Math 3012-B Homework 7 Fall 2021

Due: Thursday Nov 4; 11:59 pm

Total Questions: 4
Instructions:

1. Justify all answers, even if it does not explicitly say to do so, unless the question specificially
states justification is not needed.

2. Giving an example, or drawing a diagram, is not in general rigorous enough to be a proof.

3. Label, define, and explain all variables, and explain from which sets they are.

4. Your answer should be an explanation with a logical flow of ideas, not simply symbols on a
page.

5. Correct answers but without good explanations will result in little to 0 credit.

6. You may use a calculator and matrix equation solver to simplify tedious calculations and systems
of equations, but explicitly say when you are doing so.

7. NOTE: for Hasse Diagrams, you may hand draw and upload these (trying to TeX them will be
very time consuming...)

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Problem 1. Powerset Poset
Let X be a set and P(X) be the power set of X. Define a relation R ⊆ P (X) × P (X) by:

(A, B) ∈ R ⇐⇒ B ⊆ A.

Show that (P (X), R) is a poset.

YOUR PROOF/EXPLANATION GOES HERE

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Problem 2 Poset Pandemonium
We say a poset (X, R) is infinite if the ground set, X, is infinite.
For each of the situations below, give an example of an infinite poset (X, R) which satisfies
the conditions, or prove such a poset cannot exist. (If giving an example, you should give the
ground set X and the rule that defines the relation R. You do not need to jusitfy that X is
finite and that (X, R) is a poset, just give your example). Also draw the Hasse Diagram.
Part A: (X, R) has infinite height and infinite width.
Part B: (X, R) has infinite height and finite width.
Part C: (X, R) has finite height and infinite width.
Part D: (X, R) has finite height and finite width.

Part A:

Part B:

Part C:

Part D:

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Problem 3 Finite versus infinite posets

Let (X, R) be a finite poset. Prove the following:

Part A: Prove that if X has a unique maximal element, then X has a maximum element.
Give an example that shows this is not true if X is infinite. Draw the Hasse Diagram of your
example (you do not need to justify why your example is indeed a poset).
Part B: Prove that every chain in X is a subset of a finite maximal chain. Again, show this
is not true if we assume X is infinite. (Note: it is true that every chain in a poset is a subset
of a maximal chain; however, the proof of this uses more advanced tools beyond the scope of
this course). Draw the Hasse Diagram of your example (you do not need to justify why your
example is indeed a poset).
Part C: Show the following is false by giving a counter example:

If C is a chain of largest size in X, and x ∈ X is maximal in C, then x is maximum

in X.

Draw the Hasse Diagram of your example. (You do not need to justify your example is indeed
a poset).

Part A:

Part B:

Part C:

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Problem 4. Finishing Dilworth’s Theorem
During the proof of Dilworth’s Theorem, we left some details as exercises. Now you will fill in
the details:
Part A: We showed if X ′ has width w′ < w, we could conclude the proof. We also said that X ′
cannot have width w′ > w, and thus we only needed to consider the case when X ′ has width
w′ = w. Show why X ′ cannot have width w′ > w.
Part B: We said to pick a maximal element x ∈ X and minimal element y ∈ X such that
x ≥ y. Show why we know we can do this.
Part C: We defined sets A, D(A), and U (A) and said these form a partition of X. Prove this.
(That is, show
X = A ∪ D(A) ∪ U (A)
and A, D(A), U (A) are mutually disjoint.)
Part D: Near the end of the proof, we said that Ci ∪ Bi form a chain for 1 ≤ i ≤ w. Prove
this.

Part A:

Part B:

Part C:

Part D: