Chapter 3

Sets

3.1 Basic Concepts

Definition 1
A set is a collection of objects called elements.

A set is well-defined if for any given object we can objectively decide whether it is or is not in the
set. Any object which belongs to a given set is said to be an element of or a member of the given
set.

Example 1.

1. The set ”letters of the English alphabet” is well-defined.

2. The set ”good-looking PBA players” is not well-defined.

To be well-defined, the definition of what is or is not in a set has to be based on facts, not opinions.

Capital letters are usually used to name sets.

A set A can be commonly described in three ways, by (a) listing (roster) method, (b) by set-
builder notation or(c) by descriptive method. The listing method describes the set by listing
all the elements between braces and separated by commas (note: in enumerating the elements
of a certain set, each element is listed only once and the arrangement of elements in the list is
immaterial). The set-builder notation uses a variable (a symbol, usually a letter, that can
represent different elements of a set), braces, and a vertical bar | that is read as ”such that”. This
is usually used when the elements are too many to list down. The descriptive method uses a
short verbal statement to describe the set.

1
2 CHAPTER 3. SETS

Example 2.
1. By roster method, write the set of months in a year that ends with letter y.
Answer: {January, February, May, July}

2. Write the set A = {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } in set-builder notation.

Answer: A={x | x is an integer greater than 1 but less than 10 }

3. Describe the set with elements, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, ... in

(a) roster method

(b) descriptive method
(c) set-builder notation

If a is an element of set A, we write a ∈ A. If a is not an element of set A, we write a ∈

/ A.

For future discussion, we will use the following notations:

• N for the set of natural or counting numbers (positive integers): {1, 2, 3, 4, ...}

• Z for the set of integers: {... − 4, −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...}

a
• Q for the set of rational numbers: { | a, b ∈ Z, b 6= 0 }
b
• R for the set of real numbers
Example 3.
1. Let D be the set of months in a year that starts with letter M . Then we say that M arch ∈ D.
Also, April ∈
/ D.

2. Determine whether each statement is true or false.

(a) 4 ∈ R where R is the set of even natural positive numbers.

(b) April ∈ H where H is the set of months in a year with 31 days.
(c) −5 ∈ Z
(d) math ∈ {m, a, t, h, e, i, c, s}
√
(e) 2 ∈ Q
(f) π ∈ R

Definition 2
A set with no elements is called an empty set or null set. The symbols used to represent
the empty set are {} or φ. A set with only one element is called a unit set.

Example 4. Which of the following sets are empty?

1. The set of even prime numbers.

2. The set of female president of the Republic of the Philippines.

3. The set of integers between 1 and 2.

4. The set of perfect squares less than 1000 in the Fibonacci sequence.

5. {φ}
3.1. BASIC CONCEPTS 3

Definition 3
The cardinal number of a set is the number of elements in the set. The cardinality of a
set A is written in symbols n(A), read as ”n of A”.

Example 5. Find the cardinality of each set.

1. The set of even prime numbers.

2. B = {b | b ∈ N and b < 28 }

3. The set of integers between 1 and 2.

4. { 2, 4, 6, ... 96, 98, 100}

5. {φ}

Definition 4
A set is called finite if it has no elements or has a cardinality that is a natural number. A
set that is not finite is called an infinite set.

Example 6. Classify each set as finite or infinite.

1. The set of prime numbers.

2. C = {c | c ∈ Z and c < 28 }

3. The set of real numbers between 1 and 2.

4. The set of letters in the English alphabet.

5. The set of even integers.

6. The set of even integers from 7 to 2018.

Definition 5
Two sets A and B are equal (written A = B) if they have exactly the same members or
elements. Two finite sets A and B are said to be equivalent (written A ∼
= B) if they have
the same number of elements, that is, n(A) = n(B).

• All equal sets are equivalent but not all equivalent sets are equal.

Example 7. State whether each pair of sets is equal, equivalent, or neither.

