ELEMENTARY

SET THEORY
Applied Sta+s+cs and Compu+ng Lab Indian School of Business

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Learning Goals
What is a Set? Set Theory notaBons Venn Diagrams Set operaBons
De Morgans Law CommutaBve, AssociaBve & DistribuBve Laws

Cardinality of a Set
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Sets
Are fundamental objects through which we can dene all MathemaBcal concepts. Hence, dicult to dene in terms of more fundamental objects We will not aSempt to dene a Set here, rather we will learn through informal deniBons and examples

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 Understanding through an Example

Consider a Town X with 500 households Look at the properBes of the collecBon of all those households that own a car:
315 of these own a car 250 own a house

Sets

Such well dened collecBon of disBnct objects is called a Set So the collecBon of all those households in town X that own car is a Set.
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Each household is dis+nct (i.e. one household is dierent from the other) This collecBon is well dened (i.e. there is no ambiguity as to whether or not a household belongs to this collecBon)

Sets: NotaBons
Set: {}
Example A={1,2,3,4,5} , B={2,4,6,8,10,12}

Subset:
AB , set A contains few or all elements of B AB , set A contains few elements of B Example: {1,2}{1,2,3,4,5,6} A B, set A is not a subset of set B

Belongs to:
aA, element a belongs to set A
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Sets: Venn Diagrams

We can assign names to a set: Let A be the set of all households in town X that own a car B: The set of all households in town X that own a house What is common in the deniBons of A and B? . in town X.. A,B are dened relaBve to the set, (say X) of all households in town X We call the set X the Universal Set, the set that contains all the objects involved in the problem/quesBon of interest Without a Universal Set we nd it hard to understand the meaning of Well Dened Each member in a set A ( or B, X) is called an element of A We denote houeshold1(labeled ash1) belongs to set B by h1 A
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Sets: Venn Diagrams

Sets can be pictured using Venn Diagrams or Set Diagrams
Uses circles to represent sets Drawn inside a rectangle that depicts the universal set The posiBons, overlap of these circles indicate the relaBonships between the sets concerned
X

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Set OperaBons: Complement

X

A
Grey area: - Those households in town X that do not own a car - This is called the Complement of the set A - Denoted by: Ac, contains all those elements in X that do not belong to set A
What is the complement of the Universal Set X? - An empty set, a set with no elements - Denoted by {} or - Generally referred to as the Null Set
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Set OperaBons: IntersecBon and Union

X X

B
Look at the households in the blue region: - Clear that those belong to either A or B or both - These households own a Car or Own a house or own both a car and a house - This is called the union of sets A and B - Denoted by: A B , contains all those elements that belong to either set A or set B or both - AAc =X
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What is the overlapping region? Or What kind of households are in that region? - Clear that these belong to both A and B - These households own a Car and Own a house - This is called the intersecBon of sets A and B - Denoted by: A B, contains all those elements that belong to both set A and set B - AAc =
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Set OperaBons: De Morgans Law

Combines the three basic set operaBons The laws are: Bc - (A B)c = Ac Bc - (A B)c = Ac

Where do we use this? - If AB or AB are dicult to compute - Used to simplify set theory mathemaBcs if possible

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Visuals from:hSp://guideocom.blogspot.in/2011/08/de-morgans-laws-venn-diagrams-proofs.html

Set OperaBons: De Morgans Law Example

Consider the following scenario: X: Set of all employees in a company A: Set of all employees in the company whose monthly salary 60,000 B: Set of all women employees in the company Try to dene the set (AUB)c Let us try it the De Morgans way:
Not so simple is it? Ac is the set of all employees in the company whose monthly salary < 60,000 Bc is the set of all male employees in the company AcBc is the set of all male employees in the company whose salary < 60,000 So, (AUB)c is easier to dene using De Morgans Law

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Set OperaBons: Laws

Commuta+ve Law AB = BA AB = BA Associa+ve Law (AB)C = A(BC) (AB)C = A(BC)

Distribu+ve Law
A(BC) = (AB)(AC) A(BC) = (AB)(AC)
Addi+onal Results:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. AB BcAc AB and BC AC AB and BC AUBC AB and BA A=B ABA If CA and CB CAB
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Set: Cardinality
Cardinality: Number of elements in the set Cardinality of a set A is denoted as |A|
Consider the set C = {2,4,6,8,10}, |C|=5

We will now state a relaBon that can be quite useful: |AUB|= |A|+|B|-|AB| (Where A & B are nite sets, i.e. each contains a nite set of elements)

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Sets: Mutually Exclusive, CollecBvely ExhausBve, ParBBon

Consider two sets A and B where AB =
|AUB|= |A|+|B| X

Such sets are called Disjoint/Mutually Exclusive Sets

Now, consider two sets A and B whose union must cover all elements in the universal set X , i.e. AUB = X
Such sets are called Collec+vely/Mutually Exhaus+ve sets Example: You can buy , sell or hold a parBcular share A={buy,hold} B={sell,hold} AUB = {buy, sell, hold}=X

Let us now combine both the ideas menBoned above, if A and B were Mutually Exclusive and together ExhausBve what can we say about the Universal Set X ?
It can be parBBoned into two non-overlapping sets (A and B)!

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Sets: Mutually Exclusive, CollecBvely ExhausBve, ParBBon (Contd.)

We can look at a larger collecBon of Mutually Exclusive and ExhausBve Sets that parBBon the Universal Set X into several non- overlapping sets This concept is captured in the picture below:
A B C D X

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Thank you

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