Mathematics

Grade 7 • Unit 1: Sets

LESSON 1.2
Set Operations
Table of Contents
Introduction 1

Test Your Prerequisite Skills 2

DepEd Competency 2

Objectives 3

Warm-Up! 3

Learn about It! 4

Let’s Practice 6

Check Your Understanding 14

Key Points 15

Bibliography 15
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Grade 7 • Unit 1: Sets

Lesson 1.2
Set Operations

Fig. 1. Programmer

Introduction
In the previous lesson, we learned that a set is the unordered collection of distinct elements.
When we combine two or more sets to produce another set, that is called set operations.
Operations of sets are very powerful in computer programming, specifically in search engines
for online products. What programmers do is split up a large number of items into different
sets, and when a query is made, the program finds the intersection of data input to display
the specific item. Also, doctors even benefit from sets when they diagnose a patient’s case.

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From different illnesses with common symptoms, they can identify the most probable cause
of the disease and thus will be able to advise patients and give appropriate prescriptions.
Truly, sets and the operations involving them play a vital role in different aspects of our lives.

In this lesson, you will learn the set operations such as union, intersection, difference, and
complement of a set.

Test Your Prerequisite Skills

Before you get started, answer the following items on a separate sheet of paper. This will help
you assess your prior knowledge and practice some skills that you will need in studying this
lesson. Show your complete solution.

Represent the following sets in roster form and determine its cardinality.

1. Even numbers from 1 to 10

2. First five prime numbers
3. Composite numbers between 20 and 30
4. Multiples of 5 from 15 to 65
5. Odd numbers from 11 to 20

DepEd Competency
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to illustrate well-defined sets, subsets,
universal sets, null set, cardinality of sets, union and intersection of sets and the
difference of two sets.

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Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

● List the elements of the union, intersection, and difference of two sets.

● List the elements of the complement of a set.

● Solve problems involving sets.

Warm-Up!

My Music Idol!

Materials
● pen
● paper

Instructions
1. This activity involves 30 students.
2. Make a survey of the favorite music artist of 15 boys and 15 girls.
3. List the top five music artists for both boys and girls.
4. Make a table of the results.

Data Table
Table 5. Top Music Artists

Top 5 Music Artists for Boys Top 5 Music Artists for Girls

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5. Make a list of all the artists chosen by the boys and by the girls.
6. Make another list of the common artists chosen by both girls and boys.
7. Share the data obtained to the class.

Learn about It!

From the activity you have just performed, you have already gotten acquainted with one of
the operations on sets. Let us find out more about set operations in this lesson.

Consider the universal set 𝑈 as the set of real numbers. Two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 are given as follows:

𝐴 = {– 5, – 4, – 3, – 2, – 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
𝐵 = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Definition 2.1: The union of sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by

𝐴 ∪ 𝐵, is the set that contains all the elements in set 𝐴, set
𝐵, or both.

From the given, the union of A and B have the following elements:

𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 = {– 5, – 4, – 3, – 2, – 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Definition 2.2: The intersection of sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵,

is the set that contains all the elements common to both 𝐴 and 𝐵.

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Getting the common elements of A and B, we obtain their intersection:

𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Definition 2.3: The difference of sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by

𝐴 − 𝐵, is the set that contains all elements in 𝐴 which are not in
𝐵.

From the given, we have

𝐴 − 𝐵 = {– 5, – 4, – 3, – 2, – 1}.

It is important to note that 𝐴 − 𝐵 may not be the same as 𝐵 − 𝐴. In the case of the given
elements of A and B at the start of the discussion, we have

𝐵 − 𝐴 = { } or ∅

because all elements of B are also contained in A.

Definition 2.4: The complement of set 𝐴, denoted by 𝐴′ , is the

set that contains all elements in the universal set that are not in
set 𝐴.

Since 𝑈 = ℝ,
𝐴′ = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 ∈ ℝ – 𝐴}
or
𝐴′ = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is a real number but not an integer from − 5 to 5}

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Essential Questions
How do you determine the elements of the union, intersection, and difference
of two sets?
How do you determine the elements of the complement of a set?

Let’s Practice
Example 1
Consider the universal set 𝑈 = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒}.
a. Write the elements of set 𝐴 containing even numbers, and the elements of set 𝐵
containing vowels.
b. Write the elements of the union of 𝐴 and 𝐵.
c. Write the elements of the intersection of 𝐴 and 𝐵.

Solution
a. Write the elements of sets 𝐴 and 𝐵.

𝑨 = {𝟎, 𝟐, 𝟒}
𝑩 = {𝒂, 𝒆}

b. Write the elements of the union of the sets 𝐴 and 𝐵.

To get the union of A and B, we collect all the elements of set A and set B.

𝑨 ∪ 𝑩 = {𝟎, 𝟐, 𝟒, 𝒂, 𝒆}

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c. Write the elements of the intersection of the sets 𝐴 and 𝐵.

