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SETS, RELATIONS AND FUNCTIONS

DCS5028: DISCRETE STRUCTURE

CHAPTER 2
(PART 1)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The students should be able to describe the
concepts of Sets.
The students should be able to differentiate and
write the Set Operations and its relations.
The students should be able to understand,
differentiate and write the Relations and the
properties of a set.
The students should be able to understand the
concepts of Functions.
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SET
Introduction
Set, Element
Equality, Cardinality
Universal Set, Subset, Proper Subset, Power Set
Cartesian Product

Set Operations
Union, Intersection, Disjoint, Difference,
Complement

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Set
A set is defined to be an unordered collection of
objects (or sometimes referred to as elements or
members)
How to express a set?
Method to express a set is to enclose inside curly braces a
variable standing for a typical element of the set, followed by a
description of what conditions the variable must satisfy in order to
be in the set.



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DESCRIPTION OF SET
If a set is finite and not too long list all its
elements.








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Example 1:
W is the set of all integers from 1 to 5

W = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} or W = {1,3,2,5,4}

DESCRIPTION OF SET
If a set is large finite set or infinite set list a
property necessary for its membership.

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Example 1:
R is the set of all positive and odd integers
R = { x | x is a +ve, odd integer}



Read R equals the set of all x such that x is positive and odd
integer

Example 2:
W is the set of all integers from 1 to 12
W = {1, 2, 3 11, 12}

R consists of the integers 1,3,,5 and so on.
DESCRIPTION OF SET (CONT.)
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Example 3:

The set of odd integer numbers and 0< x < 30
S = {x | x is an odd integer and 0< x < 30}
The set of all x such that x is an odd integer numbers and 0< x <
30.

Example 4:
If U is the set of all alphabets.
U= {a, b, c, , y,z}

x e S (x is an element of S) is the proposition that object x
is an element or a member of the set S.

Examples:
3 e N if N = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, }
a e T if T = {x | x is a letter of the English alphabets}

Exercise:
Decide whether
a) {4} e {x | x is an odd number} T/F
b) e e { x | x is a vowel} T/F
c) cat e { x | x is an animal} T/F
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N = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, } Set of natural numbers

Z = {, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, } Set of integers

Z
+
= {1, 2, 3, } Set of positive integers

Q = {p/q | p e Z, q e Z, q 0} Set of rational numbers

R = {all real numbers} Set of real numbers


Examples of real numbers:
-12.66547, 100000000.02, 244.0,
Another name
for rational
number is
fraction
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Sets of numbers that occur frequently in
mathematics.
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Two sets X and Y are equal if:
i) For every x, if x e X , then x eY
ii) For every x, if x eY, then x e X.

Example: X = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7} and Y = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7}

X=Y

Hence,
two sets are equal if and only if they have the same
members.
It does not matter how the set is defined or denoted!

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Question 1:
Given
M
1
= {x | x is an integer where x>0 and x<5 }
M
2
= {x | x is a positive integer whose square is >0 and <25}
Verify whether M
1
= M
2

Question 2:
Given A= {1,3,2} and B = {2,3,2,1}, Verify whether A = B.

Question 3:
Given A= {1,2,3} and B = {2,4}. Verify whether A = B.
CARDINALITY
Cardinality of a set
the number of element in a set


If a set S has n distinct elements for some
natural number n, n is the cardinality (size)
of S and S is a finite set. The cardinality of
S is denoted by |S|.

Example : The cardinality of the set {2,4,6,8,10}
is 5.

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|M| (sometimes also written as #M) denotes the number of elements in M
EXERCISE
Question:
i) |{cat,rabbit,parrot}| = ___
ii) A= {a,b}, |A| = ___
iii) |{ x | x is even and 0 < x < 11}| = ___

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EMPTY SET
The empty set ({ } )is the set that has no
elements at all. It is denoted by C
If |T|=0 then we also write T = C (empty
set)
Thus, C = { }


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UNIVERSAL SET
A set which has all the elements in the universe
of discourse is called a universal set. More
formally, a universal set, denoted by U
Example: U = {alphabet}

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Let X and Y be sets. If every element of X is an
element
of Y, then we say that X is a subset of Y . X _ Y

Example 1 : X = {a,b,c,d,e,f,g} and Y =
{a,b,c,d,e,f,g}

Example 2: X = {a,b,c,d,e} and Y = {a,b,c,d,e,f,g}

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Subset
A subset of a set contains any or all
of the elements of the set.
PROPER SUBSET
If set X is a subset of the set Y but that X Y
write X Y and say that X is a proper subset
of
Y (contain some but not all).

Example: X = {a, b, c} and Y = {a, b, c, e}



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=
c
A proper subset contains any of the
elements of the set but not all of them (or except itself)
The set of all subsets of a set is called the
power set of, denoted by or P(S).
If a set has n elements, then its power set has 2
n

subsets.

