SET THEORY

Module Overview
Sets are fundamental mathematical structures used in various branches of mathematics. This
module introduces the concept of sets, their properties, operations, and their theoretical
significance.

Objectives:

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

1. Define and describe sets and their various types.

2. Perform basic set operations such as union, intersection, difference, and complement.
3. Apply set notation and set builder notation correctly.
4. Solve problems involving Cartesian products and symmetric differences.
5. Use set theory concepts to analyze real-world problems.

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO SETS

Set Theory

Set theory is a branch of mathematics that deals with collections of objects. These
collections are called sets. A set is an unordered collection of different elements in other words,
a set is simply a group of distinct things, like numbers, letters, or even everyday objects, that
are grouped together based on some common property.

A set can be written explicitly by listing its elements using set bracket. If the order of the
elements is changed or any element of a set is repeated, it does not make any changes in the
set.

A set is a well-defined collection of distinct objects. These objects are called elements or
members of the set.

Some Example of Sets

• A set of all positive integers
• A set of all the planets in the solar system
• A set of all the states in India
• A set of all the lowercase letters of the alphabet

Notation: Sets are written using curly braces {}.

o Example: {2, 4, 6} is a set of even numbers.

Membership: If something is in a set, we say it is an element of the set, denoted by ∈. If not,

we use ∉.
o Example: In the set {1, 2, 3}, 2 ∈ {1, 2, 3} but 5 ∉ {1, 2, 3}.

Example:
A= {Football, basketball, volleyball, cricket, badminton}
A set of different outdoor games, all the games mentioned are different, but they all are
similar in one way as they belong to the same group (outdoor games).
The set is denoted as a capital letter, for example, set A, set B, etc., and the elements belonging
to the set are denoted as a small letter, and they are kept in curly brackets {}, for example, set
A= {a, b, c, d}, as it is clear that a, b, c, d belong to set A, it can be written a ∈ A, do p belong to
set A? No. Therefore, it will be written as, p∉ A.
Representation of Sets

Sets can be represented in two ways −

1. Roster Notation
2. Set Builder Notation

1. Roster Notation

The set is represented by listing all the elements comprising it. The elements are enclosed
within braces and separated by commas. Only used with discrete sets (countable, not
continuous).

Properties of Roster Form relations of Sets:

• The arrangement in the Roster form does not necessarily to be in the same order every
time. For example, A= {a, b, c, d, e} is equal to A= {e, d, a, c, b}.

• The elements are not repeated in the set in Roster form, for example, the word “apple”
will be written as, A= {a, p, l, e}

• The Finite sets are represented either with all the elements or if the elements are too
much, they are represented as dots in the middle. The infinite sets are represented with
dots in the end.

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}

Example 3 – Set of prime numbers that is less than 20, C = {2,3,5,7,11,13,7,19}

2. Set Builder Notation

The set is defined by specifying a property that elements of the set have in common. The set is
described as A={x:p(x)}

Properties of Set-builder form:

• In order to write the set in Set- builder form, the data should follow a certain pattern.

• Colons (:) are necessary in Set-builder form.

• After colon, the statement is to be written.

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

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

Read as “A is the set of all x such that 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}

Read as “B is the set of all x such that x is greater than or equal to 1, less than 10 and x
is not divisible by 2.”

Example 3 – The set {2,3,5,7,11,13,7,19}

C = {x:x is a prime number and x<20}
 Read as “C is the set of all x such that x is a prime number and x is less than 20.”

Some Important Sets

N − the set of all natural numbers (Counting Numbers) {1,2,3,4,.....}
W − the set of all whole numbers (Zero and N) {0,1,2,3,4,……}
Z − the set of all integers (±W) {.....,−3,−2,−1,0,1,2,3,.....}
Z+ − the set of all positive integers (+W) {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,…..}
𝑎 𝑎
Q − the set of all rational numbers (set of all 𝑏 where a and b is equal to Z, b ≠ 0, and 𝑏 is in its
lowest term)
R − the set of all real numbers (all above)
C – the set of all Complex numbers (a + bi, where a is a real number and i represents the
imaginary number)

Order of the Set/Cardinality of the Set

The order of the Set is determined by the number of elements present in the Set. For
example, if there are 10 elements in the set, the order of the set becomes 10. For finite sets,
the order of the set is finite, and for infinite sets, the order of the set is infinite ∞.

