SRI SAIRAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

EQUIVALENCE RELATIONS AND PARTIONS

NAME: SOVAN KAR USN: 1SB16CS099 SEM: III BRANCH: COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGG.

EQUIVALENCE RELATIONS

A given binary relation ~ on a set X is said to be an

equivalence relation if and only if it is reflexive,
symmetric and transitive. That is, for all a, b and c in X:
 a ~ a. (Reflexivity)
 a ~ b if and only if b ~ a. (Symmetry)

 if a ~ b and b ~ c then a ~ c. (Transitivity)

X together with the relation ~ is called a setoid.

The equivalence class of a under ~, denoted [a], is defined EQUIVALENCE PARTITIONS
as [a]={b X |a~b}.
A partition of X is a set P of nonempty subsets of X, such that every
element of X is an element of a single element of P. Each element of P is
a cell of the partition. Moreover, the elements of P are pairwise
disjoint and their union is X.
Let A1, A2. . . Ai be a collection of subsets of S. Then the collection forms a
partition of S if the subsets are nonempty, disjoint and exhaust S: • Ai 6= ∅ for i
∈ I • Ai ∩ Aj = ∅ if i 6= j • S i∈I Ai = S
Theorem 1: Let R be an equivalence relation on a set A. These statements for
elements a and b of A are equivalent: • aRb • [a] = [b] • [a] ∩ [b] 6= ∅
Theorem 2: Let R be an equivalence relation on a set S. Then the equivalence
classes of R form a partition of S. Conversely, given a partition {Ai |i ∈ I} of the
set S, there is an equivalence relation R that has the sets Ai , i ∈ I , as its
equivalence classes.