Problems on Sets Lecture 2

1. Equal Sets:
a) Determine whether the following sets are equal: {1, 2, 3} and {3, 1, 2}.
b) Prove that if A = B and B = C, then A = C.

2. Subsets:
a) Determine whether the following sets are subsets of {1, 2, 3}: {1, 3}, {2, 4}, and {1,
2, 3, 4}.
b) Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {2, 4, 6, 8}. Prove that A and B are not equal sets, but A
is a subset of B.

3. Power Set:
a) Find the power set of the set {January, June, July}.
b) How many elements are in the power set of a set with 5 elements?

4. Universal Set:
a) Let U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. If A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {2, 4, 6}, determine whether A and
B are subsets of U.
b) Let U be the set of all integers. If A = {𝑛 ∶ 𝑛 is an odd integer} and B = {𝑛 ∶ 𝑛 is a
multiple of 3}, determine whether A and B are subsets of U.

Solutions
1. Equal Sets:
a) The sets {1, 2, 3} and {3, 1, 2} are equal since they contain the same elements, just in
a different order.
b) If A = B and B = C, then A = C by the transitive property of equality. This property
states that if A = B and B = C, then A = C.

2. Subsets:
a) {1, 3} is a subset of {1, 2, 3} since all its elements are also in {1, 2, 3}. {2, 4} is not a
subset of {1, 2, 3} since 4 is not in the set {1, 2, 3}. {1, 2, 3, 4} is not a proper subset
of {1, 2, 3} since it contains an element, 4, that is not in {1, 2, 3}.
b) A is not equal to B since they contain different elements. However, A is a subset of B
since every element in A is also in B.

3. Power Set:
a) The power set of {January, June, July} is {{}, {January}, {June}, {July}, {January,
June}, {January, July}, {June, July}, {January, June, July}}. This set contains all
possible subsets of {January, June, July}, including the empty set and the set itself.
b) A set with 5 elements has 25 = 32 subsets. This is because the power set includes all
possible combinations of elements, including the empty set and the set itself.
4. Universal Set:
a) A = {1, 2, 3} is a subset of U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}. B = {2, 4, 6} is also a subset of U.
This is because every element in A and B is also in U.
b) A = {n | n is an odd integer} is a subset of U = {n | n is an integer}. B = {n | n is a
multiple of 3} is also a subset of U. This is because every odd integer is also an
integer, and every multiple of 3 is also an integer.