Set Operations

Subjects to be Learned

 union of sets
 intersection of sets
 difference of sets
 complement of set
 ordered pair, ordered n-tuple
 equality of ordered n-tuples
 Cartesian product of sets

Contents
Sets can be combined in a number of different ways to produce another set. Here
four basic operations are introduced and their properties are discussed.

Definition (Union): The union of sets Aand B, denoted by A B , is the set defined as

A B={x|x A x B}

Example 1: If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {4, 5} , then A B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} .

Example 2: If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {1, 2, 4, 5} , then A B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} .

Note that elements are not repeated in a set.

Definition (Intersection): Theintersection of sets A and B, denoted by A B , is the set

defined as

A B={x|x A x B}

Example 3: If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {1, 2, 4, 5} , then A B = {1, 2} .

Example 4: If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {4, 5} , then A B= .

Definition (Difference): The difference of sets A from B , denoted by A - B , is the set
defined as

A-B={x|x A x B}

Example 5: If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {1, 2, 4, 5} ,

then A - B = {3} .
Example 6: If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {4, 5} , then A - B = {1, 2, 3} .

Note that in general A - B B-A

Definition (Complement): For a set A, the difference U - A , where U is the universe, is

called the complement of A and it is denoted by .
Thus is the set of everything that is not inA.

The fourth set operation is the Cartesian product We first define an ordered pairand
Cartesian product of two sets using it. Then the Cartesian product of multiple sets is
defined using the concept of n-tuple.

Definition (ordered pair):

An ordered pair is a pair of objects with an order associated with them.
If objects are represented by x and y, then we write the ordered pair as <x, y>.

Two ordered pairs <a, b> and <c, d> areequal if and only if a = c and b = d. For example
the ordered pair <1, 2> is not equal to the ordered pair <2, 1>.

Definition (Cartesian product):

The set of all ordered pairs <a, b>, where ais an element of A and b is an element of B,
is called the Cartesian product of A and Band is denoted by A B.
Example 1: Let A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {a, b}. Then

A B = {<1, a>, <1, b>, <2, a>, <2, b>, <3, a>,<3, b>} .

Example 2: For the same A and B as in Example 1,

B A = {<a, 1>, <a, 2>, <a, 3>, <b, 1>, <b, 2>,<b, 3>} .

As you can see in these examples, in

general, A B B A unless A = ,B= or A= B.
Note that A = A= because there is no element in to form
ordered pairs with elements of A.

The concept of Cartesian product can be extended to that of more than two sets.
First we are going to define the concept ofordered n-tuple.

Definition (ordered n-tuple): An orderedn-tuple is a set of n objects with an order associated

with them (rigorous definition to be filled in). If n objects are represented byx1, x2, ..., xn, then
we write the ordered n-tuple as <x1, x2, ..., xn> .

Definition (Cartesian product): Let A1, ...,An be n sets. Then the set of all ordered n-tuples <x1,
..., xn> , where xi Ai for all i, 1 i n , is called the Cartesian product of A1, ..., An, and is
denoted by A1 ... An .

Example 3:
Let A = {1, 2}, B = {a, b} and C = {5, 6}. Then
A B C = {<1, a, 5>, <1, a, 6>, <1, b, 5>, <1, b, 6>, <2, a, 5>, <2, a, 6>, <2, b, 5>, <2, b,
6>} .

Definition (equality of n-tuples): Two ordered n-tuples <x1, ..., xn> and <y1, ...,yn> are equal if
and only if xi = yi for all i, 1 i n .
For example the ordered 3-tuple <1, 2, 3> is not equal to the ordered n-tuple <2, 3, 1>.

The cartesian product of sets

Definition 3.3.1 Let and be two sets. The cartesian product of and ,

denoted , is the set of all ordered pairs such that and .

For example, if and , then

Graphic presentations can always help to understand; we represent the elements

of as points on an horizontal axis and the elements of on a vertical axis, as in
figure18. The elements of the cartesian products are then represented by the
crossing points of the lattice of parallels to the axes through the points defined

above. In Figure , we display a graphical representation for the above example.

Figure 18: The cartesian product of two sets.

Remark 3.3.2 In general, .

For example, if and are as above, we have:

Notation 1 For any set , we denote .

The set studied extensively in Linear Algebra is the cartesian product of with
itself. In this case the coordinate axes in the plane show the plane as a graphic
presentation of . The notion of the cartesian product of two sets can be
generalized to three (or more) sets. First note that for three sets , and , we

have : the elements of are ordered pairs

whose first component is an element of and whose second element is an ordered

pair belonging to ; the elements of are ordered pairs whose first

component is an ordered pair belonging to and whose second element

belongs to . Now we denote by the set of ordered

triples where , and .

We generalize this definition to the product of sets , , :

For a set , the cartesian power is defined in the obvious way.

Proposition 3.3.3 If , and are three sets, then

Proof. The pair is an element of if, and only if, and ,

i.e. and ; therefore and ,

i.e. . Conversely, take ,

i.e. and ; it follows that and ,

thus and .