Lesson 9-Relations & Their Properties

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to;

 Understand the concept of relations between and among sets.
 Define and identify relations between two sets and relations among the elements of
the same set.
 Define and identify the properties of a relation on a set including reflexivity,
symmetry, and transitivity.
 Determine whether a given relation on a set is an equivalence relation.

9.1 INTRODUCTION

Relationships between and among the elements of sets occur in a variety of contexts. Such
relationships are represented using a particular type mathematical structure known as a
relation, which involves a subset of the Cartesian product of the sets. One very important and
useful way to express a relationship between the elements of two sets is to use ordered pairs
made up of two related elements. Due to this reason, sets of ordered pairs are known as
binary relations.

Definition 1:
Let A and B be two sets. A binary relation from A to B is a subset of A x B.

That is, a binary relation from A to B is a set R of ordered pairs where the first element of
each ordered pair comes from the set A and the second element comes from B. We use the
notation a R b to denote that (a, b) R. Also, when (a, b) belongs to R, a is said to be related
to b by R. Moreover, the notation a b indicates that (a, b) R, meaning that a is not related
to b by R.

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Example 9.1.1
Let A be the set of your friends, and let B be a list of main cities in your country. Let R be the
relation comprised of those pairs (a, b), where a is a friend who has visited the city b. For
instance, if Kolitha and Sneha have visited Galle, the pairs (Kolitha, Galle) and (Sneha,
Galle) belong to R. If Kolitha has also visited in Jaffna, then the pair (Kolitha, Jaffna) is also
in R. However, if Sneha has not visited Kandy, then the pair (Sneha, Kandy) is not in R.
Observe that if a friend has not visited any cities listed, there will be no pairs in R with this
friend as the first element. Similarly, if there is a city not visited by any friend, there
will be no pairs in R with this city as the second element.

Example 9.1.2
Let A be the set of undergraduate degree programmes available in Sri Lanka, and let B be the
set of the state universities in Sri Lanka. Let us define the relation R by stipulating that (a, b)
belongs to R if the degree programme a is offered by the university b.
So, it follows that the ordered pairs (Medicine, University of Colombo), (Engineering,
University of Moratuwa), (Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura), (Arts,
University of Ruhuna), and (Physical Sciences, University of Kelaniya) are in R. Also, notice
that the ordered pairs (Engineering, University of Kelaniya) and (Architecture, University of
Peradeniya) are not in R.

Example 9.1.3
Let A = {1, 3, 7} and B = {x, y}. Then R = {(1,x), (1, y), (3, x), (7, y)} is a relation from A to
B.
This means that 7 R y, but that 7 x. Also, 3 R x, but 3 y.
This Relations can be represented graphically as in Figure 1 given below, using arrows to
represent ordered pairs.

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 A B
1 x

3 y

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Figure 1: Displaying the ordered pairs from Example 9.1.2

An alternative way to represent this relation is to use a table as follows.

Table 1: Displaying the ordered pairs from Example 9.1.2

x y

9.2 Functions as Relations

As we learnt in a previous chapter, a function f from a set A to a set B assigns exactly one
element of the set B to each element of A. Therefore, it is easy to observe that the graph of f is
the set of ordered pairs (a, b) such that b = f(a). Also, since the graph of f is a subset of A x B,
it follows that f is a relation from A to B. Furthermore, by the definition of a function, the
graph of a function assumes the property that each element of A is the first element of exactly
one ordered pair of the graph.

Conversely, if R is a relation from A to B such that every element in A is the first element of
exactly one ordered pair of R, then a function can be defined with A as its domain, B as its
range, and R as its graph. This is achieved by assigning to an element a of A the unique
element b B such that (a, b) R. A function represents a relation where exactly one
element of B is related to each element of A

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Example 9.2.1
Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {1, 4, 9, 16}. Then define the relation R from A to B by
specifying that (a, b) belongs to R if b = a2. It is obvious that R is a one-to-one relationship,
and is hence a function with A as its domain and B as its codomain. Therefore, the graph of
this function is given by the set of ordered pairs R = {(1, 1), (2, 4), (3, 9), (4, 16)}.

