SET
THEORY
What is SET?
A well defined unordered collection of distinct elements is called SET.
What is NULL SET?
A SET with no elements is called NULL SET. Denoted as φ, { }
What is SUBSET?
If every element of A is also element of B then A is SUBSET of B.
What is PROPER SUBSET?
Any SUBSET of A which is not a trivial subset of A is called PROPER SUBSET of A.
What is CARDINALITY?
Total number of elements in SET.
What is SET?
A well defined unordered collection of distinct elements is called SET.
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.
Representation of Sets
Sets can be represented in two ways:
Roster Form or Tabular form
Set Builder Form
Roster Form or Tabular 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}
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}
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}
F = {p: p is a set of two-digit perfect square numbers}
F = {16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81}
Types of Sets
Finite set: The number of elements is finite. Ex: Set A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
Infinite set: The number of elements are infinite. Ex: Set B = {x | 0 < x < 1}, x=real nos.
Empty set: It has no elements. Ex: Set A = ∅, Set B = {x | x is a human with three heads}.
Singleton set: It has one only element. Ex: Set A = {7}
Equal set: Two sets are equal if they have same elements. Ex: Set A = {1, 2, 3}, Set B = {3, 2, 1}
Equivalent set: Two sets are equivalent if they have same number of elements. Ex: Set A = {1, 2, 3}, Set B =
{apple, banana, cherry}
Power set: A set of every possible subset. If a set has nnn elements, its power set will have 2^n subsets. Ex:
Let Set A = {1, 2}, P(A) = {∅, {1}, {2}, {1, 2}}
Universal set: Any set that contains all the sets under consideration. Ex: Let the universal set U represent
all natural numbers: U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ...}. If you have a set A = {2, 4, 6}, then Set A is a subset of the
universal set U.
Subset: When all the elements of set A belong to set B, then A is subset of B. A ⊆ B. Ex: Let Set A = {1, 2}
Let Set B = {1, 2, 3, 4}. Here, every element of Set A (1 and 2) is also an element of Set B. Therefore, A ⊆ B
(Set A is a subset of Set B).
Set Theory Symbols
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.
Positive and negative integers are denoted by Z+ and Z– respectively.
Z
Examples: -12, 0, 23045, etc.
Represents the set of Rational numbers. Positive and negative rational numbers are
Q
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.
C Represents the set of Complex numbers. Examples: 4 + 3i, i, etc.
Notations
Symbol Symbol Name Symbol Symbol Name
{} set A⊅B not superset
A∪B A union B Ø empty set
A∩B A intersection B P (C) power set
A⊆B A is subset of B A=B Equal set
c
A⊄B A is not subset B A Complement of A
A⊂B proper subset / strict subset a∈B a element of B
A⊃B proper superset / strict superset x∉A x not element of A
A⊇B superset
Notations
A ∪ B:
The union of two sets A and B is the set that contains all the elements from both sets, without
duplicates. It is denoted by A∪B .
Example: Set A = {1, 2, 3}, {3, 4, 5} A∪B={1,2,3,4,5}
A ∩ B:
The intersection of two sets A and B is the set that contains all the elements that are common to both
sets. It is denoted by A∩B .
Example: Set A = {1, 2, 3, 4}, Set B = {3, 4, 5, 6} A∩B={3,4}
A ⊆ B:
The notation A⊆B indicates that set A is a subset of set B. This means that every element in set A is also
contained within set B.
Example: Set A = {2, 4} Set B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
Notations
A ⊄ B:
The notation A⊈B indicates that set A is not a subset of set B. This means that there is at least one
element in set A that is not present in set B.
Example: Set A = {1, 2, 3, 8}, Set B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
A ⊂ B:
The notation A⊂B indicates that set A is a proper subset of set B. This means that all elements of set A
are contained in set B, and there is at least one element in set B that is not in set A
Example: Set A = {1, 2}, Set B = {1, 2, 3, 4}
A ⊃ B:
The notation A⊃B indicates that set A is a proper superset of set B. This means that all elements of set
BBB are contained in set A, and there is at least one element in set A that is not in set B.
Example: Set A = {1, 2, 3, 4}, Set B = {1, 2}
Notations
A = B:
The notation A=B indicates that sets A and B are equal. This means that both sets contain exactly the
same elements, regardless of the order of those elements or how many times they might appear (since
sets do not consider duplicates).
Example: Set A = {1, 2, 3}, Set B = {3, 2, 1}
c
A :
c
The notation A denotes the complement of set A. The complement of A includes all the elements in
the universal set U that are not in A.
c
Example: Universal Set U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, Set A = {2, 4}, A =U−A={1,3,5,6}
a∈B:
The notation a∈B means that the element aaa is an element of set B. In other words, a is one of the
members or constituents of the set B.
