Definitions Regarding Sets

• A set is well defined if it is possible to

determine whether any given item is an
element of the set. For instance, the set of
letters of the English alphabet is well defined.
• The set of great songs is not a well-defined
set. It is not possible to determine whether
any given song is an element of the set or is
not an element of the set because there is no
standard method for making such a judgment.
• The empty set, or null set, is the set that
contains no elements.
• The symbol or {} is used to represent the
empty set. As an example of the empty set,
consider the set of natural numbers that are
negative integers.
• Another method of representing a set is set-
builder notation.
• Set-builder notation is especially useful when
describing infinite sets. For instance, in set-
builder notation, the set of natural numbers
greater than 7 is written as follows:
• The preceding set-builder notation is read as
“the set of all elements x such that x is an
element of the set of natural numbers and x
is greater than 7.”
• It is impossible to list all the elements of the
set, but set-builder notation defines the set
by describing its elements.
▼ example 5 Use Set-Builder Notation to
Represent a Set
▼ example 5 Use Set-Builder Notation to
Represent a Set
• A set is finite if the number of elements in the
set is a whole number.
• The cardinal number of a finite set is the
number of elements in the set.
• The cardinal number of a finite set A is
denoted by the notation n(A).
• For instance, if A={1, 4, 6, 9} , then n(A)= 4.
• In this case, A has a cardinal number of 4,
which is sometimes stated as “A has a
cardinality of 4.”
• The following definitions play an important
role in our work with sets.
 The set of all elements that are being
considered is called the universal set. We will
use the letter U to denote the universal set.
• Because the universal set contains all elements under
consideration, the complement of the universal set is
the empty set.
• Conversely, the complement of the empty set is the
universal set, because the empty set has no elements
and the universal set contains all the elements under
consideration. Using mathematical notation, we state
these fundamental results as follows:
 Subsets
• Consider the set of letters in the alphabet and
the set of vowels {a, e, i, o, u}.
• Every element of the set of vowels is an
element of the set of letters in the alphabet.
• The set of vowels is said to be a subset of the
set of letters in the alphabet.
• We will often find it useful to examine subsets
of a given set.
Pick an arbitrary set A. Because every element of the empty set (there are none)
is an element of A, we know that A.
 Number of Subsets of a Set
In Example 4, we found that a set with 4
elements has 16 subsets. The following formula
can be used to find the number of subsets of a
set with n elements, where n is a natural
number.
 Number of Subsets of a Set
In Example 4, we found that a set with 4
elements has 16 subsets. The following formula
can be used to find the number of subsets of a
set with n elements, where n is a natural
number.
 Set Operations
Intersection and Union of Sets
 Two sets are disjoint if their intersection is the empty set. The sets A and C in
Example 1b are disjoint.