Sets

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 Sets

Informally:
A set is a collection of (mathematical) objects,
with the collection treated as a single mathematical object.

Examples: • real numbers, 

• complex numbers, C
• integers, 
• All students in our class
 Defining Sets

Sets can be defined directly:

e.g. {1,2,4,8,16,32,…},

{CSC1130,CSC2110,…}

Order, number of occurence are not important.

e.g. {A,B,C} = {C,B,A} = {A,A,B,C,B}

A set can be an element of another set.

{1,{2},{3,{4}}}
 Defining Sets by Predicates

The set of elements, x, in A such that P(x) is true.

{x  A | P( x)}

The set of prime numbers:

 Commonly Used Sets

• N = {0, 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
 Special Sets

• Empty Set (null set): a set that has no elements, denoted by ф

or {}.
• Example: The set of all positive integers that are greater than
their squares is an empty set.
• Singleton set: a set with one element
• Compare: ф and {ф}
– Ф: an empty set. Think of this as an empty folder
– {ф}: a set with one element. The element is an empty set. Think
of this as an folder with an empty folder in it.
 Venn Diagrams

• Represent sets graphically

• The universal set U, which contains all the objects under
consideration, is represented by a rectangle. The set varies
depending on which objects are of interest.
• Inside the rectangle, circles or other geometrical figures are
used to represent sets.
• Sometimes points are used to represent the particular elements
of the set.

U
a
u
V e
o i

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 Membership

{7, “Albert”, /2, T}

x A x is an element of A
x is in A

Examples: /2  {7, “Albert”,/2, T}

/3  {7, “Albert”,/2, T}

14/2  {7, “Albert”,/2, T}

7  2/3  
 Containment

A is a subset of B
A B A is contained in B

Every element of A is also an element of B.

Examples: R, {3}{5,7,3}

  every set, AA

A is a proper subset of B
 Set Equivalence

Two sets are equal if and only if they have the same elements.
That is, if A and B are sets, then A and B are equal if and only if
 x(x  A  x  B).
We write A = B if A and B are equal sets.

• Example:
• Are sets {1, 3, 5} and {3, 5,1} equal?
• Are sets {1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5} and {1, 3, 5} equal?
 Basic Operations on Sets

union: A  B :: {x | ( x  A)  ( x  B)}

 Basic Operations on Sets

intersection: A  B :: {x | x  A  x  B}
 Basic Operations on Sets

difference: A  B :: {x | ( x  A)  ( x  B)}

 Basic Operations on Sets

complement: A :: {x  D | x  A}  D  A
 Cardinality
Let S be a set. If there are exactly n distinct elements in S where n is a
nonnegative integer, we say that S is a finite set and that n is the
cardinality of S. The cardinality of S is denoted by |S|. 


• Example:
– Let A be the set of odd positive integers less than 10. Then
|A| = 5.
– Let S be the set of letters in the English alphabet. Then |A|
= 26.
– Null set has no elements, | ф | = 0.

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 Infinite Sets

A set is said to be infinite if it is not finite.


• Example: The set of positive integers is infinite.

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 Cardinality

• Finding the cardinality of |A U B|:

|A U B| = |A| + |B| - |A ∩ B |
• Example: A = {1,3,5,7,9}, B = {5,7,9,11}
|A U B| = |A| + |B| - |A ∩ B |
=5+4–3=6

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 Partitions of Sets

Two sets are disjoint if their intersection is empty.

A collection of nonempty sets {A1, A2, …, An} is a partition of a set A

if and only if

A1, A2, …, An are mutually disjoint.

 Power Sets

power set: pow ( A) :: {S | S  A}

pow(a, b)  a, b , a , b , 
 Cartesian Products

• Sets are unordered, a different structure is needed to represent an

ordered collections – ordered n-tuples.