Example 1:
If X = {a, b}, then P(X) = {C, {a}, {b}, {a,b}}.
Number of subsets = 2
2
= 4

Example 2:
If X = {a, b, c}, then
P(X) = {C , {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {a, c}, {b, c}, {a,
b, c}}.
Number of subsets = 2
3
=

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Power Set
Sometimes we do want to take order into account.
An ordered pair of elements (a,b) is considered distinct from the
ordered pair (b,a).

Let X and Y be sets. The Cartesian product of X and Y is
denoted by X x Y, is the set of all ordered pairs (x, y) where x e X
and y e Y.

Example:
X = {a,b} Y = {1,2,3}
X x Y = {(a,1), (a,2), (a,3), (b,1), (b,2), (b,3) }
Y x X = {(1,a), (2,a), (3,a), (1,b), (2,b), (3,b)}

In general, X x Y Y x X

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Cartesian Product
QUESTIONS
(a) Let A be the set of odd integers less than 20
and more than 0. Find the cardinality of A?


(b) If X = { 1, 2 },
i. list the members of power set of X, P(X).
ii. How many members (subsets) does X
have?


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1. Union
2. Intersection
3. Disjoint
4. Difference
5. Complement
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Set Operations
UNION
Example:
Let Set A is animals = {Tiger,
Monkey, Shark, Bear, Zebra,
Spider, Grasshopper,
Dolphins, Snake} and
Set B is an animal with
neither leg nor hand =
{Shark, Dolphins, Whale,
Snake, Starfish, Clown Fish
}.
List the element of A U B.


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The union of the sets A and B, denoted by A U B, is the set that
contains those elements that are either in A or in B, or in both
U

A

B
Venn Diagram
A U B is shaded
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The intersection of the sets A and B, denoted by A B, is the set
that contains those elements in both A and B.
A B is shaded
n

A

B
Intersection

Example:
Let Set A is animals = {Tiger,
Monkey, Shark, Bear, Zebra,
Spider, Grasshopper,
Dolphins, Snake} and
Set B is an animal with
neither leg nor hand =
{Shark, Dolphins, Whale,
Snake, Starfish, Clown Fish
}.
List the element of A B.

Example:
Let Set A is an animals that lives on land =
{Tiger, Monkey, Bear, Zebra, Spider, Grasshopper}
and

Set B is an animal that lives in water =
{Shark, Dolphins, Whale, Starfish, Clown Fish }.
List the element that lives on both land and water .

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2 sets are disjoint if their intersection is an empty
set
n

A

B
Disjoint
Two sets are "disjoint" if they have no objects in common.
Example:
Let Set A= {1,3,5} and Set B ={1,2,3}
A - B ={1,3,5} - {1,2,3}
={5}
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Let A and B be sets.
The difference of A and B, denoted by A-B, is the set containing those elements
that are in A that are not in B.
The difference of A and B is also called the relative complement of B with
respect to A.

Difference
Example:
Let A= {a,e,i,o,u} and
Universal set is the set of letters of
English Alphabet.

Then, =
{b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z}.

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Given a universal set U and a subset A of U,
The set U A is called the complement of A and written as
Complement
A
A
QUESTION 1:
Let the universe be the set U = {a,b,c,d,,x,y,z}.
Let A = {a,e,i,o,u}, B = {a,c,f, i, m, p,t, w,x }, and
C = {a,d,e,h,l,n,q,u,w}.
List the elements of :

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QUESTION 2:
There is a group of 191 students, of which 10 are taking
French, business and music; 36 are taking French and
Business; 20 are taking French and music; 18 are taking
business and music; 65 are taking French; 76 are taking
business; and 63 are taking music.

i. How many are taking French and music but not business?
ii. How many are taking business and neither French nor
music?
iii. How many are taking music or French (or both) but not
business?
iv. How many are taking none of the three subjects?


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SUMMARY
Introduction
Set, Elements
Equal, Cardinality
Power Set, Cartesian Product
Set Operations
Union, Intersection, Difference, Complement

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1. List the members of these sets:
{ x | x is a positive integer such that x
3
<
100}
{ x | x is the square of a positive integer and
x < 11}

2. Find the power set of each of these sets:
Y = { a, b, c }
Z = {1, 2, 3, 4 }

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Review Questions

3. Let A= {k, m, n, p} and B= {2, 3, 7}.

Find: A x B.

4. Let the Universal Set, U = {x | 0 < x < 20}.
Let A= {4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12}, B= {1, 4, 9, 13}
and
C= {6, 12, 13, 18}. Find
(a)

(b)
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Review Questions
C B A ) (
) ( B A C