Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lecture Notes For Mathematical Methods For Economics I Prepared by M. Franklin and R. Hosein Chapter 2: Sets
Lecture Notes For Mathematical Methods For Economics I Prepared by M. Franklin and R. Hosein Chapter 2: Sets
Note also that if B = {yam, cassava, eddoes, yam, eddoes}, then A=B still holds.
This reveals that a set is not changed by repeating one or more of its elements.
2.4 Finite (Infinite) Sets and Counting Principle
A set is said to be finite if it has n distinct elements, where n is a positive integer. Otherwise, the
set is called an infinite set.
For a finite set A, the number of elements can be represented by n(A)
Example 2.2
Which of the following sets are finite?
(a) A = {Brian Laras test scores}
(b) B = {counties in Trinidad and Tobago}
(c) C = {even natural numbers less than 1}
(d) D = {even numbers}
(e) F = {odd numbers}
Solution
(a) The set of Brian Lara test scores is finite.
(b) The number of counties in T & T is a finite set.
(c) The number of even natural numbers less than 1 is 0, i.e. n(C) = 0, so the set is finite.
(d) The number of even numbers is an infinite set because the elements are not countable.
(e) The number of odd numbers is also an infinite set for the same reason.
Example 2.3
Determine the number of elements in the following finite sets:
(a) A = {4,6,8,10,12}
(b) B = {x: x 2= 9}
(c) C = {x: x > x + 2}
(d) D = {x: x is a positive integer, x is a divisor of 12}
(e) E = {letters in the alphabet}
Solution
(a) n(A) = 5
(b) n(B) = 2 since B = {+3, -3}
(c) n(C) = 0, as no x which has such a characteristic exists
(d) The divisors of 12 are, 1, 12, 3, 4, 2, 6.
n(d) = 6
(e) n(E) = 26
2.5 Subsets of a Set
Let
Then the sets Y, C, D, E, are contained in X and are called subsets of X. So too will sets
comprising two or more elements of X.
Since Y X, it is called a proper subset and is written Y X or X Y (read Y is contained in X
or X contains Y). If we have a new set T and we do not specify whether T = or T = X, but we
know T is a subset of X, then we can write:
T X or X T, which reads T is a subset of X or X contains T.
Note that all sets have itself and (the empty set) as subsets. For any set X we refer to a set W,
which has the same elements as X, as being improper i.e. W is not a proper subset of X.
2.6 Complements of Sets
For
The intersection of two sets X and Y (X Y) refers to the set of all elements that belong to both
X and Y.
X Y = {a: a X and a Y}
Thus if X = {cassava, yam, eddoes, dasheen}
And
then
X Y = {yam}
Y
X
Y
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
If we shade X and Y as shown in fig. 4, then the shaded area represents X Y (read X union Y).
The shaded area in fig. 5 represents X Y (read X intersects Y). In fig 4 (X Y)' is the same as
the un-shaded area within the Universal set.
U
Fig. 4
Y
Fig. 5
Note that whilst any theorem or property can be illustrated with Venn diagrams, no theorem can
be proved by the use of one.
2.10 Arguments and Venn Diagrams
In this section, Venn diagrams are employed to determine the validity of arguments.
Consider the example
S1: Calypsonians are happy people
S2: Politicians are rich
S3: People who are happy are not rich
Determine the validity of each of the following:
(i)
No calypsonian is rich
(ii)
(iii)
By S1 the set of calypsonians is contained in the set of happy people and by S3 the set of happy
people is disjoint from the set of rich people.
Calypsonian
s
Rich people
Happy people
By S2 the set of politicians is contained in the set of rich people. From the Venn diagrams below,
arguments (i) and (iii) are valid conclusions whilst (ii) is not.
Calypsonian
s
Happy people
Politicians
Rich people
People who
like to
bat
West
Indians
who
West
Indians
like to bat and
bowl
All people
People
who
like to
bowl
(b)
Non Bouncers
Bouncers
Fast
Bowlers
All bowlers
10
1. (A`)` = A
2a. ` = U
2b. U` =
3. A A = , A - = A, A B = A B`
4a. A = A
4b. A U = A
5a. A U = U
5b. A =
6a. A A = A
6b. A A = A
7a. A A` = U
Associative Laws
7b. A A` =
8a. (AB)C =A (B C)
Commutative Laws
8b. (A B) C = A (BC)
9a. A B = B A
Distributive Laws
9b. A B = B A
10a. A(BC)=(AB)(AC)
De Morgans Laws
11a. (A B) ` = A` B`
11b. (A B)` = A` B`
11
(A B)` is shaded
A` B` is shaded
(b) First shade A`, the area outside of A, with strokes that slant upwards to the right (///) and
then shade B` with strokes that slant downwards to the right (\\\) as shown below. The total area
shaded will thus be A` B` and this is shown in the second diagram. Note that this total area is
outside of A B, i.e. it is (A B)`. Thus A` B` = A` B`
A` B` is shaded
12
B
C
A (B C) is shaded
(A B) (A C) is shaded
(b) By the Venn diagrams below, A (B C) and (A B) (A C) represent the same area.
Thus A (B C) = (A B) (A C).
13
A (B C) is shaded
(A B) (A C) is shaded
abc
14
Universal Set
A
B
ab
abc
ac
bc
c
$
n[B] = b + ab + bc + abc
n[C] = c + ac + bc + abc
n[A B] = a + b + ac + bc + ab + abc
n[A]
- n[A B]
n[B]
n[A]
n[B]
n[C]
n[AB] n[AC]n[BC]+n[ABC]
Example 2.5
There are currently three daily newspapers in the island of Trinidad: Newsday (N), Express (E)
and Guardian (G). In a recent poll of 120 people, it was found that
(i)
(ii)
52 read Express
(iii)
52 read Guardian
15
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
16
16
6
16
20
10
20
12G
24
16
Fig. (a)
Fig. (b)