Set Theory

Set Theory is a branch of mathematical logic where we learn sets and their properties. A set is a
collection of objects or groups of objects. These objects are often called elements or members of
a set. For example, a group of players in a cricket team is a set.

Since the number of players in a cricket team could be only 11 at a time, thus we can say, this set
is a finite set. Another example of a finite set is a set of English vowels. But there are many sets
that have infinite members such as a set of natural numbers, a set of whole numbers, set of real
numbers, set of imaginary numbers, etc.

Set Theory Origin

Georg Cantor (1845-1918), a German mathematician, initiated the concept ‘Theory of sets’ or ‘Set
Theory’. While working on “Problems on Trigonometric Series”, he encountered sets that have
become one of the most fundamental concepts in mathematics. Without understanding sets, it will
be difficult to explain the other concepts such as relations, functions, sequences, probability,
geometry, etc.

Definition of Sets
As we have already learned in the introduction, set is a well-defined collection of objects or people.
Sets can be related to many real-life examples, such as the number of rivers in India, number of
colours in a rainbow, etc.

Example

To understand sets, consider a practical scenario. While going to school from home, Nivy decided
to note down the names of restaurants which come in between. The list of the restaurants, in the
order they came, was:

The above-mentioned list is a collection of objects. Also, it is well-defined. By well-defined, it is

meant that anyone should be able to tell whether the object belongs to the particular collection or
not. E. g. a stationary shop can’t come in the category of the restaurants. If the collection of objects
is well-defined, it is known as a set.

The objects in a set are referred to as elements of the set. A set can have finite or infinite elements.
While coming back from the school, Nivy wanted to confirm the list what she had made earlier.
This time again, she wrote the list in the order in which restaurants came. The new list was:
Now, this is a different list. But is a different set? The answer is no. The order of elements has no
significance in sets so it is still the same set.

Representation of Sets
Sets can be represented in two ways:

1. Roster Form or Tabular form

2. Set Builder Form

Roster Form

In roster form, all the elements of the set are listed, separated by commas and enclosed between
curly braces { }.

Example: If set represents all the leap years between the year 1995 and 2015, then it would be
described using Roster form as:

A ={1996,2000,2004,2008,2012}

Now, the elements inside the braces are written in ascending order. This could be descending order
or any random order. As discussed before, the order doesn’t matter for a set represented in the
Roster Form.

Also, multiplicity is ignored while representing the sets. E.g. If L represents a set that contains all
the letters in the word ADDRESS, the proper Roster form representation would be

L ={A,D,R,E,S }= {S,E,D,A,R}

L≠ {A,D,D,R,E,S,S}

Example 1 − Set of vowels in English alphabet, A = { a,e,i,o,u }

Example 2 − Set of odd numbers less than 10, B = { 1,3,5,7,9 }

Set Builder Form

In set builder form, all the elements have a common property. This property is not applicable to
the objects that do not belong to the set.

Example: If set S has all the elements which are even prime numbers, it is represented as:

S={ x: x is an even prime number}

where ‘x’ is a symbolic representation that is used to describe the element.

‘:’ means ‘such that’

‘{}’ means ‘the set of all’

So, S = { x:x is an even prime number } is read as ‘the set of all x such that x is an even prime
number’. The roster form for this set S would be S = 2. This set contains only one element. Such
sets are called singleton/unit sets.

Another Example:

F = {p: p is a set of two-digit perfect square numbers}

How?

F = {16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81}

We can see, in the above example, 16 is a square of 4, 25 is square of 5, 36 is square of 6, 49 is

square of 7, 64 is square of 8 and 81 is a square of 9}.

Even though, 4, 9, 121, etc., are also perfect squares, but they are not elements of the set F, because
the it is limited to only two-digit perfect square.

