IGCSE (Accelerated)

SET NOTATIONS
Symbol Read as..

| or :
or {}
U or

is an element of OR
belongs to
is not an element of
OR does not belong to
such that
Null set OR Empty set
OR Void set
Universal Set
Union

Intersection

Subset

Proper Subset

P(A)

Example
If A= {1,2,3} then 3 A
If A= {2,4,6,8} then 3 A
If A is the set of all odd natural numbers, then we
can write
A = {x/x=2n+1, where n }
A set with no element in it.
E.g. A= {x/x is a natural number, 2<x<3}
AB means the set of all elements that lie in A or
B
E.g. If A= {1,2,3} and B = {a, b} then
AB ={1,2,3, a b}
AB means the set of all elements that lie in A
and B
E.g. If A= {1,2,3} and B = {2, a, b} then
AB ={2}
AB means any element of set A is also an
element of set B
E.g. A= {2,3,4} and B = {1,2,3,4,5,6}
then AB
AB means every element of A is an element of B
has at least one element which is not in A

Not a subset
Superset
Power set

If A B then B A
The set of all subsets
E.g. if A = {a, b, c}, then

P(A) , a, b, c, a, b, a, c, b, c, a, b, c.

for all x

Something is true for all (any) value of x (usually

with a side condition like
x > 0).

!
A or AC
or

there exists
there does not exist
there exists a unique
Complement of set A

n(A)

Cardinal number of A

1|Page

Set of all the elements that do not belong to set A

E.g. If U = {1,2,3,4,5} and A = {2,3,4}
A = {1,5}
i.e. no of elements in the finite set A
If A= {a, b, c} then n(A) = 3

Extended Mathematics (0580)

Session 2017- 2018