = {1, 2, 3, . . .}
braces to enclose the
elements of a set.

x  A means that x is an Amazon  W (W as above)

element of the set A. Microsoft  W 2N
If x is not an element of A,
we write x  A.

4
 Sets and subset

Quick Examples

B = A means that A and B {5, –9, 1, 3} = {–9, 1, 3, 5}

have the same elements. {1, 2, 3, 4}  {1, 2, 3, 6}
The order in which the
elements are listed does
not matter.

B  A means that B is a {eBay, Apple}  W

subset of A; every element {1, 2, 3, 4}  {1, 2, 3, 4}
of B is also an element of A.

5
 Sets and subset

If all the elements in a set B are Quick Examples

in a set A , but not all the
elements of A are in B, {eBay, Apple}  W
then B is a proper subset of A , {1, 2, 3}  {1, 2, 3, 4}
and we write {1, 2, 3}  N (N as above)
B  A means that B is a
proper subset of A: B  A,
but B  A.

∅ is the empty set , the ∅W

set containing no elements. ∅W
It is a subset of every set.

A finite set has finitely W = {Amazon, eBay, Apple}

many elements. An infinite is a finite set.
set does not have finitely N = {1, 2, 3, . . .} is an
many elements. infinite set.

6
 Sets and subset
Example

Example: List all the subsets of set A = {b, c, d}

7
 Sets and subset

One type of set we’ll use often is the set of outcomes of some activity or experiment.

For example, if we toss a coin and observe which side faces up, there are two possible
outcomes: heads (H) and tails (T). The set of outcomes of tossing a coin once can be
written

S = {H, T}.
Some economic examples

• The set of firms producing a particular good  industry for that good.

• The set of buyers and sellers of a good  market for that good.

• The set of quantities of goods and services that a consumer is physically capable of
consuming  consumption set for the consumer.

• The set of bundles of goods and services that a consumer can afford to buy
 budget set of the consumer.

• The set of output quantities a firm is technologically capable of producing and the input
quantities required to produce these  production set for the firm.

8
 Sets and subset
Venn Diagrams

We can visualize sets and relations between sets using

Venn diagrams.

In a Venn diagram we represent a set as a region, often a

disk

The elements of A are the points inside the region.

9
 Sets and subset
Venn Diagrams

The following Venn diagrams illustrate the relations.

Venn Diagrams for Set Relations

10
 Sets and subset
Venn Diagrams

Example – Customer Interests

NobelBooks.com maintains a database of customers and the types of books
they have purchased. In the company’s database is the set of customers

S = {Einstein, Bohr, Millikan, Heisenberg, Schrödinger,

Dirac}.
A search of the database for customers who have purchased cookbooks yields
the subset

A = {Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Dirac}.

Another search, this time for customers who have purchased mysteries, yields
the subset
B = {Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger}.
NobelBooks.com wants to promote a new combination mystery/cookbook and
wants to target two subsets of customers: those who have purchased either
cookbooks or mysteries (or both) and, for additional promotions, those who
have purchased both cookbooks and mysteries. Name the customers in each
of these subsets.
11
 Sets and subset
Venn Diagrams

Example – Customer Interests

The set of customers who have purchased either cookbooks or mysteries (or
both) consists of the customers who are in A or B or both: Einstein, Bohr,
Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Dirac.

The set of customers who have purchased both cookbooks and mysteries
consists of the customers in the overlap of A and B, Bohr and Heisenberg.
12
 Sets and subset
Set operations

The union of two sets A and B is the set of all

elements formed by combining all the elements of
set A and all the elements of set B into one set. It is
written A  B.
A  B = { x | x A or x B }.