Example 9.2.2
Let A = {a, b, c, d} and B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Then R = {(a, 2), (b, 3), (c, 4), (d, 5)} is a relation
from A to B. Notice that every element in A is the first element of exactly one ordered pair of
R. So, we can define a function f with R as its graph. This is done by assigning each element
of A a unique element from B. Also, observe that exactly one element of B is related to each
element of A.

In addition, a relation can also be used to express a one-to-many relationship between the
elements of the two sets A and B, where an element of A may be related to more than one
element of B. In fact, it is important to understand that relations are a generalization of
functions, and hence they can be used to express a much wider class of relationships between
sets.

9.3 Relations on a Set

Of special interest are relations from a set A to itself.

Definition 2:
A relation on the set A is a relation from A to A. That is, a relation on a set A is a subset of A x
A.

Example 9.3.1
Let A be the set {l, 2, 3, 4}. We find the ordered pairs which are in the relation R = {(a, b); a
divides b}. Because (a, b) is in R if and only if a and b are positive integers not exceeding 4
such that a divides b, we see that
R = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 2), (2, 4), (3, 3), (4, 4)}.

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Example 9.3.2
Consider these relations on the set of integers, which is an infinite set unlike the finite sets
that we considered so far:
R1 = {(a, b) a b},
R2 = {(a, b) | a > b},
R3 = {(a, b) | a = b or a = -b},
R4 = {(a, b) | a = b},
R5 = {(a, b) | a = b + 1},
R6 = {(a, b) | a + b 3}.
Which of these relations contain each of the pairs (1, 1), (1, 2), (2, 1), (1, -1), and (2, 2)?
Solution:
Notice that the pair (1, 1) is in R1, R3, R4, and R6;
the pair (1, 2) is in R1and R6;
the pair (2, 1) is in R2, R5, and R6;
the pair (1, -1) is in R2, R3, and R6; and finally,
(2, 2) is in R1, R3, and R4.

9.4 Properties of Relations

There are several important properties underlying relations on a set. We will introduce the
most important of those properties here.

Definition 3:
A relation on a set A is called reflexive, if (a, a) R for every element a A.
We can see that a relation on A is reflexive if every element of A is related to itself.

Example 9.4.1
Let R be the relation on the set of all people consisting of pairs (x, y) where x and y have the
same mother and the same father. Then x R x for every person x. Therefore, R is reflexive.

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Example 9.4.2
Consider the following relations on {l, 2, 3, 4}. Which of these relations are reflexive?
R1 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (2, 1), (2, 2), (3, 4), (4, 1), (4, 4)},
R2 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (2, 1)},
R3 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 4), (2, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), (4, 1), (4, 4)},
R4 = {(2, 1), (3, 1), (3, 2), (4, 1), (4, 2), (4, 3)},
R5 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 2), (2, 3), (2, 4), (3, 3), (3, 4), (4, 4)},
R6 = {(3, 4)}.
Solution:
Note that the relations R3 and R5 are reflexive because they both contain all pairs of the form
(a, a), namely, (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), and (4, 4). The other relations are not reflexive because
they do not contain all of these ordered pairs. In particular, R1, R2, R4, and R6 are not reflexive
because (3, 3) is not in any of these relations.

Definition 4:
A relation R on a set A is called symmetric, if (b, a) R whenever (a, b) R, for all a, b A.

Example 9.4.3
Let A be the set of students in a university. Define a relation R on A with the specification that
(a, b) R, if the student a is a friend of the student b. Suppose that (x, y) R for some x, y
A. This means that x is a friend of y. Then, it follows that y is also a friend of x. Thus, (y, x)
R. So, for each x, y R, if (x, y) R, then (y, x) R. It can hence be concluded that the
relationship R on A is symmetric.

Example 9.4.4
Notice that the relation R = {(1, 1), (1, 3), (3, 1), (5, 3), (3, 5), (3, 3)} on the set A = {1, 3, 5}
is symmetric.

