11.1
Partially Ordered Sets,
More on Relations
This chapter continues the study of relations that we began long ago in Chapter 3. It
may be wise to review that aecount quickly for terminology. The first two sections
of this chapter discuss relations that order the elements of a set, beginning with
general partial orderings and then tuming to specific order relations on the sets
5) x-++xS and E, Section 11.4 discusses composition of relations in general and
develops matrix analogs of statements about relations. Before that, though, we must
revisit matrix multiplication, Section 11.3 develops this machinery and introduces
the Boolean matrices that naturally describe relations. The final section determines
the smallest relations. with various properties that contain a given relation R on a
set S. In particular, it describes the smallest equivalence relation containing R.
Sections 11.3 to 11.5 are independent of the first two sections of the chapter
and may be studied separately
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In this section we look at sets whose members can be compared with each other in
some way. In typical instances we will think of one element as being smaller than
another or as coming before another in some sort of order. The most familiar order
is < on B, which has the following properties:
(Rv belong (0 S, then the sets {51}
and {82} are incomparable.
(@) We can compare functions pointwise. For instance, if f and g are defined on
the set Sand have values in (0, 1}, then we could consider f to be less than
fr equal to g in case f(s) < g(s) for every s € S. This is essentially the order
wwe gave B” in Example 4 on page 394. .
Sets with comparison relations that allow the possibility of incomparable ele
ments, such as those in Example 2, ae said to be partially ordered
Recall that a relation R on a set S is a subset of $ x S. A partial order on a
set $is a relation R that is reflexive, antisymmetric, and transitive. These conditions
mean that if we write x = y as an allemative notation for (x, y) € R, then a partial
order satisfies
ss foreverys in S;
(AS) s Stand