13
 Sets and subset
Set operations

Example of Union
The union of the rational numbers with the set of irrational
numbers is the set of real numbers. Rational numbers are
those numbers that can be expressed as fractions, while
irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be represented
exactly as fractions, such as .
Irrational numbers
such as square root
of two, pi , square
Rational numbers,
root of 3
such as ¾, 2/3 , 0.6

Real numbers: represented

by entire shaded region

14
 Sets and subset
Set operations

The intersection of two sets A and B is the set of all

elements that are common to both A and B. It is
written A  B.
A  B = { x | x A and x B }.

Quick Examples
If A = {a, b, c, d} and B = {c, d, e, f}, then

1. A  B =
2. 2. A  B =
15
 Sets and subset
Set operations

The set of all elements under consideration is called the

universal set U.
Example: the universal set may consist of the set of real
numbers. All other types of numbers (integers, rational numbers,
irrational numbers ) are subsets of the universal set of real
numbers.
The complement of a set A is defined as the set of elements that
are contained in U, the universal set, but not contained in set A.
𝐴 𝑜𝑟 A '  {x  U x  A}
Note:

Quick Example
If U = {a, b, c, d, e, f, g} and A = {a, b, c,
d}, then A =
16
 Sets and subset
Set operations

If two sets have no elements in common,

they are said to be disjoint. Two sets A and
B are disjoint if
A  B = .
Example: The rational and irrational
numbers are disjoint.

17
 Set Operations

A partition of the universal set U is a collection of disjoint subsets of

U, the union of which is U.

S denotes the collection of subsets,

is a partition of U.

18
 Set Operations

Note:

Example:

Note:

19
 Sets and subset
Set operations - Application

A marketing survey of 1,000 commuters found that 600

answered listen to the news, 500 listen to music, and
300 listen to both. Let N = set of commuters in the
sample who listen to news and M = set of commuters in
the sample who listen to music. Find the number of
commuters in the set N  M '

The number of elements in a set A is denoted by n(A),

so in this case we are looking for
n( N  M ')

20
 Sets and subset
Set operations - Application

Solution
The study is based on 1000 commuters, so n(U)=1000.
The number of elements in the four sections in the Venn diagram need
to add up to 1000.
The red part represents the commuters who listen to both news and
music. It has 300 elements.

The set N (news listeners) consists of a

green part and a red part. N has 600
elements, the red part has 300, so the
green part must also be 300.
Continue in this fashion.

21
 Sets and subset
Set operations - Application

U 200 people listen to

neither news nor music N M '
is the green part,
N M which contains
300 listen 200 300 commuters.
to news listen to
but not music
music. but not
news

300 listen to both

music and news

22
 Set Operations

Example

Solution

23
Agenda
Today’s Setup

1. Sets and subsets

2. Numbers

3. Some properties of point sets

4. Functions

24
 Numbers

The set of numbers used for counting is the natural numbers. The set
of whole numbers includes 0 with the natural numbers.
Natural Numbers and Whole Numbers
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5…} is the set of natural numbers (or counting numbers).
{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…} is the set of whole numbers.
Rational Numbers
{x | x is a quotient of two integers, with denominator not 0} is the set of
rational numbers.

25
 Numbers

Irrational Numbers
{x | x is a nonrational number represented by a point on a number line}
is the set of irrational numbers.

Real Numbers
{x | x is a rational or an irrational number} is the set of real numbers.

26
 Numbers

List the numbers in the following set that belong to each set of
numbers.

 3 5 
5,  , 1 ,0,0.45, , 11 
 5 8 
a. Whole numbers: 0
b. Integers: 5, 0
3 5
c. Rational numbers: 5,  1 ,0,0.45,
5 8
d. Irrational numbers:  , 11

27
Numbers
The Real Numbers and Their Properties

28
Numbers
The Real Numbers and Their Properties

29
 Dimensions of Economic Variables

• Dimensions: particular kinds of units of measured

variables.
Example:

- Cost, revenue, and profit are measured in units of money (dollars)

- A price is measured in terms of units of money per physical unit of a good

(dollars/unit quantity)

- Coal, potatoes, wine will be measured by weight (pounds, kilograms) or

volume (liters, gallons),

• A pure number is a number that does not have a dimension

Example:

30
Agenda
Today’s Setup

1. Sets and subsets

2. Numbers

3. Some properties of point sets

4. Functions

31
 Some properties of point sets in
Cartesian Product

Cartesian Product
The Cartesian product of two sets, A and B, is the set of
all ordered pairs (a, b) with a  A and b  B.

