Mathematics in the Modern

World
First Semester SY 2018 – 2019

By: Erovita Teresita Bacud Agustin

 CHAPTER 2
Mathematical Language and Symbols
(Week 2 to Week 4)
At the end of the chapter you will be able to:
1. Discuss the language, symbols and
conventions in mathematics;
2. Explain the nature of mathematics as a
language mathematical concepts;
3. Perform operations on mathematical
expressions correctly; and
4. Use mathematical language to describe
and solve problems with mathematics content.
WEEK 3
Sets
SET THEORY
The branch of
mathematics that studies
sets or the mathematical
science of the infinite.

The study of sets has

become a fundamental
theory in mathematics in
1870s which was
introduced by a German
mathematician named
Georg Cantor.
SET
A set is any group or collection of defined objects.

Examples
1. The set of all days in a week.
A = {Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday}

2. The set of all letters in the word MATHEMATICS

B = { M, A, T, H, E, I, C, S}

3. The set of positive integers

Z+ = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …..}

4. The set of integers more than 6

C = {7, 8, 9, 10,… }
Elements
Objects listed in a set separated by a comma

Example
1. The set of all letters in the word MATHEMATICS
B = { M, A, T, H, E, I, C. S}
The elements are M, A, T, H, E, I, C and S.

2. The set of all days in a week.

A = {Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday}
The elements are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
The symbol ∈ is used to denote that an object is an element of a
set, and the symbol ∉ denotes that an object is not an element of
a set.

Examples
1. Set A is the set of counting numbers greater than 6.
Set Notation: A= {x | x ∈ N and x>6)
where N is the set of counting numbers.

2. A = {x | x is a positive integer less than 10}

3. A = { x | x is a letter in the word dirt)

4. A = {x | x is an integer, 1< x < 8}

Unit Set
A set with only one element, it is also called singleton.

Empty Set/Null Set

A set with no elements.

A = { } or Ø

Finite Set and Infinite Set

A set is finite if the number of elements in the set is a
whole number. Otherwise, it is infinite. The cardinal
number of a finite set A is the number of elements of
set A and is denoted by n(A).
EQUAL SETS
Two sets A and B are equal (A=B) if and only
if A and B have exactly the same elements.

Example 1
A = { 1, 2, 3 }
B = { 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3}

Sets A and B are equal sets because they

contain the same elements which are
1, 2 , 3.
EQUAL SETS
Two sets A and B are equal (A=B) if and only
if A and B have exactly the same elements.

Example 2
C = {M, A, L, E}
D = set of all letters in the word LAME

Sets C and D are equal sets, because they

have the same elements namely M, A, L and E.
EQUIVALENT SETS
Two sets A and B are equivalent (A~ B) if and
only if A and B have the same number of
elements.

Example 1
V = The set of all letters in the word FEMALE.
F = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7}

Sets V and F are equivalent sets, because

they contain the same number of elements,
i.e. n(V) = n(F) = 5.
Example 2
G= A set containing the real roots of the
equation x2 – 5x + 6 = 0.
B = { F, E, F, E}

Set G has 2 elements 2 and 3. Sets B has 2

elements also F and E, thus sets G and B are
equivalent sets, because they have the same
number of elements.
i.e. n(G) = n(B) = 2
SEATWORK
Sets