Relation and Functions

“Relations and Functions” are the most important topics in algebra.

Relations and functions – these are the two different words having
different meanings mathematically. You might get confused about their
difference. Before we go deeper, let’s understand the difference between
both with a simple example.
An ordered pair is represented as (INPUT, OUTPUT):
The relation shows the relationship between INPUT and OUTPUT.
Whereas, a function is a relation which derives one OUTPUT for each
given INPUT.
Note: All functions are relations, but not all relations are functions.
 What is a Function?
A function is a relation which describes that there should be only one
output for each input (or) we can say that a special kind of relation (a set
of ordered pairs), which follows a rule i.e., every X-value should be
associated with only one y-value is called a function.

For example:

Domain Range

-1 -3

1 3

3 9

It is a collection of the first

Domain values in the ordered pair (Set
of all input (x) values).

It is a collection of the second

Range values in the ordered pair (Set
of all output (y) values).

Example:

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In the relation, {(-2, 3), {4, 5), (6, -5), (-2, 3)},
The domain is {-2, 4, 6} and range is {-5, 3, 5}.
Note: Don’t consider duplicates while writing the domain and range and also write it in increasing order.

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Types of Functions
In terms of relations, we can define the types of functions as:

• One to one function or Injective function: A function f: P → Q is said to be one to one if for each element
of P there is a distinct element of Q.
• Many to one function: A function which maps two or more elements of P to the same element of set Q.
• Onto Function or Surjective function: A function for which every element of set Q there is pre-image in
set P
• One-one correspondence or Bijective function: The function f matches with each element of P with a
discrete element of Q and every element of Q has a pre-image in P.

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Special Functions in Algebra
Some of the important functions are as follow:

• Constant Function
• Identity Function
• Linear Function
• Absolute Value Function
• Inverse Functions

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What is the Relation?
It is a subset of the Cartesian product. Or simply, a bunch of points (ordered pairs). In other words, the relation
between the two sets is defined as the collection of the ordered pair, in which the ordered pair is formed by the
object from each set.
Example: {(-2, 1), (4, 3), (7, -3)}, usually written in set notation form with curly brackets.

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Relation Representation
There are other ways too to write the relation, apart from set notation such as through tables, plotting it on XY-
axis or through mapping diagram.

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Types of Relations
Different types of relations are as follows:

• Empty Relations
• Universal Relations
• Identity Relations
• Inverse Relations
• Reflexive Relations
• Symmetric Relations
• Transitive Relations

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Empty Relation
When there’s no element of set X is related or mapped to any element of X, then the relation R in A is an empty
relation, and also called the void relation, i.e R= ∅.
For example, if there are 100 mangoes in the fruit basket. There’s no possibility of finding a relation R of getting
any apple in the basket. So, R is Void as it has 100 mangoes and no apples.

Universal relation
R is a relation in a set, let’s say A is a universal relation because, in this full relation, every element of A is related
to every element of A. i.e R = A × A.
It’s a full relation as every element of Set A is in Set B.

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Identity Relation
If every element of set A is related to itself only, it is called Identity relation.
I={(A, A), ∈ a}.
For Example,
When we throw a dice, the total number of possible outcomes is 36. I.e (1, 1) (1, 2), (1, 3)…..(6, 6). From these, if
we consider the relation (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3) (4, 4) (5, 5) (6, 6), it is an identity relation.

Inverse Relation
If R is a relation from set A to set B i.e R ∈ A X B. The relation R
−1

= {(b,a):(a,b) ∈ R}.

For Example,
If you throw two dice if R = {(1, 2) (2, 3)}, R
−1

= {(2, 1) (3, 2)}. Here the domain is the range R

−1

and vice versa.

Reflexive Relation
A relation is a reflexive relation iIf every element of set A maps to itself, i.e for every a ∈ A, (a, a) ∈ R.

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Symmetric Relation
A symmetric relation is a relation R on a set A if (a, b) ∈ R then (b, a) ∈ R, for all a & b ∈ A.

Transitive Relation
If (a, b) ∈ R, (b, c) ∈ R, then (a, c) ∈ R, for all a,b,c ∈ A and this relation in set A is transitive.

Equivalence Relation
If a relation is reflexive, symmetric and transitive, then the relation is called an equivalence relation.

How to Convert a Relation into a Function?

A special kind of relation (a set of ordered pairs) which follows a rule i.e every X-value should be associated with
only one y-value, then the relation is called a function.

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For Examples
Example 1: Is A = {(1, 5), (1, 5), (3, -8), (3, -8), (3, -8)} a function?
Solution: If there are any duplicates or repetitions in the X-value, the relation is not a function.
But there’s a twist here. Look at the following example:

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 Though X-values are getting repeated here, still it is a function because they are
associating with the same values of Y.
The point (1, 5) is repeated here twice and (3, -8) is written thrice. We can rewrite it by writing a single copy of the
repeated ordered pairs. So, “A” is a function.

Example 2: Give an example of an Equivalence relation.

Solution:
If we note down all the outcomes of throwing two dice, it would include reflexive, symmetry and transitive
relations. Then, throwing two dice is an example of an equivalence relation.
Example 3: All functions are relations, but not all relations are functions. Justify.

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Solution:
Let’s suppose, we have two relations given in below table

A relation which is not a A relation that is a function

function

As we can see duplication in As every value of X is

X-values with different y- different and is associated
values, then this relation is with only one value of y, this
not a function. relation is a function

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