Finite Sets
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Finite set is a collection of finite, well-defined elements. For better
understanding, imagine you have a bunch of your favourite toys or
snacks. You know exactly how many you have, that's the idea of a
finite set in math
What is Finite Set?
Finite sets are sets with a finite or countable number of elements.
These sets are also known as countable sets because their elements
can be counted. The process of counting elements comes to an end in
a finite set. The set consists of an element from the beginning and an
element from the end. Finite sets are easily represented in roster
notation. An example of a finite set is the set of vowels in the English
alphabet, Set A = [a, e, i, o, u], which has a finite number of
elements.
Finite Sets Definition
“Finite Sets are sets that contain a finite number of elements
or the elements of finite sets can be counted.”
Consider the set A = [a, e, i, o, u]; elements can be counted in this set,
so it can be considered a finite set.
Note: All finite sets are countable, but not all countable sets are finite.
Venn Diagram of Finite Set
As Venn Diagrams are used to Finite Sets, lets consider set of all
vowels A i.e., A = { a, e, i, o, u} and a universal set i.e., set of all
english alphabets. The relation between both these sets can be
represented using the following diagram.
Example of Finite Set
There are various examples of finite sets, some of those examples are as
follows:
Set of Colors in a Rainbow :{Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo,
Violet}
Set of Planets in the Solar System: {Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune}
Set of Days in a Week:{Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday}
Cardinality of Finite Set
The number of elements in a finite set is known as the cardinality of that set.
It represents the size or count of elements within the set. The cardinality of
any finite set A is represented by the symbol n(A).
Let’s consider some examples of Cardinality, as follows:
Set A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}: Cardinality of set A is n(A) = 5
Set B = {apple, banana, orange, pear}: Cardinality of set B is n(B) = 4
Set C = {cat, dog, bird}: Cardinality of set C is n©= 3
Properties of Finite Sets
The following finite set conditions are always finite.
Finite sets have a definite count of elements (cardinality).
Every subset of a finite set is also finite.
The union and intersection of finite sets are finite.
Empty set is a finite set with no elements.
Power set of a finite set is also finite.
Cartesian product of finite sets is finite.
Solved Problems on Finite Sets
Problem 1: Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {3, 4, 5, 6} be finite sets. Find the
union and intersection of sets A and B.
Solution:
The union of two sets, denoted by A ∪ B, is the set of all elements that are in
A, or in B, or in both.
A ∪ B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} (Combining all unique elements from both sets)
The intersection of two sets, denoted by A ∩ B, is the set of all elements that
are common to both A and B.
A ∩ B = {3, 4} (Only the elements 3 and 4 are present in both sets)
Problem 2: Let C = {2, 4, 6} be a finite set. Find the power set of set C.
Solution:
The power set of a set is the set of all possible subsets, including the empty
set and the set itself.
Power set of {2, 4, 6} = {{}, {2}, {4}, {6}, {2, 4}, {2, 6}, {4, 6}, {2, 4,
6}}
The power set of the set {2, 4, 6} contains 23 = 8 subsets, including the
empty set and the set itself.
Problem 3: Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} be a finite set. How many subsets does
set D have?
Solution:
To find the number of subsets of a finite set, we can use the formula 2n,
where n is the number of elements in the set.
In this case, A has 5 elements, so the number of subsets = 25 = 32.
Set A has 32 subsets, including the empty set and the set itself.
Problem 4: Let A = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10} and B = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9} be two finite
sets. Find the cardinality of the union of sets A and B.
Solution:
The union of two sets A and B is the set containing all the elements that are
in A, B, or both. So, the union of A and B is {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}. The
cardinality of this set is the number of elements it contains, which is 10.
Hence, the cardinality of the union of sets A and B is 10.
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Infinite Sets
In set theory, all sets that contain either an uncountable number of elements
or, if countable, an unlimited number of elements are called infinite sets.
One of the most common examples of an infinite set is a set of all
natural numbers, i.e., N.
Infinite Sets Definition
“A set of elements A is said to be infinite if the elements of its proper
subset A' can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the
elements of A.”
If an infinite set can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the
set of natural numbers, then the infinite set is called a countable
infinite set otherwise, it is called an uncountable infinite set.
Infinities can be of different sizes or levels, for example, a set of Real
Numbers (R) is a larger infinity than a set of Natural or Rational
Numbers.
Infinite Set Notation
The infinite sets are denoted by using dots (. . .) at the end of the
elements which follow a pattern. Any set A which is an infinite set can
be represented as follows:
A = {a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . }
Let A be an infinite set then it is denoted as A = {1, 2, 3, . . .}, here
we can see that 1, 2, 3, . . . is a common pattern that leads to further
elements such as 4, 5, 6, and so on. Thus, there are infinitely many
elements of set A, which can simply be represented by {1, 2, 3, . . .}.
Types of Infinite Sets
Infinite Sets are classified into two categories that are:
Countable Infinite Set
Uncountable Infinite Set
Countable Infinite Set
A set X is called a countable infinite set if and only if set A has the
same cardinality as N (natural numbers). Some examples of countable
infinite sets are a set of natural numbers N, a set of integers Z, etc.
Note: (Countable Set) A set is countable if and only if it is finite or
countable infinite.
