Grade 7 Mathematics

First Quarter
A C T I V I T Y No. 2
Type of Activity : Concept Notes
Activity Title : SUBSETS OF A SET Date:
Learning Competency : The learner describes well-defined sets, subsets, universal sets, and the null set
and cardinality of sets. (M7NS-Ia-1)
Learning Targets : To determine the number of subsets of a given set by listing down its subsets
Reference : MSA Elem. Algebra by Alferez and Duro, pages 2-4

Set A is said to be a subset of B, written A B, if and only if every element of A is also an element
of B.
Given set A = {m, s, a} and B = {m, a, t, h, s}, we can conclude that A B since every element of A
is in B. Note that every element in set A is in A, A A fo r all sets A. Also, ø A for any set A since it is
impossible to find an element in ø that is not in A.
If A B and B has an element that is not in A, we write A B and say that A is a proper subset of
B. Thus {m, s, a} {m, a, t, h, s}, since {m, s, a} {m, a, t, h, s} and, t and h are in the second set but not
in the first.
The number of subsets of a set is 2n where n is the number of elements in a given set. Thus, the
set {m, a, t, h} has 24 = 16 subsets and the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} has 2 7 = 128 subsets.

EXAMPLE: Determine the number of subsets and list down all of them.
Given: {2, 3, 4, 5}
SOLUTION: 2n = 24 = 16 subsets
The subsets are ø, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {2, 3}, {2, 4}, {2, 5}, {3, 4}, {3, 5}, {4, 5}, {2, 3, 4}, {2, 3, 5},
:
{2, 4, 5}, {3, 4, 5}, {2, 3, 4, 5}.
EXERCISES:
Determine the number of subsets and list down all of them.

1. {a, b, c}
2. {2, 4, 6, 8}
3. {1, 2, 3, 4, 5,}
4. {d, e, f, g, h, i}