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Example 9.4.5
Consider the relation R ={(a, b) | a, b , a < b}on the set of natural numbers. It is easy to
see that R is not symmetric because (a, b) R does not imply (b, a) R for any a, b R.

Definition 5:
A relation R on a set A is called transitive, if whenever (a, b) R and (b, c) R, then (a, c)
R, for all a, b, c A.

Example 9.4.6
Let A be the set of students in a class. Define a relation R on A by specifying that (a, b) R, if
both students a and b are from the same hometown. Suppose that (x, y) R and (y, z) R for
some x, y, z A. This means that x and y are from the same hometown, and that y and z are
also from the same hometown. Since a student comes from exactly one hometown, and y
shares the same hometown with both x and z, it follows that x and z are also from the same
hometown.
Thus, (x, z) R. So, for each x, y, z A, if (x, y) R and (y, z) R, then (x, z) R. Therefore,
R is a transitive relation on A.

Example 9.4.7

Observe that the relation R = {(p, q), (q, r), (p, r)} on the set A = {p, q, r}is transitive.

Equivalence Relations
A relation R on a set A is called an equivalence relation, if R satisfies all the properties of
reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity.

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Example 9.4.8
Notice that the relation R = {(1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), (1, 2), (2, 1), (2, 3), (3, 2), (1, 3), (3, 1)} on
the set A = {1, 2, 3} is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive, and is hence an equivalence
relation.

Example 9.4.9
Define the relation R on the set the set of integers Z by “a R b if a – b is divisible by 7 for a, b
Z”. Determine whether R is an equivalence relation on Z.
Solution:
Let a Z. Then, it is easy to see that a – a is divisible by 7. Therefore, a R a holds for each a
Z. Thus, R is reflexive.

Let a, b Z and suppose that a R b holds. Then a – b is divisible by 7. Hence, b – a = – (a –

b) is also divisible by 7. Thus, a R b implies b R a for each a, b Z. Therefore, R is
symmetric.

Let a, b, c Z and suppose that both a R b and b R c hold. Then a – b and b – c are both
divisible by 7. Then, it follows that a – c = (a – b) + (b – c) is also divisible by 7. Thus, a R b
and b R c implies a R c a, b, c Z. Therefore, R is transitive.

Thus, R is an equivalence relation on Z since R is a reflexive, symmetric, and

transitive

Self-Assessment Exercises:
1. List the ordered pairs in the relation R from A = {0, 1 , 2, 3 , 4} to B = {0, 1 , 2, 3}, where
(a, b) R if and only if
a) a = b.
b) a > b.
e) a b.
b) a + b = 4.

2. List all the ordered pairs in the relation R = {(a, b) | a divides b} on the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6}.

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 a) Display this relation graphically.
b) Display this relation in tabular form.

3. For each of the following relations on the set {1, 2, 3, 4}, decide whether it is reflexive,
symmetric, and transitive.

a) {(2, 2), (2, 3), (2, 4), (3 , 2), (3 , 3), (3 , 4)}

b) {(1 , 1 ), ( 1 , 2), (2, 1 ), (2, 2), (3 , 3), (4, 4)}
c) {(2, 4), (4, 2)}
d) {(1, 2), (2, 3), (3 , 4)}
e) {(1, 1 ), (2, 2), (3, 3), (4, 4)}
f) {(1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 3), (2, 4), (3 , 1), (3, 4)}

4. Determine whether the relation R on the set of all people is reflexive, symmetric, and/or
transitive, only if where (a , b) R if and only if
a) a is taller than b.
b) a and b were born on the same day.
c) a has the same first name as b.
d) a and b have a common grandparent.

5. Let A be a set of straight lines on a particular plane. Define the relation R on A by (a, b)
R iff "a and b are parallel lines". Show that R is an equivalence relation on A.

6. Define the relation R on the set the set of integers Z by “a R b if a – b is divisible by m for
a, b, m Z”. Determine whether R is an equivalence relation on Z.

Suggested Readings:
Chapter 7: Section 7.1, Kenneth Rosen, (2011) Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, 7th
Edition, McGraw-Hill Education