Technological College of San Felipe Inc.

Fuentecilla Street Brgy. Amagna, San Felipe Zambales

TERTIARY
LEARNING MODULE

Introductory Mathematics
Module No.3
Week 3

Gregory F. Lopez

TCSF Property
NOT FOR1SALE
 I. Module Title: Sets and Symbols
II. Module Objectives:
Define set and element
Use set notation and become familiar with set
operations
Perform operations on set
III. Module Content:

Information Sheet 1.1

Set
A set is a collection of well-defined distinct objects.
Element
An element of a set is an object that is contained in the set.

We can also describe a set by listing or naming its element. Braces {} are
used to enclose the members of a set when we list them.
Notation
A set is denoted by capital letters of the English alphabet,
A, B, C, . . . X, Y, Z.
1. If A is a set, then an element of a set A is denoted by any of the
following:
a. Small letters of the English alphabet
b. Hindu-Arabic numerals
2. If A is a set and a is an element of set A then we write a ∈ A.
This is read as “a is an element of set A.”
Otherwise,
a∉A
which is read as “a is not an element of set A.”
Example 1
Let C be a set, such that its members are the letters of the English
alphabet from a to j. Then C can be described by the following:
𝐶 = {𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑙𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑒𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎 𝑡𝑜 𝑗}
Or,
𝐶 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓, 𝑔, ℎ, 𝑖, 𝑗}
Example 2
Let D be the set of counting numbers from 2 to 8.
𝐷 = {𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 2 𝑡𝑜 8}
Or,
𝐷 = {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}

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Furthermore, D can still be described as follows:
𝐷 = {𝑛, 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 2 𝑡𝑜 8} or in mathematical
notation
𝐷 = {𝑛|𝑛 = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
Methods of Describing a Set
1. By description
2. By enumeration
3. By the rule or set-builder method
If a set contains many elements, we often use three dots (. . .), called
ellipsis, to indicate that there are elements in the set that are not written
down.
𝑁 = {1, 2, 3, 4, . . . }
𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, . . . , 10}
a. An infinite set is a set that has an unlimited number of elements.
b. A finite set is a set that has a last element, and we can count the
number of elements in the set.
Operations on set
Union
If A and B are any two sets, then the set C whose members are the
members of A and B is called the union of A and B.
Notation:
𝐶 = 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 = {𝑥|𝑥 𝜖 𝐴 𝑜𝑟 ∈ 𝐵}
Or
𝐴 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐵 = {𝑥 |𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐴 𝑜𝑟 𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐵}.
Intersection
If A and B are any two sets, then the set D whose members are the
common elements of A and B is called the intersection of A and B.
Notation:
𝐷 = 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 = {𝑥|𝑥 ∈ 𝐴 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥 ∈ 𝐵}
Or
𝐴 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐵 = {𝑥 |𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐴 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐵}
Example:
Let T be a set containing no element and G a set of all counting
numbers less than 8. Find 𝑇 ∪ 𝐺 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑇 ∩ 𝐺
Solution:
T is a set containing no element. Therefore, 𝑇 = ∅ 𝑜𝑟 𝑇 = {}, the empty
set or null set. G = {y|y < 8, y are counting numbers}, then
𝑇 ∪ 𝐺 = {𝑥|𝑥 ∈ 𝑇 𝑜𝑟 𝑥 ∈ 𝐺 }.
Now,
𝑇 ∪ 𝐺 = ∅ ∪ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7},

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Since T has no element, then
𝑇 ∪ 𝐺 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} = 𝐺
And,
𝑇 ∩ 𝐺 ∩= {𝑥 |𝑥 ∈ 𝑇 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥 ∈ 𝐺 }
∅ ∩ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} = ∅
Since an empty set is a set with no elements it cannot have elements in
common with any other set which are non-empty.
Subset
If the members of a set A are also members of set B, then A is a
subset of B.That is,
𝐴 ⊆ B.
Proper subset
If A is a subset of B, and A is not equal to B, then A is a proper subset
of B. That is,
𝐴 ⊂ B.
Self-check 1.1
I. Tell whether the statement is True or False.
1. {2, 4, 6} ⊂ {𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠}
2. 9 ∈ {𝑜𝑑𝑑 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠}
3. {2, 4, 6} ⊂ {2, 4, 6}
4. 9 ⊂ {3, 5, 7}
5. ∅ ≠ {2, 4, 6}
II. List all the elements of the set described.
6. {days of the week}
7. {odd numbers between 8 and 22}
8. {all numbers which are multiples of 6 but not greater than 50}
III. Determine the numbers resulting from the following set
operations.
Given:
𝑿 = {𝟐, 𝟒, 𝟔, 𝟖, . . . , 𝟐𝟎}, 𝒀 = {𝟑, 𝟓, 𝟕, . . . , 𝟑𝟏}, 𝒁 = {𝟓, 𝟔, 𝟕, 𝟖, . . . , 𝟐𝟓}.
9. 𝑋 ∩ 𝑌 12. 𝑌 ∪ 𝑍
10. 𝑋 ∪ 𝑌 13. 𝑋 ∩ 𝑍
11. 𝑋 ∪ 𝑍

References:
 21st Century Mathematics by; Misael Jose S. Fisico, Lucy O. Sia, Juse
T. Ho, Zenaida M. Maralit, Ma. Jenny Tan, Rechilda P. Villame, Henry
N. Adorna