Activity #1

Write it in a 1/4 sheet of yellow paper.

• List at least five different sets using the roster method.

• Convert the following roster sets into set builder notation:
1. {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}
2. {a, e, i, o, u}
3. {January, March, May, July, August, October, December}

LESSON 2. TYPES OF SETS

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 Empty Set

Finite Set Infinite Set

Equal Set Equivalent Set

Subset Power Set

Universal Set Disjoint Sets

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
te 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.

Summarizing Types of Set

There are different types of sets categorized on various parameters. Some types of sets are
mentioned below:
 Set Name Description Example

A set containing no elements

{}
Empty Set whatsoever.

A set containing exactly one

{1}
Singleton Set element.

A set with a limited, countable

{apple, banana, orange}
Finite Set number of elements.

A set with an uncountable

{natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …)}
Infinite Set number of elements.

Sets that have the same number Set A = {1, 2, 3} and Set B = {a,
of elements and their elements b, c} (assuming a corresponds
Equivalent Sets can be paired one-to-one. to 1, b to 2, and c to 3)

Sets that contain exactly the

Set A = {1, 2} and Set B = {1, 2}
Equal Sets same elements.

The set of all students in a

A set containing all elements
school (when discussing
relevant to a specific discussion.
Universal Set student grades)

Sets that do not have all the Set A = {1, 2, 3} and Set B = {a,
Unequal Sets same elements. b}

The set contains all possible Power Set of {a, b} = { {}, {a},
Power Set subsets of a given set. {b}, {a, b} }

Sets that share at least one Set A = {1, 2, 3} and Set B = {2,
Overlapping Sets common element. 4, 5}

Sets that have no elements in Set A = {1, 2, 3} and Set B = {a,

Disjoint Sets common. b, c}

A set where all elements are also

{1, 2} is a subset of {1, 2, 3}
Subset members of another set.

Example 1: 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 2: 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 3: 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.

Activity # 2 Write on a ¼ sheet of yellow paper

Determine whether each set is equal, a subset, disjoint, finite, infinite, universal, null
(empty), a power set, or equivalent.

1. A = {red, blue, green}, B = {green, blue, red}

2. C = {10, 20, 30}, D = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50}
3. E = {triangle, square, circle}, F = {apple, banana, mango}
4. G = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}
5. H = {x | x is a positive even number}
6. I = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
7. J = {x | x is a prime number divisible by 4}
8. K = {{ }, {a}, {b}, {a, b}}
9. L = {mango, apple, banana}, M = {car, bus, truck}
10. N = {2, 4, 6, 8}, O = {4, 8, 12, 16}

Determine whether the following sets are equal, subsets, or disjoint:

11. G = {apple, banana, cherry}, H = {cherry, banana, apple}
12. I = {10, 20, 30, 40}, J = {10, 20}
13. K = {red, blue, green}, L = {yellow, orange, pink}
14. M = {x | x is an even number less than 10}, N = {2, 4, 6, 8}
15. = {p, q, r, s}, P = {r, s, t, u}
16. Q = {prime numbers less than 10}, R = {2, 3, 5, 7}
17. S = {x | x is a letter in the word "COMPUTER"}, T = {C, O, M, P, U, T, E, R}
18. U = {x | x is a multiple of 5, x ≤ 20}, V = {5, 10, 15}
19. W = {x | x is a vowel in the English alphabet}, X = {a, e, i, o, u}
20. Y = {animals with four legs}, Z = {cat, dog, horse}