MA 276 TOPICS AND OBJECTIVES

1 CORE PROOF COURSE TOPICS

NOTE: Items marked optional in the Basic Number Theory section can be included or not at the
discretion of the instructor.

1.1 PROPOSITIONAL/PREDICATE LOGIC

1. Recognize and correctly use the major logical connectives ∧, ∨, ¬, →, and ↔ and write down
their definitions. (Truth tables are one way to organize these definitions but are optional.)

2. Translate and interpret between statements written in English and logical symbols.

3. Determine the truth value of a compound statement, including those with quantifiers, and
explain.

4. Use logical equivalences and substitution to manipulate or simplify symbolic statements.

5. Identify and construct inverses, converses and contrapositives of statements and avoid logical
fallacies involving them.

6. Recognize whether an argument is valid or invalid and justify your answer.

7. Construct, simplify and rephrase negations of statements, including those with quantifiers.

8. Apply a quantifier rule of inference (universal/existential generalization/specification) to ap-

propriate premises to arrive at correct conclusions.

1.2 SETS

1. State the definitions of the set theoretic symbols and common notations for commonly used
sets: ∪, ∩, ∈, ⊂, ⊆, ∆, Ā, Z, N, R, Q, Z+ etc.

2. Find the elements, finite cardinality, subsets and proper subsets of a set given a description
in symbols or words.

3. Translate a description of a set into correct set notation.

4. State the definitions of set equality, disjoint, subset, union, intersection, complement and set
difference.

5. Evaluate as true or false general implications about set membership, containment and proper
containment.

6. Sketch a Venn Diagram representing a compound set.

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 7. Find the power set of a given set, state the definition of power set and do proofs involving
power sets.

8. Prove two sets are equal by proving they are subsets of one another.

9. Determine the truth or falsity of statements about families of sets and indexed families of
sets.

10. Find the union and intersection of a family of sets.

1.3 PROOF TECHNIQUES, STRATEGY AND EXAMPLES/NON EXAM-

PLES

1. Interpret a definition as a biconditional even if it is not written that way.

2. Recognize implicit universal quantifiers. (For example, when we say “If A ⊆ B and B ⊆ C
then A ⊆ C” we mean that this statement holds for ALL sets A, B and C.)

3. Evaluate the validity of an attempted proof, and identify and explain any errors. If valid,
write down a correct statement of the fact that was proved.

4. Identify the general structure of a given proof or step in a proof (direct, contrapositives,
contradiction, existence/uniqueness, cases etc.)

5. Identify whether a variable in a proof is arbitrary or not.

6. Given appropriate definitions, write proofs of statements, both direct and indirect. Starter
proof topics may include, but are not limited to:

(a) sets, generalized set operations, power sets, etc

(b) basic properties of integers (even/odd, positive/negative), or real numbers (ratio-
nal/irrational, algebra, inequalities.)

7. For a given basic statement, argue whether a direct proof, a proof by contrapositive or a proof
by contradiction is a reasonable strategy.

8. Rephrase an unnecessary or confusing proof by contradiction as a proof by contrapositive or

a direct proof as appropriate.

1.4 INDUCTION AND RECURSION

1. State the Principle of Mathematical Induction, The Principle of Strong Mathematical Induc-
tion and the Well Ordering Principle of Z+ .

2. Write proofs by induction or strong induction of equalities with summations, inequalities (e.g.
with factorials and powers), properties of recursively defined sequences (e.g. Fibonnaci, Lucas
sequences), logical symbols or sets, and other examples as preferred by the instructor.

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 3. Identify and clearly state the inductive hypothesis, both in a given proof by induction and
when writing proofs by induction.

4. Give recursive definitions for sequences involving linear, quadratic and exponential terms and
factorials.

5. Given examples, conjecture and prove by induction an equality with summations or an in-
equality.

6. Write proofs by induction to prove properties of structures or sets that are recursively defined
(e.g. proofs about binary trees, proving the closed form description of a recursively defined
set.)

1.5 RELATIONS - INTRODUCTION

1. Use cartesian product in combination with other operations to build sets, determine elements
of cartesian products.

2. State the definition of a relation from set A to B, or a relation on A. Identify what is and is
not a relation.

3. State the definitions of reflexive, symmetric, antisymmetric and transitive.

4. Give examples of relations on a set A that satisfy one or more of the following properties:
reflexive, symmetric, antisymmetric, and transitive.

5. Determine whether or not a given relation is reflexive, symmetric, antisymmetric, or transitive.

6. Compose relations between sets.

7. Represent a relation between two finite sets as a digraph.

8. Recognize the reflexive, symmetric, antisymmetric, and transitive properties of a relation on

a finite set from its associated digraph.

9. Write proofs of facts about cartesian products and relations.

1.6 ORDER RELATIONS

1. Determine whether a relation is a partial order, and whether a partial order is a total order.

2. Represent a partial order by means of a Hasse diagram.

3. Determine the minimal elements, maximal elements, least element, greatest element, upper
bounds, least upper bounds, lower bounds, and greatest lower bounds of a partially ordered
set.

4. Write proofs about properties of partial orders and related concepts.

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1.7 EQUIVALENCE RELATIONS AND PARTITIONS

1. State the definitions of equivalence relation, equivalence class, and partition of a set.

2. Determine whether a relation is an equivalence relation.

3. Determine the partition of a set A induced by an equivalence relation on A and vice versa.

4. State and explain common examples of equivalence relations and partitions, quotient spaces,
especially the integers mod n.

5. Write proofs about equivalence relations, partitions and their properties.

1.8 FUNCTIONS

1. State the definition of function and determine whether a given relation is a function.

2. Translate between descriptions of functions using words, graphs, lists and symbols.

3. Find the domain, codomain and range of a function, and calculate images of elements and
sets.

4. Identify whether a function is one-to-one and/or onto.

5. Given certain criteria (e.g. “one-to-one, but not onto”), construct examples of functions that
meet the criteria, or explain why such an example is impossible.

6. Determine whether a function is bijective/invertible.

7. Determine the composition and inverse of functions given by formulas or lists or diagrams.

8. Determine the preimage of a subset of the codomain of a function.

9. Write proofs regarding functions and properties of functions, compositions, inverses, images
and preimages.

10. Determine whether or not a relation defined on a set of equivalence classes is a well-defined
function, and prove the answer.

1.9 BASIC NUMBER THEORY

1. State the definitions of: divides, quotient, remainder, prime, composite, greatest common
divisor, least common multiple.

2. Calculate gcds using the Euclidean algorithm.

3. State the division algorithm and the Euclidean algorithm.

4. Prove that square roots of integers that are not perfect squares are irrational.

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 5. Construct the integers mod n as a set of equivalence classes.

6. Optional: Outline the proof of the division algorithm and/or the Euclidean algorithm as an
example of a proof by the well ordering principle or strong induction.

7. Optional: Prove statements about divisibility, gcd, lcm and primes from the definitions, or
disprove by counterexample.

8. Optional: Prove basic facts about modular arithmetic.

1.10 CARDINALITY

1. State the definitions of: finite set, infinite, equinumerous, countable, uncountable.

2. Determine whether a given set is finite or infinite.

3. Give an example of an infinite set A and a proper subset B of A that is equinumerous to A.

4. Prove two sets are equinumerous by constructing a bijection from one to the other.

5. Apply the fact that a given set is finite or countable to write the set as an indexed set with
indices given by positive integers.

6. Determine whether a given set is countable or uncountable.