Example 1 − The set { a,e,i,o,u } is written as −

A = { x : x is a vowel in English alphabet }

Example 2 − The set { 1,3,5,7,9 } is written as −

B = { x : 1 ≤ x < 10 and (x % 2) ≠ 0 }

Types of Sets
The sets are further categorised into different types, based on elements or types of elements.
These different types of sets in basic set theory are:

 Finite set: The number of elements is finite

 Infinite set: The number of elements are infinite
 Empty set: It has no elements
 Singleton set: It has one only element
 Equal set: Two sets are equal if they have same elements
 Equivalent set: Two sets are equivalent if they have same number of elements
 Power set: A set of every possible subset.
  Universal set: Any set that contains all the sets under consideration.
 Subset: When all the elements of set A belong to set B, then A is subset of B

Sets are a well-defined collection of objects. Objects that a set contains are called the elements of
the set. We can also consider sets as collections of elements that have a common feature. For
example, the collection of even numbers is called the set of even numbers.

What is Set?
A well-defined collection of Objects or items or data is known as a set. The objects or data are
known as the element. For Example, the boys in a classroom can be put in one set, all integers
from 1 to 100 can become one set, and all prime numbers can be called an Infinite set. The
symbol used for sets is {…..}. Only the collection of data with specific characteristics is called a
set.

Example: Separate out the collections that can be placed in a set.

 Beautiful Girls in a class

 All even numbers
 Good basketball players
 Natural numbers divisible by 3
 Number from 1 to 10

Answer:

Anything that tries to define a certain quality or characteristics can not be put in a set. Hence,
from the above given Collection of data.

The ones that can be a set,

 All even numbers

 Natural numbers divisible by 3.
 Number from 1 to 10

The ones that cannot be a set,

 Beautiful girls in the park

 Good basketball players

Types of Sets in Mathematics

Sets are the collection of different elements belonging to the same category and there can be
different types of sets seen. A set may have an infinite number of elements, may have no
elements at all, may have some elements, may have just one element, and so on. Based on all
these different ways, sets are classified into different types.
The different types of sets are:

Singleton Set

Singleton Sets are those sets that have only 1 element present in them.

Example:

 Set A= {1} is a singleton set as it has only one element, that is, 1.
 Set P = {a : a is an even prime number} is a singleton set as it has only one element 2.

Similarly, all the sets that contain only one element are known as Singleton sets.

Empty Set

Empty sets are also known as Null sets or Void sets. They are the sets with no element/elements
in them. They are denoted as ϕ.

Example:

 Set A= {a: a is a number greater than 5 and less than 3}

 Set B= {p: p are the students studying in class 7 and class 8}

Finite Set

Finite Sets are those which have a finite number of elements present, no matter how much
they’re increasing number, as long as they are finite in nature, They will be called a Finite set.

Example:

 Set A= {a: a is the whole number less than 20}

 Set B = {a, b, c, d, e}

Infinite Set

Infinite Sets are those that have an infinite number of elements present, cases in which the
number of elements is hard to determine are known as infinite sets.

Example:

 Set A= {a: a is an odd number}

 Set B = {2,4,6,8,10,12,14,…..}

Equal Set
Two sets having the same elements and an equal number of elements are called equal sets. The
elements in the set may be rearranged, or they may be repeated, but they will still be equal sets.

Example:

 Set A = {1, 2, 6, 5}
 Set B = {2, 1, 5, 6}

In the above example, the elements are 1, 2, 5, 6. Therefore, A= B.

Equivalent Set

Equivalent Sets are those which have the same number of elements present in them. It is
important to note that the elements may be different in both sets but the number of elements
present is equal. For Instance, if a set has 6 elements in it, and the other set also has 6 elements
present, they are equivalent sets.

Example:

Set A= {2, 3, 5, 7, 11}

Set B = {p, q, r, s, t}

Set A and Set B both have 5 elements hence, both are equivalent sets.

Subset

Set A will be called the Subset of Set B if all the elements present in Set A already belong to Set
B. The symbol used for the subset is ⊆

If A is a Subset of B, It will be written as A ⊆ B

Example:

Set A= {33, 66, 99}

Set B = {22, 11, 33, 99, 66}

Then, Set A ⊆ Set B

Power Set

Power set of any set A is defined as the set containing all the subsets of set A. It is denoted by
the symbol P(A) and read as Power set of A.
For any set A containing n elements, the total number of subsets formed is 2n. Thus, the power
set of A, P(A) has 2n elements.

