2 Basic Structures: Sets, Functions, Sequences, and Sums

2.1 Sets
Definition 1. A set is an unordered collection of objects, called elements or members of the set. A set is
said to contain its elements. We write a ∈ A to denote that a is an element of the set A. The notation
a∈/ A denotes that a is not an element of the set A.
A set may be specified using the set-roster notation by writing all of its elements between braces. For
example, {1, 2, 3} denotes the set whose elements are 1, 2, and 3. A variation of the notation is sometimes
used to describe a very large set, as when we write {1, 2, 3, . . . , 100} to refer to the set of all integers from 1
to 100. A similar notation can also describe an infinite set, as when we write {1, 2, 3, . . .} to refer to the set
of all positive integers. (The symbol . . . is called an ellipsis and is read “and so forth.”)
Example 1. a) Let A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {3, 1, 2}, and C = {1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3}. What are the elements of A, B,
and C? How are A, B, and C related?
b) Is {0} = 0?

c) How many elements are in the set {1, {1}}?

d) For each nonnegative integer n, let Un = {n, −n}. Find U1 , U2 , and U0 .
Proof. a) A, B, and C have exactly the same three elements: 1, 2, and 3. Therefore, A, B, and C are
simply different ways to represent the same set.

b) {0} =
6 0 because {0} is a set with one element, namely 0, whereas 0 is just the symbol that represents
the number zero.
c) The set {1, {1}} has two elements: 1 and the set whose only element is 1.
d) U1 = {1, −1}, U2 = {2, −2}, U0 = {0, −0} = {0, 0} = {0}.

Another way to specify a set uses what is called the set-builder notation.
Definition 2. Let S denote a set and let P (x) be a property that elements of S may or may not satisfy.
We may define a new set to be the set of all elements x in S such that P (x) is true. We denote this set as
follows:
{x ∈ S | P (x)}
Certain sets of numbers are so frequently referred to that they are given special symbolic names.

Symbol Set
N = {0, 1, 2, . . .} set of all natural numbers
Z = {. . . , −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, . . .} set of all real integers
Q = { pq | p ∈ Z, q ∈ Z, and q 6= 0} set of all rational numbers
R set of all real numbers
C set of all complex numbers

R+ denotes the set of positive real numbers. Znonneg denotes the set of nonnegative integers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and
so on.
Example 2.

[a, b] = {x | a ≤ x ≤ b}
[a, b) = {x | a ≤ x < b}
(a, b] = {x | a < x ≤ b}
(a, b) = {x | a < x < b}

Definition 3. Two sets are equal if and only if they have the same elements. Therefore, if A and B are
sets, then
A = B ⇔ ∀x(x ∈ A ↔ x ∈ B).
Definition 4. There is a special set that has no elements. This set is called the empty set, or null set, and
is denoted by ∅ (or Ø, or ∅) or {}.
It is often helpful to have a visual representation of sets. We may show sets by Venn diagrams, in which
there is a universal set, U , that contains all elements in the universe of discourse. We use a rectangle to
represent the set U . All the sets are drawn as ovals inside this rectangle.
Definition 5. If A and B are sets, then A is called a subset of B, written A ⊆ B, if, and only if, every
element of A is also an element of B. Symbolically:

A ⊆ B ⇔ ∀x(x ∈ A → x ∈ B).

The phrases A is contained in B and B contains A are alternative ways of saying that A is a subset of B.
Theorem 1. For every set S,
1. ∅ ⊆ S, and
2. S ⊆ S.
Proof. 1. Let S be a set. To show that ∅ ⊆ S, we must show that ∀x(x ∈ ∅ → x ∈ S) is true. Because
the empty set contains no elements, it follows that x ∈ ∅ is always false. It follows that the conditional
statement x ∈ ∅ → x ∈ S is always true, because its hypothesis is always false and a conditional
statement with a false hypothesis is true. Therefore, ∀x(x ∈ ∅ → x ∈ S) is true.
2. For any element x, we have
x ∈ S → x ∈ S.
Thus by definition, S ⊆ S.

Definition 6. Let A and B be sets. A is a proper subset of B if, and only if, every element of A is in B
but there is at least one element of B that is not in A.
A useful way to show that two sets have the same elements is to show that each set is a subset of the
other:
A = B ⇔ A ⊆ B and B ⊆ A,
or
A = B ⇔ ∀x(x ∈ A → x ∈ B) ∧ ∀x(x ∈ B → x ∈ A).
Definition 7. 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 3. |∅| = 0.
Definition 8. A set is said to be infinite if it is not finite.
Example 4. The set of integers is infinite.
Definition 9. Given a set S, the power set of S is the set of all subsets of the set S. The power set of S is
denoted by P(S).
Example 5. What are the power sets of the following sets?
a) A = {0, 1, 2}.
b) ∅.
c) {∅}.
Solution. a) P(A) = {∅, {0}, {1}, {2}, {0, 1}, {0, 2}, {1, 2}, {0, 1, 2}}.
b) P(∅) = {∅}.
c) P({∅}) = {∅, {∅}}.

Definition 10. 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.
Definition 11. 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 ∧ b ∈ B}.
Example 6. Show that the Cartesian product B × A 6= A × B in general.
Proof. We just need one counterexample, such as A = {a} and B = {0, 1}. Then A × B = {(a, 0), (a, 1)},
whereas B × A = {(0, a), (1, a)}. Clearly A × B 6= B × A.
We may generalize the definition of the Cartesian product:
A1 × A2 × · · · An = {(a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) | a1 ∈ A1 , a2 ∈ A2 , . . . an ∈ An }.
We use the notation A2 = A × A, A3 = A × A × A, and so on. More generally,
An = {(a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) | ai ∈ A for i = 0, 1, 2, . . . , n}.
A subset R of the Cartesian product A × B is called a relation from the set A to the set B. A relation from
a set A to itself is called a relation on A. Notation:
∀(x ∈ S)(P (x)) ⇔ ∀x(x ∈ S → P (x)).
Similarly,
∃(x ∈ S)(P (x)) ⇔ ∃x(x ∈ S ∧ P (x)).
Definition 12. If P (x) is a predicate and x has domain D, the truth set of P (x) is the set of all elements
of D that make P (x) true when they are substituted for x. The truth set of P (x) is denoted by
{x ∈ D | P (x)}.
Example 7. Let Q(n) be the predicate “n is a factor of 8.” Find the truth set of Q(n) if
a) the domain of n is the set Z+ of all positive integers
b) the domain of n is the set Z of all integers.
Solution. a) The truth set is {1, 2, 4, 8} because these are exactly the positive integers that divide 8 evenly.
b) The truth set is {1, 2, 4, 8, −1, −2, −4, −8} because the negative integers −1, −2, −4, and −8 also divide
into 8 without leaving a remainder.