A  B = {(a, b) | a  A and b  B}

In words, A  B is the set of all ordered pairs whose first

component is in A and whose second component is in B.

32
 Some properties of point sets in
Cartesian Product

Quick Examples
1. If A = {a, b} and B = {1, 2, 3}, then

A  B = {(a, 1), (a, 2), (a, 3), (b, 1), (b, 2), (b, 3)}.

Visualizing A  B

2. If S = {H, T}, then

S  S = {(H, H), (H, T), (T, H), (T, T)}.

In other words, if S is the set of outcomes of tossing a

coin once, then S  S is the set of outcomes of tossing a
coin twice. 33
 Some properties of point sets in Rn
Cartesian Product

Example – Representing Cartesian Products

The manager of an automobile dealership has collected data on the number of preowned
Acura, Infiniti, Lexus, and Mercedes cars the dealership has from the 2009, 2010, and
2011 model years. In entering this information on a spreadsheet, the manager would like
to have each spreadsheet cell represent a particular year and make. Describe this set of
cells.
Because each cell represents a year and a make, we can think of the cell as a pair (year,
make), as in (2009, Acura).
Thus, the set of cells can be thought of as a Cartesian product:

Y = {2009, 2010, 2011} Year of car

M = {Acura, Infiniti, Lexus, Mercedes} Make of car

Cells

34
 Some properties of point sets in Rn
Intervals
The intervals are bounded

The intervals are unbounded

above

The intervals unbounded

below.

An interval that is both closed and bounded is called compact.

[a, b] is compact
35
Some properties of point sets in Rn
Intervals
x0 is an interior point of [a, b],
the interval (x0 - ε, x0 + ε) certainly
lies completely inside [a, b],

b is an bounday point of [a, b],

every interval around it, must contain points that
are in [a, b], and points that are not.

36
 Some properties of point sets in Rn

Example: Find the Euclidean distances between the following points:

37
 Some properties of point sets in Rn

Example

Solution

38
Some properties of point sets in Rn

39
Some properties of point sets in Rn

40
 Some properties of point sets in Rn

Example: Find the convex combinations of the points

Solution:

41
Some properties of point sets in Rn

42
Some properties of point sets in Rn

43
Agenda
Today’s Setup

1. Sets and subsets

2. Numbers

3. Some properties of point sets

4. Functions

44
 Functions
Mathematical Models

A mathematical model is a mathematical description (often by means of a function or

an equation) of a real-world phenomenon such as the size of a population, the demand
for a product, the speed of a falling object, the concentration of a product in a chemical
reaction, the life expectancy of a person at birth, or the cost of emission reductions.

The purpose of the model is to understand the phenomenon and perhaps to make
predictions about future behavior.

The modeling process

45
 Functions
Examples

Example 1: The human population of the world P depends on the time t. The
table gives estimates of the world population P(t) at time t, for certain years.
For instance,
Year Population (millions)
P(1950) ≈ 2,560,000,000 1900 1650
1910 1750
But for each value of the time t 1920 1860
there is a corresponding value 1930 2070
of P, and we say that P is a 1940 2300
function of t. 1950 2560
1960 3040
1970 3710
1980 4450
1990 5280
2000 6080
2010 6870

Example 2: The cost C of mailing an envelope depends on its weight w.

Although there is no simple formula that connects w and C, the post
office has a rule for determining C when w is known.
46
 Functions

The set X is called the domain of the function, Y is called the codomain

y is often referred to as the image of x or the value of the function f at x

47
 Functions

A symbol that represents an arbitrary number in the domain of a function f is

called an independent variable.