To get the intersection of 𝐴 and 𝐵, we collect all the elements common to 𝐴 and 𝐵.
However, 𝐴 has elements that are numbers and 𝐵 has elements that are letters. They
are sure to have no common elements; thus, we have

𝑨 ∩ 𝑩 = { } or ∅

Try It Yourself!
Set 𝑈 contains numbers from 1 to 20 and the letters of the phrase “Math is Fun”.
Find the following:
a. the set 𝐴 containing all prime numbers
b. the set 𝐵 containing consonants
c. the union of 𝐴 and 𝐵
d. the intersection of 𝐴 and 𝐵

Example 2
Consider the universal set of all integers from 1 to 10. Sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 are defined as follows:
𝐴 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is an odd number from 1 to 10}
𝐵 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is a prime number from 1 to 10}

Find the following sets:

a. 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵
b. 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵
c. 𝐴 – 𝐵
d. 𝐴′

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Solution
List the elements of sets 𝐴 and 𝐵.

𝐴 = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9} and 𝐵 = {2, 3, 5, 7}

a. To get the elements of 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵, we list the elements in 𝐴, in 𝐵, or both.

𝑨 ∪ 𝑩 = {𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟓, 𝟕, 𝟗}

b. To get the elements of 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵, we list the elements common to 𝐴 and 𝐵.

𝑨 ∩ 𝑩 = {𝟑, 𝟓, 𝟕}

c. To get the elements of 𝐴 − 𝐵, we get the elements in 𝐴 that are not in 𝐵.

𝑨 − 𝑩 = {𝟏, 𝟗}

d. To get the elements of 𝐴’, we get the elements in 𝑈 but not in 𝐴.

𝑨′ = {𝟐, 𝟒, 𝟔, 𝟖, 𝟏𝟎}

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Try It Yourself!
Given that 𝑈 is the set of all integers from 1 and 20, sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 are subsets of 𝑈, such
that
𝐴 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is an even integer from 1 to 20}
𝐵 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is an integer whose square is ≤ 100}

Find:

a. 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 b. 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 c. 𝐴 − 𝐵 d. 𝐵′

Example 3
Consider the universal set of all integers from 1 to 10. Sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 are defined as follows:
𝐴 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is an even number from 1 to 10}
𝐵 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 is a composite number from 1 to 10}

a. Determine if 𝐴 − 𝐵 = 𝐵 − 𝐴.
b. Find 𝐴’ ∩ 𝐵 and 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵’.

Solution
List the elements of sets 𝐴 and 𝐵.

𝐴 = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10} and 𝐵 = {4, 6, 8, 9, 10}

a. Finding 𝐴 − 𝐵 and 𝐵 − 𝐴, we have

𝐴 – 𝐵 = {2}
𝐵 – 𝐴 = {9}

The elements of 𝐴 − 𝐵 are not the same elements of 𝐵 − 𝐴. Therefore, 𝑨 − 𝑩 ≠ 𝑩 − 𝑨.

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b. To find 𝐴′ ∩ 𝐵, we first find 𝐴’ and 𝐵, then we get their intersection.

𝐴′ = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}
𝐵 = {4, 6, 8, 9, 10}
𝐴′ ∩ 𝐵 = {9}

To find 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵’, we first find 𝐴 and 𝐵’, then we get their union.

𝐴 = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}
𝐵′ = {1, 2, 3, 5, 7}
𝐴 ∪ 𝐵′ = {𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟒, 𝟓, 𝟔, 𝟕, 𝟖, 𝟏𝟎}

Try It Yourself!
Let 𝑈 be the universal set and 𝐴 and 𝐵 be subsets of 𝑈, such that

𝑈 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒, 𝑓}
𝐴 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐}
𝐵 = {𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒}

a. Determine if 𝐴 − 𝐵 is equal to 𝐵 − 𝐴.
b. Find 𝐴’ ∩ 𝐵 and 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵’.

Real-world Problems

Example 4
Students of Grade 7-Mahogany were surveyed on their favorite subject. The group of girls
was separated from the group of boys. Top five subjects for boys are Mathematics, Science,

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Computer, English and MAPEH. For girls, the top five subjects are English, Filipino, Science,
Values Education and MAPEH. The only subject not chosen is History.

Find the following:

a. Set 𝐴 containing the favorite subjects of the boys
b. Set 𝐵 containing the favorite subjects of the girls
c. Set 𝑈 containing all the choices in the survey
d. The set of subjects favored by the boys or the girls (also indicate how this set can be
denoted using 𝐴 and 𝐵)
e. The set of subjects favored by both the boys and the girls (also indicate how this set
can be denoted using 𝐴 and 𝐵)

Solution
a. Let 𝐴 be the set of favorite subjects of the boys.

𝑨 = {𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔, 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉, 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝑴𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑯}

b. Let 𝐵 be the set of favorite subjects of the girls.

