Definition
What is a set? Well, simply put, it's a collection.
First we specify a common property among "things" (we define this word later)
and then we gather up all the "things" that have this common property.
For example, the items you wear: hat, shirt, jacket, pants, and so on.
I'm sure you could come up with at least a hundred.
This is known as a set.
Or another example is types of fingers.
This set includes index, middle, ring, and
pinky.
So it is just things grouped together with a certain property in common.
Notation
There is a fairly simple notation for sets. We simply list each element (or
"member") separated by a comma, and then put some curly brackets around the
whole thing:
The curly brackets { } are sometimes called "set brackets" or "braces".
This is the notation for the two previous examples:
{socks, shoes, watches, shirts, ...}
{index, middle, ring, pinky}
Notice how the first example has the "..." (three dots together).
The three dots ... are called an ellipsis, and mean "continue on".
So that means the first example continues on ... for infinity.
(OK, there isn't really an infinite amount of things you could wear, but I'm not
entirely sure about that! After an hour of thinking of different things, I'm still not
sure. So let's just say it is infinite for this example.)
So:
The first set {socks, shoes, watches, shirts, ...} we call an infinite set,
the second set {index, middle, ring, pinky} we call a finite set.
But sometimes the "..." can be used in the middle to save writing long lists:
Example: the set of letters:
{a, b, c, ..., x, y, z}
In this case it is a finite set (there are only 26 letters, right?)
Numerical Sets
So what does this have to do with mathematics? When we define a set, all we
have to specify is a common characteristic. Who says we can't do so with
numbers?
Set of even numbers: {..., −4, −2, 0, 2, 4, ...}
Set of odd numbers: {..., −3, −1, 1, 3, ...}
Set of prime numbers: {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, ...}
Positive multiples of 3 that are less than 10: {3, 6, 9}
And so on. We can come up with all different types of sets.
We can also define a set by its properties, such as {x|x>0} which means "the set
of all x's, such that x is greater than 0", see Set-Builder Notation to learn more.
And we can have sets of numbers that have no common property, they are just
defined that way. For example:
{2, 3, 6, 828, 3839, 8827}
{4, 5, 6, 10, 21}
{2, 949, 48282, 42882959, 119484203}
Are all sets that I just randomly banged on my keyboard to produce.
Why are Sets Important?
Sets are the fundamental property of mathematics. Now as a word of warning,
sets, by themselves, seem pretty pointless. But it's only when we apply sets in
different situations do they become the powerful building block of mathematics
that they are.
Math can get amazingly complicated quite fast. Graph Theory, Abstract Algebra,
Real Analysis, Complex Analysis, Linear Algebra, Number Theory, and the list goes
on. But there is one thing that all of these share in common: Sets.
Universal Set
At the start we used the word "things" in quotes.
We call this the universal set. It's a set that contains everything. Well, not exactly
everything. Everything that is relevant to our question.
Some More Notation
When talking about sets, it is fairly standard to use Capital Letters to represent the set, and
lowercase letters to represent an element in that set.
So for example, A is a set, and a is an element in A. Same with B and b, and C and c.
Now you don't have to listen to the standard, you can use something like m to
represent a set without breaking any mathematical laws (watch out, you can get
π years in math jail for dividing by 0), but this notation is pretty nice and easy to
follow, so why not?
Also, when we say an element a is in a set A, we use the symbol to show it.
And if something is not in a set use .
Example: Set A is {1,2,3}. We can see that 1 A, but 5 A
Equality
Two sets are equal if they have precisely the same members. Now, at first glance
they may not seem equal, so we may have to examine them closely!
Example: Are A and B equal where:
A is the set whose members are the first four positive whole numbers =
{1 ,2 ,3 ,4}
B = {2, 3, 1, 4}
Let's check. They both contain 1. They both contain 2. And 3, And 4. And we have
checked every element of both sets, so: Yes, they are equal!
And the equals sign (=) is used to show equality, so we write:
A=B
Example: Are these sets equal?
A is {1, 2, 3}
B is {3, 1, 2}
Yes, they are equal!
They both contain exactly the members 1, 2 and 3.
It doesn't matter where each member appears, so long as it is there.
Subsets
When we define a set, if we take pieces of that set, we can form what is called a
subset.