A symbol that represents a number in the range of f is called a dependent

variable

In Example 1, for instance, t is the independent variable and P is the

dependent variable.

It’s helpful to think of a function as a machine (see Figure below).

Machine diagram for a function f

48
 Functions

Another way to picture a function is by an arrow diagram as in Figure below.

Arrow diagram for f

Each arrow connects an element of D to an element of E.

The arrow indicates that f(x) is associated with x, f(a) is associated with a, and so on.

49
 Functions

The most common method for visualizing a function is its graph. If f is a function with
domain D, then its graph is the set of ordered pairs

 x, f  x  | x  D
In other words, the graph of f consists of all points (x, y) in the coordinate plane such
that y = f(x) and x is in the domain of f.

The graph of a function f gives us a useful picture of the behavior or “life history” of a
function.

50
 Functions
Linear Functions
When we say that y is a linear function of x, we mean that the graph of the function is a line, so
we can use the slope-intercept form of the equation of a line to write a formula for the function as

a is the slope coefficient, y is the dependent variable and x as the independent variable.

intercept term b

51
 Functions
Linear Functions
A characteristic feature of linear functions is that they grow at a constant rate.

Example: a graph of the linear function f (x) = 3x − 2 and a table of sample values.
Notice that whenever x increases by 0.1, the value of f(x) increases by 0.3.

So f(x) increases three times as fast as x. Thus the slope of the graph y = 3x − 2, namely
3, can be interpreted as the rate of change of y with respect to x.

x f(x) = 3x − 2
1.0 1.0
1.1 1.3
1.2 1.6
1.3 1.9
1.4 2.2
1.5 2.5

If there is no rules or principlse to help us formulate a model, we construct an empirical

model, which is based entirely on collected data. We seek a curve that “fits” the data
in the sense that it captures the basic trend of the data points.
52
 Functions
Linear Functions - Application
Example: An anticlot drug can be made for $10 per unit. The total cost to
produce 100 units is $1500.
(a) Assuming that the cost function is linear, find its rule.
Solution:
Since the cost function is linear, its rule is of the form C ( x)  mx  b.
We are given that m (the cost per item) is 10, so the rule is C ( x)  10 x  b.

To find b, use the fact that it costs $1500 to produce 100 units which means
that
C (100)  1500
10(100)  b  1500
1000  b  1500
b  500.
So the rule is C ( x)  10 x  500.
(b) What are the fixed costs?

Solution: The fixed costs are C (0)  10(0)  500  $500.

53
Functions
Linear Functions - Application

54
 Functions
Polynomials Functions (1 of 4)

A function P is called a polynomial if

P  x   an x n  an 1x n 1   a2 x 2  a1x  a0

where n is a nonnegative integer and the numbers a0 , a1, a2 ,..., an

are constants called the coefficients of the polynomial.

A polynomial of degree 1 is of the form P(x) = ax + b and so it is a linear function.

A polynomial of degree 2 is of the form P  x   ax 2  bx  c and is called a

quadratic function.

55
 Functions
Polynomials - Quadratic Functions (2 of 4)

Note:
• convex form, with a > 0, it could be used to depict a typical U-shaped average or
marginal-cost curve,
• concave form, with a < 0, it could depict a typical total-revenue or total-profit curve.
• The unique minimum (in the convex case) or maximum (in the concave case) always
occurs at the point x∗ = -b/2a

56
 Functions
Polynomials - Quadratic Functions – Example (3 of 4)

A ball is dropped from the upper observation deck of the CN Tower, 450m above the ground,
and its height h above the ground is recorded at 1-second intervals in Table

Find a model to fit the data and use the model to predict
the time at which the ball hits the ground.
Time Height
(seconds) (meters)
0 450
1 445
2 431
3 408
4 375
5 332
6 279
7 216
8 143
We draw a scatter plot of the data in Figure above and 9 61
observe that a linear model is inappropriate.
57
 Functions
Polynomials - Quadratic Functions - Example (4 of 4)

Using a graphing calculator or computer algebra system (which uses the least squares
method), we obtain the following quadratic model:

h  449.36  0.96t  4.90t 2

In Figure below we plot the graph of the Equation together with the data points and see that the
quadratic model gives a very good fit.

