1/19/2017

NOTION OF A SET
Learning objectives:
1.1 NOTION At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
• Give examples of a set;

OF A SET • Name the elements of a set;

• Describe a set using the roster and rule methods;
• Give examples of empty and universal sets.

NOTION OF A SET NOTION OF A SET

A SET is a well-defined collection A SET is a well-defined collection

of objects, real or imagined.
A collection is well-defined if it is
possible to determine whether a
given object belongs to the set or
not.
of objects, real or imagined.
Examples:
– the set of all new freshman students
– the set of all integers
– the set of all species of dinosaur living
as of this day

Try this! NOTION OF A SET NOTION OF A SET

Which of the following is a set? Let B be the set of all plants in the song
“Bahay Kubo”. Which of the following are in B ?
1. All the cities in the Philippines
2. Best computer games
3. Intelligent MATH 11 A students
4. Numbers greater than 5
5. All large positive numbers
6. All letters in the Filipino alphabet
7. Negative numbers
8. Three-legged MATH 11 A students

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NOTION OF A SET NOTION OF A SET

The objects that make up a set are In symbols, we write , in case a belongs to set .
called elements.
Otherwise, we write .

Thus, ____, ____,and ____ are elements of B

Thus, in our example, we write
while ____, ____, and ____ are not elements of B.

while

NOTION OF A SET NOTION OF A SET

Sets can be described by enumerating the elements, Try this!

separated by commas, and enclosed in a pair of
braces. Describe the following sets using the
roster method:
Thus, the set of all vowels in the English
alphabet, denoted by V, can also be 1. Set of all possible
described as outcomes when you toss a
coin

This method of describing sets is called 2. Set of colors found in the

roster or enumeration method. rainbow

NOTION OF A SET NOTION OF A SET

Another way of describing sets is by the Example. The set of all RGEP courses offered
rule method.
method in UPLB, denoted by G, can be written using
the rule method in the following way:
In this method, a variable is
used to represent the
elements, this is followed by a
bar, and then a rule describing
the property common to all the
elements. Name some elements of G.
Of course, these are enclosed
in a pair of braces.

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NOTION OF A SET SPECIAL SETS

When is the rule method more advantageous to use The EMPTY SET
than the roster method?

When is the roster method more useful than the

rule method?
Examples are:
1. The set of snakes that have hands
2. The set of all fish that can say “Hello”

SPECIAL SETS SPECIAL SETS

Another special set is the universal set denoted by U.

The universal set is the set of all possible elements
Try this! in a given situation.

Is this an empty set? ∅ For example, if we consider

{red, blue}

Identify some more empty sets. Then a possible universal set is the
set of all colors of the rainbow.
Thus U is the set of all colors of the
rainbow.

SPECIAL SETS NOTION OF A SET

Try this! In this section, we learned the following:

Give a universal set from which the members
of the following sets could be chosen:
1. { 4, 8, 12, 16}
2. {BS Math, BS Applied Math, BS
Applied Physics}
3. {May, September, December}
When a set is well-defined or not
Sets are denoted by capital letters
Objects belonging to a set are called
elements
If a belongs to set B we write a ∈ B.
Otherwise, we write a ∉ B.
Sets can either be describe by the
rule or the roster methods
There are two special sets, namely,
empty and universal sets.