Uncountable Infinite Set
A set which can’t be mapped to the set of natural number is called the
Uncountable Infinite Set. We can also say that, an uncountable infinite
set is a set that is not countable. The set of real numbers R is one of
the examples of an uncountable infinite set.
Cardinality of Infinite Set
The number of elements in the set is called the cardinality of the set.
For example, if A = {1, 3, 4} then |A| = 3. For a major time in the
history of academics, scholars only associated this concept of
cardinality with finite sets, as it only seems logical. But a man with a
vision to revolutionize the understanding the infinity came and the
name of the man is Georg Cantor. He revolutionized the concept of
the infinite in the context of sets and their cardinalities. He devised
the use of ℵ to present the cardinality of infinite sets.
Cardinality of countably infinite set = ℵ0
ℵ0 = |N| = |Q| = |Z|
Properties of Infinite Sets
Various properties of Infinite sets are discussed below,
• Any subset of a countable set is countable.
• A superset of an uncountable set is uncountable.
• If A is an infinite set (either countable infinite or uncountable
infinite), then the set of A is uncountable infinite.
• The union of two or more countable sets is countable.
• The cartesian product of two countable sets is countable.
How to Check If a Set Is Finite or Infinite?
To check whether a set is finite or infinite, we use the following
methods:
For Finite Sets
To verify that a set is finite, follow these steps:
• If you can list or count all the elements of the set, then the given
set is a finite set.
• If the set is described using set-builder notation, check if the
condition results in a finite set.
• For example, {x | x is an even number between 1 and 10} is
finite because you can list all the even numbers between 1 and
10 i.e., {2, 4, 6, 8}
For Infinite Sets
Here are a few common methods to identify infinite sets:
Observe Patterns: If any set follows a specific pattern for its element
without any end, it should be an infinite set.
For example, the set of natural numbers {1, 2, 3, 4, …} is infinite as you can
see the pattern of adding 1 to each further element without any end.
Using Mathematical Properties: If the set has a property it can help us
establish that this set has an infinite number of elements.
For example, we know that between any two rational or real numbers there
are infinitely many rational or real numbers respectively. Thus the set of
rational numbers between 1 and 2 and real numbers between 0 and 1 both
are infinite sets.
Venn Diagram for Infinite Sets
As infinite sets can't be contained due to the limitless number of
elements in it. We can only represent infinite sets in the Venn
diagram when comparing the sets or representing them in relation to
other sets. One such example is illustrated in the following diagram.
Examples on Infinite Sets
Example 1: Check whether the given sets are finite or infinite.
(i) A = {3, 6, 9, ...}
(ii) B = {1, 2}
(iii) X = {a, b, c, ...}
Answer:
(i) A = {3, 6, 9, ...}
A is an infinite set.
(ii) B = {1, 2}
The number of elements in B is 2 which is finite. So, B is a finite set.
(iii) X = {a, b, c, ...}
X is an infinite set.
Example 2: Check whether the given sets are finite or infinite.
(i) Z = {15, 19, 21, 45}
(ii) P = {"infinite", "set", ...}
(iii) Q = {..., p, q, r, s, ...}
Answer:
(i) Z = {15, 19, 21, 45}
The number of elements in Z is 4 which is finite. So, Z is a finite set.
(ii) P = {"infinite", "set", ...}
P is an infinite set as it does not have end point.
(iii) Q = {..., p, q, r, s, ...}
Q is an infinite set as it does not have start and end point.
Example 3: Check whether the given sets are finite or infinite.
(i) Factors of 25
(ii) Multiples of 2
(iii) Lines segments in a plane
Solution:
(i) Factors of 25
There are only 3 factors of 25 ( 1, 5 and 25). So, the set of factors of
25 is finite set.
(ii) Multiples of 2
Multiples of 2 are {1, 2, 4, 6, ...}
There is no end point for the set of multiples of 2. So, the set
multiples of 2 is infinite set.
(iii) Lines segments in a plane
There can be uncountable line segments in a plane. So, the set of line
segments in a plane is an infinite set.
Difference Between Finite Sets and Infinite Sets
Finite sets are sets that can be put into one-to-one correspondence
with any set of natural numbers. Infinite sets are sets that cannot
be empty and cannot be put into one-to-one correspondence with
any set of natural numbers. Example of a finite set: P = {5, 9, 11}.
Example of infinite set X = {s, r, t, ...}.
Characteris
tics Finite Set Infinite Set
The non-empty set that
Definition A set with a finite
contains an infinite number
number of elements is
of
called a
elements are called an
finite set.
infinite set.
Characteris
tics Finite Set Infinite Set
Only countable Infinite sets
can be mapped
Finite sets can be
Mapping one-to-one with a set of
mapped one-to-one
natural numbers,
with finite
uncountable
elements of the set of
infinite sets can't be
natural numbers.
mapped with natural
numbers in a bijection.
infinite set [N] = ℵ0
Cardinality Cardinality of countably
Cardinality of finite
sets = n
Cardinality of lowest
Where n is the number
= ℵ1
uncountably infinite set [R]
of elements in the set.
Roaster
Form It can be represented It cannot be represented in
in Roaster form. Roaster form.
Example A = {3, 4} is a finite A = {3, 4, ...} is an infinite
set. set.