COLEGIO DE MUNTINLUPA

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

LESSON 01:
SETS

Engr. Onofre E. Algara, Jr.

BS Electrical Engineering (DLSU-D)
MS Electrical Engineering (Mapua University)
Course Instructor
SETS, ELEMENTS AND CARDINALITY
• A set is a collection of well-defined and distinct objects.
• These objects are usually referred to as the elements of that
set.
• Sets are denoted by uppercase letters of the alphabet such as
A, B , C, S and T.
• α is an element of set A iff α belongs to the set A. In symbols,
α ∈ 𝐴.
• b is not an element of set A iff b does not belongs to the set A.
In symbols, b ∉ 𝐴.
• The number of elements of a set is called the cardinality of
that set. The cardinality of set A is denoted by |A|.
EXAMPLES
1. Set A containing the subjects that Grade 7 students will
study this school year is a well-defined set.
• All Grade 7 students will study the same set of subjects.
• Mathematics ∉ 𝐴 because it is one of the subjects that
Grade 7 students will study this school year.
EXAMPLES
2. Set Set B containing the difficult subjects that Grade 7
students will study this school year is not a well- defined
set.
• Some of the students may have difficulty in mathematics,
while other students may find mathematics easy.
• Thus, it could not be determined whether or not
mathematics is an element of set B.
UNIVERSAL AND EMPTY SET
• The universal set is the set containing all elements being
considered or studied. It is usually denoted by U.
• An empty set, denoted by { } or ∅, is a set that does not
contain any element. It is also known as the null set.
EXAMPLES
• Two sets, M and N, form the universal set.
• Set M contains the letters in the word "examples" and set N
contains the even numbers greater than four but less than
eight.
1. The universal set is {e, x, a, m, p, l, s, 6}.
2. From the universal set, the set containing odd numbers
is { } because the universal set does not contain any odd
number.
SUBSET
• A set is a subset of another set if all elements of the first
set are also elements of the second set. The symbol ⊆ is
used to denote subset.
• A set can have 2 subsets, where n is the number of
𝑛

elements of the considered set. A subset may contain no

element, one element, two elements, or even all the
elements of the original set.
EXAMPLE
Given set B {x, y, z}, find the following:
1. elements of set B
2. cardinality of set B
3. all the subsets of set B
• The elements of set B are x, y, and z. This answer can also be
written using the element symbol: x ∈ B, y ∈ B, and z ∈ B.
• Set B has three elements. Thus, the cardinality of set B is 3 or
|B| = 3.
• Since set B has three elements, it has 23 or 8 subsets. These
are ∅, {x}, {y}, {z}, {x, y}, {y, z}, {x, z}, and {x, y, z}.
KEY POINTS
• A set is a collection of well-defined and distinct objects.
• The objects in a set are called its elements.
• A set with no elements in it is called an empty set denoted
by the symbols { } or ∅.
• The cardinality of a set is the number of elements in the
set.
• The universal set is the set containing all elements being
studied.
• A set is a subset of another set if all elements of the first
set are also elements of the second set.
SEATWORK
• Write the following sets in the
roster form.
(a) A = The set of all even numbers
less than 12
(b) B = The set of all prime numbers
greater than 1 but less than 29
(c) C = The set of integers lying
between -2 and 2
(d) D = The set of letters in the
word LOYAL
(e) E = The set of vowels in the
word CHOICE
(f) F = The set of all factors of 36
(g) G = {x : x ∈ N, 5 < x < 12}
(h) H = {x : x is a multiple of 3 and x < 21}
(i) I = {x : x is perfect cube 27 < x < 216}
(j) J = {x : x = 5n - 3, n < 3}
(k) M = {x : x is a positive integer and x2 < 40}
(l) N = {x : x is a positive integer and is a
divisor of 18}
(m) P = {x : x is an integer and x + 1 = 1}
(n) Q = {x : x is a color in the rainbow}
END OF PRESENTATION