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Miscellaneous and Omnipresent Mathematical Symbols

The symbol is to be read as for all or for any. The symbol is to be read as there exists. A proposition is a statement that can be evaluated as true or false. Its raining outside or The sky is blue are examples of propositions. Let A and B be two propositions. If, whenever A is true, B is also true, we say A B. A B is read as A implies B. If A B and B A, then A B. In English, is translated as if and only or if or i, for short. The part of is said to be the if part of the if and only if, leaving the as the only if part of if and only if.

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Sets

A set in the naive sense is a collection of elements. Sets will usually be denoted by capital letters (A, B, C...). Elements of sets will usually be denoted by lower case letters (a, b, c...). Symbolically, we say x is in or is an element of the set X in the following manner: x X. We often dene a set in the following manner: {x X : P (x)}. In English, this preceding set is the set of elements of X with property P . This notation for dening a set is called set-builder notation. Sometimes well want to dene a set in terms of another set. In this case, well write the set were dening in the form {x : P (x)}. Q, in the following example, is dened in this manner.