Example: For any set A = {a,b,c}, the power set of A is?

Solution:

Power Set P(A) is,

P(A) = {ϕ, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {b, c}, {c, a}, {a, b, c}}

Universal Set

A universal set is a set that contains all the elements of the rest of the sets. It can be said that all
the sets are the subsets of Universal sets. The universal set is denoted as U.

Example: For Set A = {a, b, c, d} and Set B = {1,2} find the universal set containing both
sets.

Solution:

Universal Set U is,

U = {a, b, c, d, e, 1, 2}

Disjoint Sets

For any two sets A and B which do have no common elements are called Disjoint Sets. The
intersection of the Disjoint set is ϕ, now for set A and set B A∩B = ϕ.

Example: Check whether Set A ={a, b, c, d} and Set B= {1,2} are disjoint or not.

Solution:

Set A ={a, b, c, d}
Set B= {1,2}

Here, A∩B = ϕ

Thus, Set A and Set B are disjoint sets.

Solved Examples on Types of Sets

Example 1: Represent a universal set on a Venn Diagram.
Solution:

Universal Sets are those that contain all the sets in it. In the below given Venn diagram, Set A
and B are given as examples for better understanding of Venn Diagram.

Example:

Set A= {1,2,3,4,5}, Set B = {1,2, 5, 0}

U= {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

Example 2: Which of the given below sets are equal and which are equivalent in nature?

 Set A= {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}

 Set B= {a, b, c, d, e}
 Set C= {c: c ∈ N, c is an even number, c ≤ 10}
 Set D = {1, 2, 5, 10}
 Set E= {x, y, z}

Solution:

Equivalent sets are those which have the equal number of elements, whereas, Equal sets are
those which have the equal number of elements present as well as the elements are same in the
set.

Equivalent Sets = Set A, Set B, Set C.

Equal Sets = Set A, Set C.

Example 3: Determine the types of the below-given sets,

 Set A= {a: a is the number divisible by 10}

 Set B = {2, 4, 6}
 Set C = {p}
 Set D= {n, m, o, p}
 Set E= ϕ

Solution:

From the knowledge gained above in the article, the above-mentioned sets can easily be
identified.

 Set A is an Infinite set.

 Set B is a Finite set
 Set C is a singleton set
 Set D is a Finite set
 Set E is a Null set

Example 4: Explain which of the following sets are subsets of Set P,

Set P = {0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20}

 Set A = {a, 1, 0, 2}
 Set B ={0, 2, 4}
 Set C = {1, 4, 6, 10}
 Set D = {2, 20}
 Set E ={18, 16, 2, 10}

Solution:

 Set A has elements a, 1, which are not present in the Set P. Therefore, set A is not a Subset.
 Set B has elements which are present in set P, Therefore, Set B ⊆ Set P
 Set C has 1 as an extra element. Hence, not a subset of P
 Set D has 2, 20 as element. Therefore, Set D ⊆ Set P
 Set E has all its elements matching the elements of set P. Hence, Set E ⊆ Set P.

Question 1: What are sets?

Answer:

Sets are well-defined collections of objects.

Example: The collection of Tata cars in the parking lot is a set.

Question 2: What are Sub Sets?

Answer:

Subsets of any set are defined as sets that contain some elements of the given set. For example, If
set A contains some elements of set B set A is called the subset of set B.

Question 3: How many types of sets are present?

Answer:

Different types of sets used in mathematics are

 Empty Set
 Non-Empty Set
 Finite Set
 Infinite Set
 Singleton Set
 Equivalent Set
 Subset
 Superset
 Power Set
 Universal Set

Question 4: What is the difference between, ϕ and {ϕ}?