1. The set of the letters in the word PHILIPPINES and the set of letters in the word MATH-
EMATICS.

2. The set of positive integers less than 10 and the set of negative integers greater than -10.

3. {r, e, d} and {b, l, u, e}

4. {m, a, t, h} and {2, 0, 1, 8}

5. {m | m ∈ N, m ≤ 10} set of counting numbers less than 11

4 CHAPTER 3. SETS

Definition 6
Two sets have a one-to-one correspondence of elements if each element in the first set
can be paired with exactly one element of the second set and each element of the second set
can be paired with exactly one element of the first set.

Example 8. Show that the sets {8, 16, 24, 32} and {s, t, u, v} have a one-to-one correspondence

• Two sets are equivalent if you can put their elements in one-to-one correspondence.

3.2 Subsets and Set Operations

Definition 7
• The universal set for a given situation, written as U, is the set of all objects that are
reasonable to consider in that situation.

• The complement of a set A, written as A0 is the set of all elements in the universal
set that are not in A. That is, A0 = { x | x ∈ U and x ∈
/ A }.

• If every element of a set A is also an element of a set B, then A is called a subset of

B, written as A ⊆ B.

• If a set A is a subset of a set B and is not equal to B, then we call A as a proper

subset of B, and write A ⊂ B. That is, A ⊆ B and A 6= B.

• The set containing all the subsets of a set is called power set. If a finite set has n
elements, then the cardinality of its power set is 2n .

• Every set is a subset of itself.

• The empty set is a subset of every set.

• The symbol 6⊂ is used to indicate that a set is not a proper subset.

Example 9.

1. Consider the universal set U = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}.

Let M = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}, A = {0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10}, T = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, H = {3, 9}. We have the
following relations: M, A, T, H ⊆ U, H ⊆ M (which can also be written as H ⊂ M ), M ∼ = T.
Similarly, M, A, T, H ⊂ U .

2. Determine all subsets of A = {r, h, e, a}

3. Determine if each statement is true or false.

(a) {1, 3, 5} ⊆ {1, 3, 5, 7}

(b) {a, b} ⊂ {a, b}
(c) {1, 3, 5} ⊂ N
(d) 8 ⊂ N
(e) {} ⊂ {φ}
3.2. SUBSETS AND SET OPERATIONS 5

Definition 8
• The intersection of two sets A and B, written as A ∩ B, is the set of all elements
that are in both sets. That is, A ∩ B = {x | x ∈ A and x ∈ B}. When the intersection
of two sets is the empty set, the sets are said to be disjoint.

• The union of two sets A and B, written as A ∪ B, is the set of all elements that
are in either set A or set B (or both). That is, A ∪ B = {x | x ∈ A or x ∈ B}.
n(A ∪ B) = n(A) + n(B) − n(A ∩ B)

• The difference of two sets A and B, written as A\B or (A − B), is the set of all
/ B}. A\B = A∩B 0
elements in A that are not in B. That is, A\B = {x | x ∈ A and x ∈

• The Cartesian product or cross product of two sets A and B, written as A × B is

the set of ordered pairs (a, b) where a ∈ A and b ∈ B. That is, A × B = {(a, b) | a ∈ A
and b ∈ B}. n(A × B) = n(A) · n(B)

Example 10.
U = {x | x is a counting number less than 15}
A = {1, 4, 5}
B = {x ∈U| x is even}
C = {x ∈U| x is a natural number less than 7}
Consider the sets above. Write U, B, S, A in roster method and determine the following:

1. A ∪ B 5. A\C

2. (A ∪ B) ∩ C 6. A × C

3. (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ A) 7. A0 ∩ B 0 ∩ C 0

4. B 0 ∩ C 0 8. (A ∪ B)0

Definition 9
De Morgan’s Law
For any two sets A and B,

a. (A ∪ B)0 = A0 ∩ B 0

b. (A ∩ B)0 = A0 ∪ B 0
6 CHAPTER 3. SETS

3.3 Solving Problems Using Venn Diagrams

A Venn Diagram is used to visualize sets and their relations. The universal set is usually
represented by a rectangle and any set A ⊆ U is represented by some closed region inside the
rectangle. An element may be represented by a point inside the set.