Example:
Suppose we have three sets A, B and C
B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
A = {1, 2, 3}
C = {3, 4}
Then A is a subset of B. Suppose there is another set C = { x, y, z}.
Here, C is not a subset of B.
In general:
A is a subset of B if and only if every element of A is in B.
So let's use this definition in some examples.
Example: Is A a subset of B, where A = {1, 3, 4} and B = {1, 4, 3,
2}?
1. 1 is in A, and 1 is in B as well. So far so good.
2. 3 is in A and 3 is also in B.
3. 4 is in A, and 4 is in B.
4. That's all the elements of A, and every single one is in B, so we're done.
5. Yes, A is a subset of B
Note that 2 is in B, but 2 is not in A. But remember, that doesn't matter, we only
look at the elements in A.
Let's try a harder example.
Example: Let A be all multiples of 4 and B be all multiples of 2.
Is A a subset of B? And is B a subset of A?
Well, we can't check every element in these sets, because they have an infinite
number of elements. So we need to get an idea of what the elements look like in
each, and then compare them.
The sets are:
A = {...-12, −8, −4, 0, 4, 8, 12 ...}
B = {..., −8, −6, −4, −2, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, ...}
By pairing off members of the two sets, we can see that every member of A is also
a member of B, but not every member of B is a member of A:
So:
A is a subset of B, but B is not a subset of A
Proper Subsets
If we look at the definition of subsets and let our mind wander a bit, we come to a
weird conclusion.
Let A be a set. Is every element of A in A?
Well, umm, yes of course, right?
So that means that A is a subset of A. It is a subset of itself!
This doesn't seem very proper, does it? If we want our subsets to be proper we
introduce proper subsets:
A is a proper subset of B if and only if every element of A is also in B, and there
exists at least one element in B that is not in A.
This little piece at the end is there to make sure that A is not a proper subset of
itself: we say that B must have at least one extra element.
Example: {1, 2, 3} is a subset of {1, 2, 3}, but is not a proper
subset of {1, 2, 3}.
Example: {1, 2, 3} is a proper subset of {1, 2, 3, 4} because the
element 4 is not in the first set.
Notice that when A is a proper subset of B then it is also a subset of B.
Notation of Subset and Proper Subset
When we say that A is a subset of B, we write A B.
Or we can say that A is not a subset of B by A B ("A is not a subset of B")
When we talk about proper subsets, we take out the line underneath and so it
becomes A B or if we want to say the opposite, A B.
1. Symbol of Subset: ⊆
2. Symbol of Proper Subset: ⊂
Empty (or Null) Set
This is probably the weirdest thing about sets.
As an example, think of the set of piano keys on a guitar.
"But wait!" you say, "There are no piano keys on a guitar!"
And right you are. It is a set with no elements.
This is known as the Empty Set (or Null Set).There aren't any elements in it. Not
one. Not even zero.
It is represented by
Or by {} (a set with no elements)
Empty Set and Subsets
So let's go back to our definition of subsets. We have a set A. We won't define it
any more than that, it could be any set. Is the empty set a subset of A?
Going back to our definition of subsets, if every element in the empty set is also
in A, then the empty set is a subset of A. But what if we have no elements?
It takes an introduction to logic to understand this, but this statement is one that
is "trivially" true.
A good way to think about it is: we can't find any elements in the empty set that
aren't in A, so it must be that all elements in the empty set are in A.
So the answer to the posed question is a resounding yes.
The empty set is a subset of every set, including the empty set itself.
Order
In sets it does not matter what order the elements are in.
Example: {1,2,3,4} is the same set as {3,1,4,2}
When we say order in sets we mean the size of the set.
Another (better) name for this is cardinality.
A finite set has finite order (or cardinality). An infinite set has infinite order (or
cardinality).
For finite sets the order (or cardinality) is the number of elements.
Example: S = {10, 20, 30, 40} has an order of 4.
We write it as n(S) = 4 [number of S is written as n(S) = 4]
For infinite sets, all we can say is that the order is infinite.
Examples
1. Which one of the following sets is infinite?
Answer:
1. The set of whole numbers less than 10 = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} is finite
2. The set of prime numbers less than 10 = {2, 3, 5, 7} is finite
3. The set of integers less than 10 = {..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} is
infinite since the negative integers go on forever.