Example: Set B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, we can say that 3∈B
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)−n(A∩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 Theory Formulas
n( A ∪ B ) = n(A) +n(B) – n (A ∩ B)
n(A∪B): The number of elements in the union of sets A and B (all elements that are in either set).
n(A): The number of elements in set A.
n(B): The number of elements in set B
n(A∩B): The number of elements that are common to both sets A and B.
Set Theory Formulas
n(A∪B)=n(A)+n(B) {when A and B are disjoint sets}
Disjoint sets are sets that have no elements in common, meaning their intersection is empty.
n(A∪B): The number of elements in the union of sets A and B (all elements that are in either set).
n(A): The number of elements in set A.
n(B): The number of elements in set B.
Set Theory Formulas
n(U)=n(A)+n(B)–n(A∩B)+n((A∪B)c)
n(U): The number of elements in the universal set U.
n(A): The number of elements in set A.
n(B): The number of elements in set B.
n(A∩B): The number of elements that are common to both sets A and B.
n((A∪B)c): The number of elements in the complement of the union of sets A and B, which means
all elements in the universal set that are not in A or B.
Set Theory Formulas
n(A∪B)=n(A−B)+n(B−A)+n(A∩B)
n(A∪B): The number of elements in the union of sets A and B (all elements that are in either set).
n(A−B): The number of elements that are in set A but not in set B. This represents the elements
unique to set A.
n(B−A): The number of elements that are in set B but not in set A. This represents the elements
unique to set B.
n(A∩B): The number of elements that are common to both sets A and B . This represents the
elements that both sets share.
Set Theory Formulas
n(A−B)=n(A)−n(A∩B)
n(A−B): The number of elements in set A that are not in set B (the set difference).
n(A): The total number of elements in set A.
n(A∩B): The number of elements that are common to both sets A and B.
Set Theory Formulas
n(Ac)=n(U)−n(A)
n(Ac): The number of elements in the complement of set A, which includes all elements in the
universal set U that are not in A.
n(U): The total number of elements in the universal set U.
n(A): The number of elements in set A.
Set Theory Formulas
n(PUQUR)=n(P)+n(Q)+n(R)–n(P⋂Q)–n(Q⋂R)–n(R⋂P)+n(P⋂Q⋂R)
n(P∪Q∪R): The number of elements in the union of sets P, Q, and R (all elements that are in at
least one of the sets).
n(P): The number of elements in set P.
n(Q): The number of elements in set Q.
n(R): The number of elements in set R.
n(P∩Q): The number of elements common to sets P and Q.
n(Q∩R): The number of elements common to sets Q and R.
n(R∩P): The number of elements common to sets R and P.
n(P∩Q∩R): The number of elements common to all three sets P, Q, and R.
Problems
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).
Problems
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).
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 }
Problems
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)′.
Problems
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)′.
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}.
Properties of Union of Sets
Commutative Law:
The union of two or more sets follows the commutative law i.e., if we have two sets A and B then,
A∪B=B∪A
Example: A = {a, b} and B = {b, c, d}
So, A∪B = {a, b, c, d}
B∪A = {b, c, d, a}
Since, in both the union, the group of elements is same. Therefore, it satisfies commutative law.
A∪B=B∪A
Properties of Union of Sets
Associative Law:
The union operation follows the associative law i.e., if we have three sets A, B and C then
(A ∪ B) ∪ C = A ∪ (B ∪ C)
Example: A = {a, b} and B = {b, c, d} and C = {a, c, e}
(A ∪ B) ∪ C = {a, b, c, d} ∪ {a, c, e} = {a, b, c, d, e}
A ∪ (B ∪ C) = {a, b} ∪ {b, c, d, e} = {a, b, c, d, e}
Hence, associative law proved.
Properties of Union of Sets
Identity Law:
The union of an empty set with any set A gives the set itself i.e.,
A∪∅=A
Suppose, A = {a, b, c} and ∅ = {}
then, A ∪ ∅ = {a, b, c} ∪ {} = {a, b, c}
Properties of Union of Sets
Idempotent Law:
The union of any set A with itself gives the set A i.e.,
A∪A=A
Suppose, A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
then A ∪ A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ∪ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = A
Properties of Union of Sets
Domination Law:
The union of a universal set U with its subset A gives the universal set itself.
A∪U=U
Suppose, A = {1, 2, 4, 7} and U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
then A ∪ U = {1, 2, 4, 7} ∪ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} = U
Hence, proved.
Problems on Union of Sets
If set A contains 13 elements, set B contains 8 elements and the intersection of these two sets
contains 5 elements, then find the number of elements in A union B.
Given,
Number of elements in set A = n(A) = 13
Number of elements in set B = n(B) = 8
Number of elements in A intersection B = n(A ∩ B) = 5
We know that,
n(A U B) = n(A) + n(B) – n(A ∩ B)
= 13 + 8 – 5
= 21 – 5
= 16
Therefore, the number of elements in A union B = n(A U B) = 16.
