CONTENT

Types of Sets
 (i) Null set or Empty set
A set having no element in it is called an Empty set or a Null
set or Void set. It is denoted by f or { }

Ex. (i) A = {𝒙 : 5 < 𝒙 < 6 and 𝒙  }

A=f
(ii) 𝑩 = {𝒙 : 𝒙𝟐 = – 4 and 𝒙 R }
𝑩=f
A set consisting of atleast one element is called a non-
empty set or a non-void set.
(ii) Singleton set

A set consisting of a single element is called a singleton set.

Ex. (i) A = {0}

(ii)B = {𝒙 : 5 < 𝒙 < 7 and 𝒙  }
B = {6}
 (iii) Finite Set

A set which has only finite number of elements is called a finite set.

Ex. (i) A = {a, b, c}

(ii) 𝑩 = {𝒙 | 𝒙 is a vowel }

𝑩 = { a, e, i, o, u }
 (iv) Infinite set

A set which has an infinite number of elements is called an

infinite set.
Ex. A = {1, 2, 3, 4, ....} is an infinite set.
B = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ....} is an infinite set.
Examples
Example
Example
State which of the following sets are finite or infinite :
(i) A = {𝒙 : 𝒙  N and (𝒙 – 3)(𝒙 – 4) = 0}
(ii) B = {𝒙 : 𝒙  N and 𝒙 is even}
(iii) C = {𝒙 : 𝒙 is a vowel}

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
 (v) Subset

Let A and B be two sets, if every element of A is an element B, then

A is called a subset of B.
If A is a subset of B, we write A  B.

If A is not a subset of B, we write A  B.

Example

A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

AB (The symbol ''‘’ stands for "implies" )

5,6,7

1,2,3,4,5,6,7
1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4
A
A B
Example

C3  C1 also C2  C1 But C2  C3 and C3  C2

Note

A  B  (𝒙  A  𝒙  B)
 (vi) Proper Subset

If A is a subset of B and A  B then A is a proper subset of B.

and we write A  B
Note

Every set is a subset of itself i.e. A  A for all A

Empty set f is a subset of every set
 Note

If '𝒏' is the number of elements in set A i.e., 𝒏(A) = 𝒏 then

number of possible subsets of A = 2𝒏.
For Example

1. Let A = {1,2}; 𝒏(A) = 2

List of subsets of cardinality zero ; f
List of subsets of cardinality one ; {1}, {2}
List of subsets of cardinality two ; {1,2}
so list is f, {1}, {2}, {1,2}
number of subsets is 4 = 2𝒏(A)
For Example

2. Let B = {1,2,3}; 𝒏(B) = 3

List of all subsets is f, {1}, {2}, {3}, {1,2},{2,3}, {1,3} {1,2,3}
Example
Set A has m elements and Set B has n elements. If the total number
of subsets of A is 112 more than the total number of subsets of B,
then the value of m.n is _.
[JEE(Main) 2020, Online]

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
 Universal Set

A set consisting of all possible elements which occur in the

discussion is called a Universal set and is denoted by U

All sets are contained in the universal set.

 Example

If A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {2, 4, 5, 6}, C = {1, 3, 5, 7}, then

U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} can be taken as the Universal set
 Power Set

Let A be any set. The set of all subsets of A is called power set
of A and is denoted by P(A)

Example Let A = {1, 2} then P(A) = {f, {1}, {2}, {1, 2}}
 Note

If A = f then P(A) has one element.

Power set of a given set is always non empty.

Equivalent Set

Two sets A and B are said to be equivalent if their number of

elements are same.

If sets A and B are equivalent, we write 𝒏(A) = 𝒏(B).

Example Example of equivalent sets :
A  {1,3,5,7}
B  {a,b,c,d}
then 𝒏(A) = 4 and 𝒏(B) = 4
 𝒏(A) = 𝒏(B)
 Note

Equal sets are always equivalent but equivalent sets may

not be equal.
Example

Given that N = {1,2, 3,..., 100}, then

(i) Write the subset A of N, whose element are odd numbers.
(ii) Write the subset B of N, whose element are represented by 𝒙+2,
where, 𝒙  N.