Answer:

The difference between ϕ and {ϕ} is

 ϕ = this symbol is used to represent the null set, therefore, when only this symbol is given, the
set is a Null set or empty set.
 {ϕ}= In this case, the symbol is present inside the brackets used to denote a set, and therefore,
now the symbol is acting like an element. Hence, this is a Singleton set.

Set Theory Symbols

There are several symbols that are adopted for common sets. They are given in the table below:
Table 1: Symbols denoting common sets

Symbol Corresponding Set

Represents the set of all Natural numbers i.e. all the positive integers.

N This can also be represented by Z+.

Examples: 9, 13, 906, 607, etc.

Represents the set of all integers

The symbol is derived from the German word Zahl, which means number.
Z
Positive and negative integers are denoted by Z+ and Z– respectively.

Examples: -12, 0, 23045, etc.

Represents the set of Rational numbers

The symbol is derived from the word Quotient. It is defined as the quotient of two
integers (with non-zero denominator)
Q
Positive and negative rational numbers are denoted by Q+ and Q– respectively.

Examples: 13/9. -6/7, 14/3, etc.

Represents the Real numbers i.e. all the numbers located on the number line.

R Positive and negative real numbers are denoted by R+ and R– respectively.

Examples: 4.3, π, 4√ 3, etc.

Represents the set of Complex numbers.
C
Examples: 4 + 3i, i, etc.

Other Notations

Symbol Symbol Name

{} set
A∪B A union B
A∩B A intersection B
A⊆B A is subset of B
A ⊄ B A is not subset B
A ⊂ B proper subset / strict subset
A ⊃ B proper superset / strict superset
A⊇B superset
A⊅B not superset
Ø empty set
P (C) power set
A=B Equal set
Ac Complement of A
a∈B a element of B
x∉A x not element of A

Set Theory Formulas

 n( A ∪ B ) = n(A) +n(B) – n (A ∩ B)
 n(A∪B)=n(A)+n(B) {when A and B are disjoint sets}
 n(U)=n(A)+n(B)–n(A∩B)+n((A∪B)c)
 n(A∪B)=n(A−B)+n(B−A)+n(A∩B)
 n(A−B)=n(A∩B)−n(B)
 n(A−B)=n(A)−n(A∩B)
 n(Ac)=n(U)−n(A)
 n(PUQUR)=n(P)+n(Q)+n(R)–n(P⋂Q)–n(Q⋂R)–n(R⋂P)+n(P⋂Q⋂R)

Set Operations
The four important set operations that are widely used are:

 Union of sets
 Intersection of sets
 Complement of sets
 Difference of sets

Fundamental Properties of Set operations:

Like addition and multiplication operation in algebra, the operations such as union and
intersection in set theory obeys the properties of associativity and commutativity. Also, the
intersection of sets distributes over the union of sets.

Sets are used to describe one of the most important concepts in mathematics i.e. functions.
Everything that you observe around you, is achieved with mathematical models which are
formulated, interpreted and solved by functions.

Problems and Solutions

Q.1: If U = {a, b, c, d, e, f}, A = {a, b, c}, B = {c, d, e, f}, C = {c, d, e}, find (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C).
Solution: A ∩ B = {a, b, c} ∩ {c, d, e, f}

A∩B={c}

A ∩ C = { a, b, c } ∩ { c, d, e }

A∩C={c}

∴ (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C) = { c }

Q.2: Give examples of finite sets.

Solution: The examples of finite sets are:

Set of months in a year

Set of days in a week

Set of natural numbers less than 20

Set of integers greater than -2 and less than 3

Q.3: If U = {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11}, A = {3, 5, 7, 9, 11} and B = {7, 8, 9, 10, 11}, Then
find (A – B)′.

Solution: A – B is a set of member which belong to A but do not belong to B

∴ A – B = {3, 5, 7, 9, 11} – {7, 8, 9, 10, 11}

A – B = {3, 5}

According to formula,

(A − B)′ = U – (A – B)

∴ (A − B)′ = {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11} – {3, 5}

(A − B)′ = {2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11}.