𝑩 = {𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉, 𝑭𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒐, 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑴𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑯}

c. To find the elements of the universal set, find all the elements that are in 𝐴 or are in 𝐵, as
well as the remaining choice that was not favored by either group, which is History.

𝑼 = {𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔, 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉, 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝑴𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑯,

𝑭𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒐, 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚}

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d. Here, we need to find the subjects favored by the boys or the girls. The operative word
here is “or”. This asks us that the subject could be in 𝐴 or in 𝐵 or both. Thus, this is like
finding the union of 𝐴 and 𝐵.

𝑨 ∪ 𝑩 = {𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔, 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉, 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝑴𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑯,

𝑭𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒐, 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏}

e. Here, we need to find the subjects favored by both boys and girls. The operative word
here is “and”. Finding the favorite subjects common to both the boys and the girls is
finding the intersection of 𝐴 and 𝐵, thus

𝑨 ∩ 𝑩 = {𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉, 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝑴𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑯}

Example 5
In a group of 100 persons, 85 people can speak English and 25 can speak French. How many
can speak both English and French?

Solution
Let 𝐴 be the set of people who speak English.
Let 𝐵 be the set of people who speak French.
Let 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 be the set of people who speak both French and English.

The number of people who speak English: 𝑛(𝐴) = 85

The number of people who speak French: 𝑛(𝐵) = 25
The total number of people in the group: 𝑛(𝐴 ∪ 𝐵) = 100

Notice that the sum of the cardinalities of 𝐴 and 𝐵 exceed the total number of people in the
group. This only means that some of the people can speak both English and French. To find

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out how many can speak both, subtract the number of those who can speak either language
(that is, the union) from the sum of the individual cardinalities of those who can speak English
and those who can speak French.

𝑛(𝐴 ∩ 𝐵) = 𝑛(𝐴) + 𝑛(𝐵) − 𝑛(𝐴 ∪ 𝐵)

= 85 + 25 − 100
= 110 − 100
= 10

Therefore, ten people in the group can speak both English and French.

Try It Yourself!
A local high school offers the following sports program for summer: basketball,
volleyball, taekwondo, tennis and swimming. Students in Batch 1 enrolled in basketball
and volleyball. Batch 2 students enrolled in tennis and swimming. Using the concept of
set, represent the following sets:
a. the set 𝑈 containing all the sports programs offered by the school
b. the set 𝐴 containing the sports programs Batch 1 enrolled in
c. the set 𝐵 containing the sports programs Batch 2 enrolled in
d. the set of sports programs enrolled by either Batch 1 or Batch 2 (also indicate
how this set can be denoted using 𝐴 and 𝐵)
e. the set of sports programs with no enrollees (also indicate how this set can be
denoted using 𝐴 and 𝐵)

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Check Your Understanding

Answer the following problems.

1. Let set 𝑇 be the set of all positive integer factors of 12.

Let set 𝐸 be the set of all positive integer factors of 18.
Let the universal set 𝑈 be the set of all integers from 1 to 18.

Write the following sets in roster form:

a. 𝑇 b. 𝐸 c. 𝑇 ∪ 𝐸 d. 𝑇 ∩ 𝐸 e. 𝑇 − 𝐸’ f. (𝑇 ∩ 𝐸)’

2. A group of 50 customers were given survey forms by the management of a nearby café.
They were to tick the box beside coffee or milk tea if they liked the said drink. They may
tick the boxes beside both. Thirty-nine ticked coffee, and twenty-two ticked milk tea. How
many ticked both coffee and milk tea?

3. Ten friends with the names Zach, Yolly, Xerxes, Wesley, Viola, Ulrich, Tyler, Sven, Raya, and
Quentin are deciding on whether they will go on a food trip or have a movie marathon on
their next get-together.

Zach, Yolly, Wesley, Viola, Sven, and Quentin wanted to go on a food trip
Xerxes, Wesley, Viola, Tyler, Sven, and Raya wanted to have a movie marathon.
If set 𝐴 is the set of those who wanted to go on a food trip and set 𝐵 is the set of those
who wanted to do a movie marathon,

a. find a suitable universal set 𝑈 for the given problem.

b. how will you denote using 𝐴 and 𝐵 the set of those who wanted both activities?

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c. how will you denote using 𝐴 and 𝐵 the set of those who wanted neither of the two
activities?
d. what is the cardinality of those who wanted exactly only one of the two activities?

Key Points

● The union of two sets is the set that contains all the elements of both given sets 𝐴
and 𝐵.
● The intersection of two sets is the set that contains all the elements common to both
given sets 𝐴 and 𝐵.
● The difference of two sets is the set that contains all the elements in set 𝐴 which are
not in set 𝐵.
● The complement of a set is the set that contains all the elements in the universal set
that are not in set 𝐴.

Bibliography
Garneau, Marc, et al. Math Makes Sense 7. USA: Pearson Education Canada, 2007.

Math Is Fun. “Introduction to Sets.” Accessed 05 January 2018.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/sets/sets-introduction.html

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