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Example
Given that E = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}. If 𝒏 represents any member of E,
then, write the following sets containing all numbers
represented by
(i) 𝒏 + 𝟏 (ii) 𝒏𝟐

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

Types of Sets
4. Subset
1. Null set or Empty set
5. Proper Subset
2. Singleton set
6. Universal set
3. Finite Set
7. Power set
4. Infinite set
8. Equivalent sets
CONTENT

Operations on Sets
 Operations on Sets
(i) Union of two sets

A  B = {𝒙 : 𝒙  A or x  B}
 Operations on Sets
Example A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {2, 3, 4}
then A  B = {1, 2, 3, 4}

A B
2,3
1,2,3 1 2,3 4 1,2,3
A B
A B
 Note

𝒙  (A  B)  𝒙  A or 𝒙  B
(ii) Intersection of two sets

A  B = {𝒙 ∶ 𝒙  A and 𝒙  B}
Example A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {2, 3, 4} then
A  B = {2, 3}
A B
1,2,3 2,3 2,3
1,2,3
A B
A B
Note

𝒙  (A  B)  𝒙  A and 𝒙  B

If A  B = f
then A, B are disjoint sets.
Ex. If A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {7, 8, 9} then A  B = f
 (iii) Difference of two sets

A – B or A\B = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥  A and 𝑥  B}
Example A = {1, 2, 3}, B = {2, 3, 4} ; A – B = {1}

1 ,2 ,3 - 2 ,3 ,4 = 1
A B A-B
(iv) Complement of a set
ഥ = {𝒙 ∶ 𝒙  A but 𝒙  U} = U – A
A′ or Ac or 𝐀
Example

U = {1, 2, ...., 10}, A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} then A′ = {6, 7, 8, 9, 10}

-
1,
=
1, 2 , 3
6,7
4 , 5 , 6 ,7 2 ,3 ,4 8 , 9,10
8 , 9,10 5
U A A′
Note 𝒙  A  𝒙  Ac
A  A′ = f

\ A, A′ are disjoint.
A  A′ = U
(A′)′ = A.
(v) Cartesian product of two sets

Cartesian product of two sets A and B, denoted as A × B, is the set

of all ordered pairs (a, b) where a  A and b  B
A × B = { (a, b)| a  A and b  B }
(v) Cartesian product of two sets

Note

𝐧(A × B) = 𝐧(A) × n(B)

 Example

Cartesian product A × B when B

A = {a, b, c} and B = {1, 2, 3} is
1 2 3
represented in the square
grid
A
a (a,1) (a,2) (a,3)

b (b,1) (b,2) (b,3)

c (c,1) (c,2) (c,3)
Examples
Example
Example

𝒙+𝟐 𝒙𝟐 −𝟓𝒙+𝟔
Let Z be the set of integers. If 𝑨 = 𝒙 ∈ ℤ : 𝟐 =𝟏

and 𝑩 = 𝒙 ∈ ℤ : −𝟑 < 𝟐𝒙 − 𝟏 < 𝟗 then the number of subsets of the

set A × B, is : [JEE(Main) 2019, Online]

(1) 218 (2) 210 (3) 215 (4) 212

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
 Equality of Sets

Two sets A and B are said to be equal if every element of A is an

element of B, and every element of B is an element of A.
If sets A and B are equal, we write A = B and if A and B are not
equal, then A  B
Example

Example of equality of sets :

A  {𝑥| 𝑥 is letters of the word "FOLLOW"}
B  {𝑦| 𝑦 is letters of the word "WOLF"}
then A = B

A , , , B , , ,

OLLOW
FO
F WOLF
 Note

A  B and B  A  A = B
Example
Find the pairs of equal sets (if any) :"
𝑨={𝟎}, 𝑩 = {𝒙 : 𝒙 > 𝟏𝟓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒙 < 𝟓}, 𝑪 = {𝒙 : 𝒙 – 𝟓 = 𝟎} 𝑫 = {𝒙 : 𝒙𝟐 = 𝟐𝟓},
𝑬 = {𝒙 : 𝒙 is an integral positive root of the equation 𝒙𝟐 –𝟐𝒙 –𝟏𝟓=𝟎}.

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

Operations on Sets
1. Union of two sets
2. Intersection of two sets
3. Difference of two sets
4. Complement of a set
5. Cartesian product of two sets
6. Equality of sets