8/14/2014

NOTION OF A SET

Learning objectives:
Upon completion you should be able to:
Give examples of a set
Name the elements of a set
Describe a set using the roster and rule
method
Give examples of empty and universal
sets.

NOTION OF A SET

NOTION OF A SET

NOTION OF A SET

Try this!
A SET is a well-defined collection
of objects, real or imagined.

Which of the following is a set?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Examples:
The set of all UPLB students enrolled this 1st
semester.
The set of all casts in Pure Love.

Collection of all barangays in Los Banos

Collection of all handsome instructors
Collection of all intelligent students
Collection of all numbers near 100
Collection of all students who passed Math 11

NOTION OF A SET

NOTION OF A SET

Given the set of all provinces in the

Philippines, which are included in the set?

REMEMBER:
A set is well-defined if it is possible to
determine whether a given object
belongs to the set or not.

Ilo-ilo?

Batangas
City?

Bohol?
Sorsogon?
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Math Division, IMSP, UPLB

Laguna?
Buenos
Aires?

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NOTION OF A SET
To name a set, we usually use capital letters.
For the given set, the set of all provinces in the
Philippines, we may use P.

NOTION OF A SET
In symbols, we write a A, in case a belongs to set A.
Otherwise, we write a A .

The objects that make up a set are called elements.

Thus, in our example, we write

Thus, ____, ____, ____ and ____are elements of P

while ____ and ____ are not elements of P.

Sorsogon P

Buenos Aires P
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NOTION OF A SET

NOTION OF A SET

Sets can be described by enumerating the elements,

separated by commas, and enclosed in a pair of
braces.
Thus, the set of all letters in the word MATHEMATICS,
denoted by L, can also be described as

Describe the following sets using the

roster method:
1. Set of all possible outcomes when you
toss a coin

L M,A,T , H, E,I,C,S
This method of describing sets is called roster or
enumeration method.

2. Set of all recitation teachers of MATH

11 Y of 1st semester AY 2014-2015
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NOTION OF A SET

NOTION OF A SET

Another way of describing sets is by the

rule method.

Example1: The set of all RGEP courses

offered in UPLB, denoted by G, can be written
using the rule method in the following way:

In this method, a variable is used to

represent the elements, this is followed by
a bar, and then a rule describing the
property common to all the elements.
Of course, these are enclosed in a pair of
braces.

Math Division, IMSP, UPLB

Try this!

G x | x is an RGEP course offered in UPLB

Example2:
B x x is a natural number between 1,000 and 1,000,000
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NOTION OF A SET

When is the rule method more advantageous to use

than the roster method?

NOTION OF A SET

There are sets that are so special they are given

specific names.
One of them is the empty set, denoted by { } or .
The empty set has no element.
Examples are:

When is the roster method more useful than the

rule method?

1. The set of positive numbers less than -6.

2. The set of countries with no people.
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Math Division, IMSP, UPLB

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