SETS

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SET NOTATION
1. A set is a well-defined collection of distinct objects.
The objects are called members or elements of a set.
2. The symbol is used to denote the element of a
set. The symbol is read as not an element.

3. To describe sets braces, { }, are used and name

the sets with capital letters.

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WAYS OF DESCRIBING SETS

1. The tabular or roster from is a method of describing
a set where the elements are listed.
2. The rule form is a method which makes of the setbuilder notation, {x| . . .}. This is read as x such that.
ROSTER

RULE

A = {1, 2, 3, 4}

A = {x|x is a natural number less than 5}

B = {2, 3, 5, 7}

B = {x|x is a prime number less than 10}

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KINDS OF SETS
1. An empty or null set is a set which contains no
element. It is denoted by { } or .
2. Two sets are equal if they have the same elements.
A = { 2, 4, 7}
B = { 4, 7, 2}.
A = B.
3. Two sets are equivalent if they have the same
number of elements.
R = { x, y, v, t}
N = { 10, 2, -5, 44}.
R N.
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KINDS OF SETS
4. A set is finite if it contains only a countable number
of elements.
5. A set is infinite if the counting of elements has no
end.
6. Universal set is the totality of elements under
consideration.

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KINDS OF SETS
7. Joint sets are which have common elements.
K = { x|x is a prime number less than 10}
L = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}

8. Two sets are disjoint if they have no common

elements.
V = {x|x is an even number between 0 and 20}
W = {x|x is an odd number between 0 and 20}

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SUBSETS
Set A is a subset of set B if every element of A belongs
to B. In symbols, A B.
{ 0, 4} {0, 1, 3, 4}.
{ 2, 4} {0, 1, 3, 4}.

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OPERATIONS ON SETS
1. Union of Sets
A B = set of all elements found in A or B or both
A B = {x|x A or x B}
A = {a, e, f, h}
B = {a, c, e, g}
A B = {a, c, e, f, g, h}
2. Intersection of Sets
A B = set of all elements common to A and B
A B = {x|x A and x B}
A = {a, e, f, h}
B = {a, c, e, g}
A B = {a, e}

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OPERATIONS ON SETS
3. Complement of a set
A = set of all elements in the universal set but not
found in A.
A = {x|x U and x A}
U = {0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 9}
B = {2, 4, 7, 8}
A = {0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 9}
4. Cartesian (Cross) Product
A x B = {(a,b)| a A and b B}
A = {0, 1}
B = {x, y}
A x B = {(0,x), (0, y), (1, x), (1, y)}

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VENN DIAGRAMS
UNION OF TWO SETS
U
A

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VENN DIAGRAMS
UNION OF TWO SETS
U
A

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VENN DIAGRAMS
INTERSECTION OF TWO SETS
U
A

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VENN DIAGRAMS
INTERSECTION OF TWO SETS
U
A

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VENN DIAGRAM
A = {a, e, f, h}
B = {a, c, e, g}

f
h
i

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g
j

APPLICATIONS
EXAMPLE 1
A squash club has 27 members. 19 have black hair, 14
have brown eyes and 11 have both black hair and
brown eyes.
a) Place this information on a Venn diagram.
b) Hence find the number of members with
i) black hair or brown eyes
ii) black hair, but not brown eyes.

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APPLICATIONS
BH

(a)

a + c = 19
b + c = 14
c = 11

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BE

(c)

(b)

a=8
b=3

APPLICATIONS
EXAMPLE 2
A city has three newspapers A, B, and C. Of the adult
population, 1% read none of these newspapers, 36%
read A, 40% read B, 52% read C, 8% read A and B, 11%
read B and C, 13% read A and C and 3% read all three
papers. What percentage of the adult population read:
a) newspaper A only?
b) newspaper B or newspaper C?
c) newspaper A or B but not C?

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APPLICATIONS
U

A
(a)

(d)
(h)

(e)
(c)
(j)

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(b)
(f)

APPLICATIONS
B

A
(18)

(5)
(3)

(10)

a) 18
b) 81
c) 47

(31)
(1)

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(24)
(8)