The ordered n-tuple (a1, a2,…, an) is the ordered collection that has a1
as its first element, a2 as its second element, …, and an as its nth
element.
• Two ordered n-tuples are equal if and only if each corresponding
pair of their elements is equal.
– (a1, a2,…, an) = (b1, b2,…, bn) if and only if ai = bi for i = 1, 2, …, n

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 Cartesian Products

Let A and B be sets. The Cartesian product of A and B, denoted by A ×

B, is the set of all ordered pairs (a, b), where a A and b  B
. Hence,
A × B = {(a,b)| a  A Λ b B}.

• Example:
What is the Cartesian product of A = {1,2} and B = {a,b,c}?
Solution:
A × B = {(1,a), (1,b), (1,c), (2,a), (2,b), (2,c)}
• Cartesian product of A × B and B × A are not equal, unless A = ф or B
= ф (so that A × B = ф ) or A = B.
B × A = {(a,1),(a,2),(b,1),(b,2),(c,1),(c,2)}

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 Cartesian products

The Cartesian product of sets A1, A2, …, An, denoted by A1 × A2 × …

× An is the set of ordered n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an), where ai belongs to
Ai for i = 1,2, …, n. In other words,
A1 × A2 × … × An = {(a1, a2, …, an) | ai  Ai for i = 1,2, …, n}.

• Example:
What is the Cartesian product of A × B × C where A= {0,1}, B = {1,2},
and C = {0,1,2}?
Solution:
A × B × C= {(0,1,0), (0,1,1), (0,1,2), (0,2,0), (0,2,1), (0,2,2), (1,1,0),
(1,1,1), (1,1,2), (1,2,0), (1,2,1), (1,2,2)}

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 Set Identities

Distributive Law:
 Set Identities

De Morgan’s Law:
Proving Set Identities
Proving Set Identities
 Computer Representation of Sets

• Represent a subset A of U with the bit string of length n, where the

ith bit in the string is 1 if ai belongs to A and is 0 if ai does not
belong to A.

• Example:
– Let U = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}, and the ordering of elements of U has the
elements in increasing order; that is ai = i.
What bit string represents the subset of all odd integers in U?
Solution: 10 1010 1010
What bit string represents the subset of all even integers in U?
Solution: 01 010 10101
What bit string represents the subset of all integers not exceeding 5 in U?
Solution: 11 1110 0000
What bit string represents the complement of the set {1,3,5,7,9}?
Solution: 01 0101 0101

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 Logic and Bit Operations

• Computers represent information using bits.

• A bit is a symbol with two possible values, 0 and 1.
• By convention, 1 represents T (true) and 0 represents F
(false).
• A variable is called a Boolean variable if its value is either
true or false.
• Bit operation – replace true by 1 and false by 0 in logical
operations.

Table for the Bit Operators OR, AND, and XOR.

x y xνy xΛy x  y

0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 1
1 0 1 0 1
1 1 1 1 0 28
 Logic and Bit Operations

DEFINITION 7
A bit string is a sequence of zero or more bits. The length of this
string is the number of bits in the string.

• Example: Find the bitwise OR, bitwise AND, and bitwise XOR of
the bit string 01 1011 0110 and 11 0001 1101.
Solution:
01 1011 0110
11 0001 1101
-------------------
11 1011 1111 bitwise OR
01 0001 0100 bitwise AND
10 1010 1011 bitwise XOR

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 Set Operations

• The bit string for the union is the bitwise OR of the bit string for
the two sets. The bit string for the intersection is the bitwise AND
of the bit strings for the two sets.
• Example:
– The bit strings for the sets {1,2,3,4,5} and {1,3,5,7,9} are 11 1110 0000 and
10 1010 1010, respectively. Use bit strings to find the union and intersection
of these sets.
Solution:
Union:
11 1110 0000 V 10 1010 1010 = 11 1110 1010, {1,2,3,4,5,7,9}
Intersection:
11 1110 0000 Λ 10 1010 1010 = 10 1010 0000, {1,3,5}

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 Russell’s Paradox

Let W :: S  Sets | S  S 

so S W  S  S

There is a male barber who shaves all those men, and only those men,
who do not shave themselves.

Does the barber shave himself?