MATHEMATICAL

LANGUAGES AND SYMBOLS

GEC12 – Topic 2
Prep. By: Jonathan R. Casilla
 VARIABLES
• A variables is a symbol, usually a letter that holds a value
that may increase or decrease over time or takes different
values in different situations.

• Examples: 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧, 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 𝑥 2 + 5𝑥 + 6
 ACCORDING TO FUNCTIONAL
RELATIONSHIP
• Independent Variables – called the predictor variable

• Dependent Variable – called the criterion variable

𝑦=𝑥
• Examples: the academic performance of students in GEC12 depends
on their study habits and their attitudes towards the subject
• IDV : students study habit and attitudes (x)
• DV : academic performance of the students in GEC12 (y)
 ACCORDING TO CONTINUITY OF
VALUES
• Continuous Variable – variables that can be expressed in
decimals
Examples: price of commodities, grades, heights

• Discrete or Discontinuous Variable – variables that can’t be

expressed in decimals
Examples: number of students, cars, houses
 SETS
• Set theory is a topic in Mathematics that deals with the logic
involving group of objects that are most of the time have
commonalities among them.
• Help us to analyze simple scenario up to a very complex
picture.
 TERMINOLOGIES:
• Set - a well-defined collection of distinct objects
- Set can be denoted by a capital letter
Ex. A = {even numbers}, Q = {Primary Colors}, D ={0, 2, 5}

• Element - the object that can make up a set

- Enclosed by braces and separated by commas
Ex. {0, 2, 5}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …}

• Universal Set - a set containing all the existing elements

- All the sets are subset of the universal set (U)
• Order of the set - describe the number of elements inside a given set
Ex. {0, 1, 21, 41, 51, 71} order = 6
{red, yellow, blue} order = 3
 TYPES OF SETS
• Empty set - a set that has no element in it
- also called null set
Ex. { }

• Finite set - consist if countable numbers of elements

- has a determinate number of elements
Ex. {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}

• Infinite set - has a indeterminate number of elements

Ex. {even numbers}
• Proper subset of a set - a set whose elements are found in a larger set
- part of a larger set
Ex. Set = {odd numbers} subset = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}

• Improper subset of a set - a set whose elements are equal sets

Ex. Set = {1, 2, 3 } subset = {1, 2, 3}

• Disjoint Sets - two or more sets with no common elements

Ex. A = {vowels} B = {consonants}

• Joint Sets - two or more sets with at least one common elements
Ex. A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {0, 5, 6, 7, 8}
• Equivalent Sets - two or more sets with same number of elements
Ex. A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {6, 7, 8, 9, 10}

• Equal Sets - two or more sets with the same elements

Ex. A = {red, blue, yellow} B = {primary colors}
 BASIC OPERATIONS IN SETS
• Union of Sets
- is simply the elements resulted from combining the two sets
- union is denoted by 𝑈 (𝐴 𝑼 𝐵)

Example:
A = {1, 2, 3} B= {4, 5, 6} A U B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6)
• Intersection of Sets
- intersection of two sets is simply the elements that are common to the
two sets
- intersection in denoted by the symbol ∩ (A∩B)

Example:
A = {1, 2, 3, 4} B = {2, 5, 6, 7} A∩B = {2}
• Difference of Sets
- the difference of two sets is the elements resulted when the elements
common two the two sets are subtracted from the minuend set.

A – B:
Examples:
A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11}
B = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}
A – B = {1, 3, 5, 7, 11}
B – A: B – A = {4, 6, 8, 10}
• Complement (U’)
- complement of sets is the elements found in the universal set that is
not found in any of the subsets of the universal set.

Example:
A = {odd numbers less than 15} {1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13}
B = {prime numbers less than 15} {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13}
U = {numbers less than 15} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14}
U’ = {4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14}
Venn diagram
Shading
 EXAMPLE #1
In a class of 50 students, 27 like Math and 32 like Biology and every single
student has at least one liked subject.
a. Construct the Venn diagram of the given problem
b. How many student like both Math and Biology?
c. How many students like Math alone?
d. How many students like Biology alone?
 EXAMPLE #2
• The universal set is composed of the letters in the English Alphabet while the
other set are as follows:
A = {vowels}
B = {consonants}
Find the following:
a. A’ b. B’ c. B – A d. A – B
e. (B – A)’ f. B U A g. B ∩ A h. (B U A)’