4. The set of factors of 10 = {1, 2, 5, 10} is finite
2. A is the set of factors of 12. Find out the set of factors of 12?
Answer:
12 = 1×12
12 = 2×6
12 = 3×4
So A is the set of factors of 12, A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12}
3. X is the set of multiples of 3.
Y is the set of multiples of 6.
Z is the set of multiples of 9.
Which one of the following is true? (⊂ means "subset")
Answer:
X = {...,-9, -6, -3, 0, 3, 6, 9,...}
Y = {...,-6, 0, 6,...]
Z = {...,-9, 0, 9,...}
Every member of Y is also a member of X, so Y ⊂ X
Every member of Z is also a member of X, so Z ⊂ X
4. A is the set of positive factors of 6.
B is the set of prime factors of 6.
C is the set of positive proper factors of 6.
D is the set of positive factors of 3.
Which one of the following is true?
Answer:
A is the set of positive factors of 6 = {1, 2, 3, 6}
Only 2 and 3 are prime numbers
Therefore B = the set of prime factors of 6 = {2, 3}
The positive proper factors of an integer do not include 1 and the number itself
Therefore C = the set of proper factors of 6 = {2, 3}
D is the set of positive factors of 3 = {1, 3}
1. Therefore sets B and C are equal.
2. A and C are equal
3. B is a proper subset of C
5. A = {a, b, c, d}. How many subsets does the set A have?
Answer:
A has:
1 subset with zero elements = ∅
4 subsets with one element = {a}, {b}, {c} and {d}
6 subsets with two elements = {a, b}, {a, c}, {a, d}, {b, c}, {b, d} and {c, d}
4 subsets with three elements = {a, b, c}, {a, b, d}, {a, c, d} and {b, c, d}
1 subset with four elements = {a, b, c, d}
Therefore A has 16 subsets altogether.
Note:
1. Remember that order doesn't matter. So, for example, {a, b} and {b, a} are
the same subset.
2. The numbers 1, 4, 6, 4 and 1 are Binomial coefficients and occur in the fifth row
of Pascal's triangle.
3. 16 = 24. Generally a set with n elements has 2n subsets.
6. S = {a, b, c, d, e}. How many proper subsets does the set S have?
Answer:
S has:
1 subset with zero elements = ∅
5 subsets with one element = {a}, {b}, {c}, {d} and {e}
10 subsets with two elements = {a, b}, {a, c}, {a, d}, {a, e}, {b, c}, {b, d}, {b,
e}, {c, d}, {c, e} and {d, e}
10 subsets with three elements = {a, b, c}, {a, b, d}, {a, b, e}, {a, c, d}, {a, c,
e}, {a, d, e},
{b, c, d}, {b, c, e}, {b, d, e} and {c, d, e}
5 subsets with four elements = {a, b, c, d}, {a, b, c, e}, {a, b, d, e}, {a, c, d, e}
and {b, c, d, e}
1 subset with five elements = {a, b, c, d, e}
That's 32 subsets altogether.
But {a, b, c, d, e} is the same as S, so is not a proper subset.
Therefore A has 31 proper subsets.
Note:
1. Remember that order doesn't matter. So, for example, {a, b} and {b, a} are
the same subset.
2. The numbers 1, 5, 10, 10, 5 and 1 are Binomial coefficients and occur in the
sixth row of Pascal's triangle.
3. 31 = 25 - 1. Generally a set with n elements has 2n - 1 proper subsets.
7. A, B and C are three sets such that A is a subset of B and B is a subset of C.
Which one of the following statements must always be true?
Answer:
B is a subset of A can only be true if A and B are equal sets
C is a subset of B can only be true if B and C are equal sets
C is a subset of A can only be true if all three sets are equal
A is a subset of B means every element of A is in B
and B is a subset of C means every element of B is in C
Therefore, if both statements are true, it follows that every element of A is in C
⇒ A is a subset of C is always true
8. A is the set of prime numbers less than 10
B is the set of odd numbers less than 10
C is the set of even numbers less than 10
How many of the following statements are true?
A⊂B
B⊂A
A⊂C
C⊂A
B⊂C
C⊂A
(⊂ means "is a proper subset of")
Answer:
A = {2, 3, 5, 7}
B = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}
C = {2, 4, 6, 8}
A and B have some members in common. A and C have a member in common.
However, no one set is a subset of another. None of the statements are true.