The ball hits the ground when h = 0, so we

solve the quadratic equation

4.90t 2  0.96t  449.36  0

The quadratic formula gives

 0.96   4  4.90  449.36 

2
0.96  Quadratic model for a falling ball
t
2  4.90 
The positive root is t ≈ 9.67, so we predict that the ball will hit the ground after about
9.7 seconds.
58
 Functions
Polynomials - Application

Question

59
Functions
Polynomials - Application

60
 Applied Example – Supply-Demand for Bluetooth Headsets

The demand function for a certain brand of Bluetooth

wireless headsets is given by

and the corresponding supply function is given by

where p is expressed in dollars and x is measured in units

of a thousand. Find the equilibrium quantity and price.

61
 Applied Example – Supply-Demand for Bluetooth Headsets

We solve the following system of equations:

Substituting the first equation into the second yields

which is equivalent to

Multiply by 1000.

62
 Applied Example – Supply-Demand for Bluetooth Headsets

Thus, or x = 20. Since x must be nonnegative,

the root is rejected.

Therefore, the equilibrium quantity is 20,000 headsets.

63
 Applied Example – Supply-Demand for Bluetooth Headsets

The equilibrium price is given by

or $40 per headset.

The supply curve and the demand curve intersect at the point (20, 40).
64
 Functions
Power Functions

A function of the form f  x   x a , where a is a constant, is called a power function.

We consider several cases.
(i) a = n, where n is a positive integer
The graphs of f  x   x for n = 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are shown in Figure 11.
n

(These are polynomials with only one term.)

We already know the shape of the graphs of y = x (a line through the origin with
slope 1) and y  x 2  a parabola  .

Graphs of f  x   x n for n  1, 2, 3, 4, 5

65
 Functions
Power Functions
1
(ii) a = , where n is a positive integer
n
1
The function f  x   x  n x is a root function. For n = 2 it is the square root
n

function f  x   x , whose domain is [0, ∞) and whose graph is the upper half of
the parabola

For other even values of n, the graph of y  x is similar to that of y  x .

n

For n = 3 we have the cube root function y  3 x .

The graph of y  n x for n odd (n > 3) is similar to that of y  3 x.

66
 Functions
Power Functions

(iii) a = −1
1
The graph of the reciprocal function f  x   x 1 
1 x
Its graph has the equation y  , or xy = 1, and is a hyperbola with the
x
coordinate axes as its asymptotes.

The reciprocal function

67
 Functions
Exponential Functions

The exponential functions are the functions of the form f  x   b x , where the
base b is a positive constant.
The graphs of y  2 x and y   0.5  . In both cases the
x

domain is (−∞, ∞) and the range is (0, ∞).

a y  2x b  y   0.5 
x

68
 Functions
Exponential Functions - Application

Question

69
Functions
Exponential Functions - Application

70
 Functions
Logarithmic Functions

The logarithmic functions f(x) = logbx, where the base b is a positive

constant, are the inverse functions of the exponential functions. Figure below
shows the graphs of four logarithmic functions with various bases.

In each case the domain is (0, ∞), the range is

(−∞, ∞), and the function increases slowly
when x > 1.

71
 Functions
Logarithmic Functions – Application

Question:

72
Functions
Concavity, Convexity

73
Functions
Concavity, Convexity

74
To Wrap Up…
…what have we accomplished in this lecture?

(1) We understood sets and subsets

(2) We reviewed numbers

(3) We understood properties of point sets in Rn

(4) We reviewed different types of functions

75