ITCC0123

DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
CONSUELO GUTIERREZ CRUZ
Associate Professor V
Department of Arts and Sciences
Bataan Peninsula State University
City of Balanga, Bataan
 SET
THEORY
Notation and Terminologies
Kinds of Sets
Venn Diagrams
Set Operations
• What is a
set?
 SET
• A set is a well-defined collection
of distinct objects. It is an
unordered collection of objects,
called elements or members of the
set. A set is said to contain its
elements.
DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies
 SET
• 𝒂 ∈ 𝑨 - denotes that a is an element of the set A.
• 𝒂 ∉ 𝑨 - denotes that a is not an element of the set A.
• Sets are usually denoted by uppercase letters. Lowercase letters
are usually used to denote elements of sets.

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 TWO WAYS OF
DESCRIBING SETS:

• tabular or roster • set builder notation or

method - a method that
describes a set by listing its
elements. Elements are
separated by commas and
enclosed by braces.
rule form - the notation
that describes a set by
stating a property an
element must have to be a
member.

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 ROSTER/TABULAR METHOD SET BUILDER NOTATION

V = {𝒙 | 𝒙 is a vowel in the
𝑽 = {𝒂, 𝒆, 𝒊, 𝒐, 𝒖} English alphabet}

O = {𝒙 | 𝒙 is an odd positive
𝑶 = {𝟏, 𝟑, 𝟓, 𝟕, 𝟗} integer less than 10}

O = {𝒙 ∈ 𝒁+ | 𝒙 is odd and
𝑪 = {𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, . . . , 𝟗𝟗} 𝒙 < 𝟏𝟎𝟎}.

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 EXAMPLES:
List the elements
of the following sets:
𝟏 𝟏 𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
𝑷= 𝒙∈𝑵 𝑷 = , 𝟏, , , , …
𝒙 𝟎 𝟐 𝟑 𝟒

𝑻 = 𝒙𝟐 − 𝟏 𝟎 ≤ 𝒙 < 𝟓, 𝒙 ∈ 𝒁

𝑻 = {−𝟏, 𝟎, 𝟑, 𝟖, 𝟏𝟓}

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 • 𝑵 = {𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, . . . }, the set of natural numbers
• 𝒁 = {. . . , −𝟐, −𝟏, 𝟎, 𝟏, 𝟐, . . . }, the set of integers
• 𝒁+ = {𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, . . . }, the set of positive integers
• 𝑸 = {𝒑/𝒒 | 𝒑 ∈ 𝒁, 𝒒 ∈ 𝒁, and 𝒒 ≠ 𝟎}, the set of rational numbers
• 𝑹, the set of real numbers
• 𝑹+ , the set of positive real numbers
• 𝑪, the set of complex numbers.

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 • Sets can have other sets as members.
– The set {𝑵, 𝒁, 𝑸, 𝑹} is a set containing four
elements, each of which is a set. The four
elements of this set are N, the set of natural
numbers; Z, the set of integers; Q, the set of
rational numbers; and R, the set of real numbers.

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 Notation for intervals of real
numbers. When a and b are
real numbers with 𝒂 < 𝒃
• [𝒂, 𝒃] = {𝒙 | 𝒂 ≤ 𝒙 ≤ 𝒃}
• [𝒂, 𝒃) = {𝒙 | 𝒂 ≤ 𝒙 < 𝒃}
• (𝒂, 𝒃] = {𝒙 |𝒂 < 𝒙 ≤ 𝒃}
• (𝒂, 𝒃) = {𝒙 |𝒂 < 𝒙 < 𝒃}
• Note that [a, b] is called the closed interval from a to b and
(a, b) is called the open interval from a to b.

DEFINITIONS, Notations & terminologies

 SUBSETS
The set A is a subset of B if 𝕌
and only if every element of
A is also an element of B.
𝑨
𝑨 ⊂ 𝑩 indicates that A is a
subset of the set B. 𝑩
 SUBSETS
If there is at least one element found in B but not
in A, then A is a proper subset of B. There are
two improper subsets of any given set, the
empty set and the set itself. The power set
of P, denoted by 𝓟 𝑨 is defined as the set of all
subsets of A.

Examples:
Given 𝑨 = 𝒔, 𝒆, 𝒕
The number of subsets of A is
2𝑛 , where n is the number of
elements. So A has 8 subsets.
𝓟 𝑨 = ∅, 𝒔 , 𝒆 , 𝒕 , 𝒔, 𝒆 , 𝒔, 𝒕 , 𝒆, 𝒕 , 𝒔, 𝒆, 𝒕
SUBSETS
Improper subset = ∅ 𝒐𝒓
Proper subset with 1 element
= 𝒔, 𝒆, 𝒕
Proper subset with 2 elements
= 𝒔, 𝒆 , 𝒔, 𝒕 , 𝒆, 𝒕
Improper subset with 3 elements
= 𝒔, 𝒆, 𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝑨
 THE SIZE OF SET
• Let 𝑺 be a finite set where there are exactly 𝒏
distinct elements in 𝑺, 𝒏 is the cardinality of 𝑺.
The cardinality of S is denoted by |𝑺|. The term
cardinality comes from the common usage of the
term cardinal number as the size of a finite set.
 THE SIZE OF SET
Examples:
• Let A be the set of odd positive
integers less than 10. • Because the null set has
Then 𝑨 = 𝟓 𝐨𝐫 𝒏 𝑨 = 𝟓. no elements, it follows
• Let S be the set of letters in the that |∅| = 𝟎.
English alphabet.
Then 𝑺 = 𝟐𝟔 𝐨𝐫 𝒏 𝑺 = 𝟐𝟔.
 THE EMPTY SET or NULL SET - a special set that
has no elements and denoted by ∅. The empty set
can also be denoted by .
SINGLETON SET - a set with one element.
UNIVERSAL SET is the totality of elements under
consideration.

KINDS OF SETS
 EQUAL SETS (𝑨=𝑩)

Two sets are equal if and only if they have the same
elements.
• {1, 3, 5} and {3, 5, 1}
• {1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5} is the same as the set {1, 3, 5}

KINDS OF SETS
 EQUIVALENT SETS
(𝑨∼𝑩 )
Two sets are equivalent if they have the same number
of elements.
• 𝑪 = 𝒂, 𝒃, 𝒄 and 𝑫 = 𝟒, 𝟓, 𝟔 → 𝑪 ∼ 𝑫
• 𝟐 ∼ ∅

KINDS OF SETS
 • FINITE SETS. A set is finite if it contains only a
countable number of elements.
• INFINITE SETS. A set with an infinite number of
elements, i.e. counting of elements has no end

KINDS OF SETS
 • Joint sets. Sets that have a common element.
• Disjoint sets. Set which have no common
element.

KINDS OF SETS