Example 11.

1. Draw a Venn diagram to illustrate each of the following

(b) A0 ∪ B (c) (A ∩ B)0 ∪ C

(a) A0 ∩ B

2. Use Venn diagram to show that (A ∩ B)0 = A0 ∪ B 0

3. Use Venn diagram to determine if B ∪ (A ∩ C) and (A ∪ B) ∩ (B ∪ C)

4. In a survey of 85 college students, 72 use Instagram, 31 use Facebook, and 21 use both.

(a) How many use Facebook only?

(b) How many use Instagram only?
(c) How many use neither?

5. At a certain high school, each student is a member of the English Club, the Science Club, or
the Mathematics Club. Of the 79 students asked, 33 are members of the English Club, 37
are members of the Math Club, and 37 are members of the of the Science club. Furthermore,
7 are members of both the English and the Math Clubs, 12 are members of both the English
and the Science Clubs, and 9 are members of the Science and Math Clubs. No high school
student is a member of all the three clubs. How many joined only the Math Club?

6. In a group of 40 first year college male students, 22 like basketball, 18 are interested in tennis,
and 14 like volleyball. Of these students, 7 are interested in both volleyball and basketball,
9 like both basketball and tennis, 5 like both tennis and volleyball, and 3 students like the
three sports. How many students

(a) like volleyball only??

(b) like basketball, but do not like tennis or volleyball?
(c) at least one sport?
(d) exactly one sport?
(e) are interested in tennis only?
3.3. SOLVING PROBLEMS USING VENN DIAGRAMS 7

Seatwork/Homework

1. Determine if each statement is true or false.

(a) The intersection of two infinite sets is also infinite.

(b) If A, B, C are sets where A ⊆ B, then A × C ⊆ B × C.
(c) If A and B are sets and if A ⊂ B, then A0 ⊂ B 0 .
(d) If A 6= B then A ∩ B = φ.
(e) For any two sets A and B, if A ∪ B = A, then B ⊂ A
(f) All sets are disjoint with the empty set.
(g) If two sets are disjoint, then their corresponding power sets are also disjoint.
(h) A set is a subset of its powerset.

2. U = {a, c, d, e, g, i, l, m, n, q, r, s, t, u}
A = {x | x is a letter in the word quadrilateral}
B = {x | x is a letter in the word square}
C = {x | x is a letter in the word rectangle}
Consider the sets above. Write U, B, S, A in roster method and determine the following:

(c) (B ∩ C) ∪ (B ∩ A) (e) A\C (g) A0 ∩ B 0 ∩ C 0

(a) A ∪ B
(d) B 0 ∩ C 0 (f) A × C (h) (A ∪ B)0
(b) (A ∪ B) ∩ C

3. In a class of 25 students, 18 were math majors, 12 were computer science majors, and 7 were
dual major in math and computer science. How many students were (a) majoring in math
only? (b) not majoring in computer science? (c) not math or computer science majors?

4. In a small community, a survey on the favorite television programs of 63 housewives was made.
Based on the survey, 38 housewives watch musical programs, 27 watch drama anthologies,
and 29 watch variety shows. Furthermore, 16 housewives watch both musical and variety
shows, 12 watch both drama and musical programs, 8 watch both drama and variety shows,
and 5 watch all the three programs. How many watch musical programs but not anthologies
or variety shows?

5. Among the 96 members of a college dance group, 49 members dance jazz, 45 dance the ballet,
42 dance the modern dance, 14 dance both modern and ballet, 15 dance both modern and
jazz, 16 dance both ballet and jazz, and 5 dance all three dances. How many members dance
the ballet only?

Reference: Math in Our World; Sobecki, Dave; 4th Edition