mathematics for economists M1 2019/20: exercise session 1 pmaraner@unibz.

it

basic set theory

numerical sets
Exercise 1. Explain what is:

1. A natural number.

2. A relative number.

3. A rational number.

4. A real number.

solutions: 1. A natural number is a positive integer. The set of all natural numbers is denoted by N. 2. A relative number is

a positive or negative or zero integer. The set of all relative numbers is denoted by Z. 3. A rational number is any number

that can be written as the quotient p

q
of two integer numbers p and q, with q not equal to zero. The decimal representation of a

rational number is finite or recurring. The set of all rational numbers is denoted by Q. 4. A real number is a number that can

be determined by a possible infinite, possible not recurring, decimal representation. The set of all real numbers is denoted by R.

elements and subsets

Exercise 2.

1. Is N a subset of Z?

2. Is N a proper subset of Z?

Explain.
solutions: 1. Yes, because all elements of N are also elements of Z. We write that N ✓ Z. 2. Yes, because all elements of N are

elements of Z, but there is at least one element of Z, for example 0, that does not belong to N. We write that N ⇢ Z.

Exercise 3. Complete the following strings by inserting 2, 2

/, ⇢, or :

1. 3 ... R 2. 2
3
... Z 3. N ... Z 4. ? ... Q 5. ⌦ ... N
p p
6. 0 ... N 7. 0 ... Z 8. 2 ... R 9. 2 ... Q

10. N ... Z ... Q ... R

solutions: 1. 2 2. 2
/ 3. ⇢ 4. ⇢ 5. 6. 2
/ 7. 2 8. 2 9.2
/ 10. ⇢, ⇢, ⇢.

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specification of sets
Exercise 4. Specify the following sets by listing all their elements:

1. {x 2 N : 1  x < 5}

2. {x 2 Z : 3 < x  2 or 1  x < 4}

3. {x 2 Z : 2 < x  2 and 1  x < 4}

4. {x 2 Q : 3x 2 N and 1  x < 1}

5. {x 2 R : x2  0}
n o
solutions: 1. {1, 2, 3, 4} 2. { 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3} 3. { 1, 0, 1, 2} 4. 1, 2 5. {0}.
3 3

Exercise 5. Specify the following sets by specifying the property of their elements:

1. The set of all positive even numbers: {2, 4, 6, 8, ...}

2. The set of all even integers: {0, ±2, ±4, ±6, ±8, ...}

3. The set of all positive odd numbers: {1, 3, 5, 7, 9, ...}

4. The set of all positive multiples of three: {3, 6, 9, 12, 15, ...}

5. The set of the real solutions of the inequality x 3 < 0.

solutions: 1. {n 2 N : n = 2m, m 2 N} 2. {n 2 Z : n = 2m, m 2 Z} 3. {n 2 N : n = 2m 1, m 2 N} 4.

{n 2 N : n = 3m, m 2 N} 5. {x 2 R : x < 3}.

Exercise 6. Specify the following sets as intervals:

1. {x 2 R : 2 < x < 5}

2. {x 2 R : 2 < x  5}

3. {x 2 R : x > 2}

4. {x 2 R : x  5}

solutions: 1. (2, 5) 2. (2, 5] 3. (2, 1) 4. ( 1, 5].

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Exercise 7. Specify the following intervals by indicating the characterizing prop-
erty of their elements:
1. [ 2, 4]

2. [ 3, 1)

3. [4, 7)

4. ( 1, 5)
solutions: 1. {x 2 R : 2  x  4} 2. {x 2 R : x 3} 3. {x 2 R : 4  x < 7} 4. {x 2 R : x < 5}.

Exercise 8. Specify the following sets:

1. {x 2 R : |x| = 2}

2. {x 2 R : |x|  4}

3. {x 2 R : | x| < 3}

4. {x 2 R : |x 5| < 0}

5. {x 2 R : |x 2| < 1}
solutions: 1. {2, 2} 2. [ 4, 4] 3. ( 3, 3) 4. ? 5. (1, 3).

union, intersection, difference and complement

Exercise 9. Let

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} and B = {3, 4, 6}.

Is it true that A B? Explain. Find A [ B, A \ B, A B and B A.

solution: yes, A B because every element of B also belongs to A and there is at least one element of A, e.g. 1, that does not

belong to b. A [ B = A, A \ B = B, A B = {1, 2, 5} and B A = ?.

Exercise 10. Let

A = [ 1, 3) and B = [1, 3].

Is it true that A B? Explain. Find A [ B, A \ B, A B and B A.

solution: no, because 3 2 B but 3 2
/ A . A [ B = [ 1, 3], A \ B = [1, 3), A B = [ 1, 1) and B A = {3}.

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Exercise 11. Decide whether the following formula is true: if A \ B = A \ C then
B = C. Why?
solution: the formula is false; in fact let A = {1, 2}, B = {2, 3} and C = {2}. Then A \ B = A \ C = {2}, nonetheless B 6= C.

Exercise 12. Find the complement in R of the following sets:

1. (2, 3]

2. [5, 1)

3. ?

4. [0, 1) [ [2, 1)

solutions: 1. ( 1, 2] [ (3, 1) 2. ( 1, 5) 3. R 4. ( 1, 0) [ [1, 2).

Exercise 13. Let the sets T = { 3, 1, 0, 1, 3} and U = {2, 3, 5} be subsets of

S = {k 2 Z : |k|  5} considered as the universal set. Specify the following sets
by listing all their elements:

1. T [ U and T \ U

2. T U and U T

3. T C and U C ( C
denotes the complement in S)

4. T \ U C and U \ T C

solutions: 1. { 3, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 5} and {3} 2. { 3, 1, 0, 1} and {2, 5} 3. { 5, 4, 2, 2, 4, 5} and { 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 4}

4. { 3, 1, 0, 1} and {2, 5}.

Exercise 14. Let S and T respectively be the sets of the real solutions of the
inequalities x2 + 2x + 3 0 and x2 5x + 4 > 0. Specify the sets

1. S [ T and S \ T

2. S T and T S

3. S C and T C ( C
denotes the complement in R)

solutions: 1. ( 1, 3] [ (4, 1) and [ 1, 1) 2. [1, 3] and ( 1, 1) [ (4, 1) 3. ( 1, 1) [ (3, 1) and [1, 4].

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venn diagrams
Exercise 15. Let A and B two sets. Sketch Venn diagrams for:

1. A [ B

2. A B

3. A \ B
solution: 1. 2. 3.

Exercise 16. Let AC denote the complement of the set A in ⌦. Let A \ B = ?,

then

a) AC \ B C = ? b) AC [ B C = ⌦ c) A [ B = ⌦

solution: a) false b) true c) false.

Exercise 17. Let AC denote the complement of the set A in ⌦. Let A and B be
two sets such that A ⇢ B, then

a) B C ⇢ AC b) AC ⇢ B C c) A [ B C = ⌦

solution: a) true b) false c) false.

Exercise 18. Let AC denote the complement of the set A in ⌦. Let A and B be
two arbitrary sets, then (A \ B)C equals

a) AC \ B C b) AC [ B d) AC [ B C

solution: a) false b) false d) true.