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CS100: DISCRETE STRUCTURES

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Department
Lecture 1: Set and Sets Operations
 Lecture Contents
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 Sets Definition.
 Some Important Sets.
 Notation used to describe membership in sets.
 How to describe a set?
 Sets.
 Venn diagrams.
 Subset.
 Finite and Infinite Sets.
 Cardinality.
 Sets Operations.
 Exercises.

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3 Sets and sets operations
Sets

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 Sets Definition:
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 Set is the fundamental discrete structure on which all

other discrete structures are built.

 Sets are used to group objects together. Often, the

objects in a set have similar properties.
 A set is an unordered collection of objects.

 The objects in a set are called the elements or

members of the set

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 Some Important Sets:
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The set of natural numbers:

N = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .}
The set of integers:
Z = {. . . ,−2,−1, 0, 1, 2, . . .}
The set of positive integers:
Z+ = {1, 2, 3, . . .}
The set of fractions:
Q = {0,½, –½, –5, 78/13,…}
Q ={p/q | pЄ Z , qЄZ, and q≠0 }
The set of Real:
R = {–3/2,0,e,π2,sqrt(5),…}

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 Notation used to describe membership in sets
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o a set A is a collection of elements.

o If x is an element of A, we write xA; If not: xA.
o xA Say: “x is a member of A” or “x is in A”.
o Note: Lowercase letters are used for elements, capitals for sets.
o Two sets are equal if and only if they have the same elements
A= B : x( x A  x B) also
o Two sets A and B are equal if A  B and B  A.
o So to show equality of sets A and B, show:
 AB
 BA

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 Notation used to describe membership in sets
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 The sets {1,3,5} and {3,5,1} are equal , because they have
the same elements.

Yes , because they have the same elements.

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 How to describe a set?
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1. List all the members of a set, when this is

possible. We use a notation where all members
of the set are listed between braces. { }
Example :
 {dog, cat, horse}
 The set O of odd positive integers less than 10 can be
expressed by
O={1,3,5,7,9}

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 How to describe a set?
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2. Sometimes the brace notation is used to describe a

set without listing all its members. Some members
of the set are listed, and then ellipses (...) are used
when the general pattern of the elements is
obvious.
Example:
 The
set A of positive integers less than 100 can be
denoted by
A={1, 2, 3, . . . , 99}

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 How to describe a set?
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3. Another way to describe a set is to use set builder

notation. We characterize all those elements in the
set by stating the property or properties they must
have to be members.
Example:
 theset O of all odd positive integers less than 10 can
be written as:
O = {x | x is an odd positive integer <10} or, specifying
the universe as the set of positive integers, as
O = {x  Z+ | x is odd and x<10}.
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 Sets:
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 The Empty Set (Null Set)

We use  to denote the empty set and can also be
denoted { }, i.e. the set with no elements.
Example:
 the set of all positive integers that are greater than
their squares is the null set.

 Singleton set
A set with one element is called a singleton set.

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 Sets:
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 Computer Science
 Note that the concept of a data type, or type, in
computer science is built upon the concept of a set. In
particular, a data type is the name of a set, together
with a set of operations that can be performed on
objects from that set.
Example:
 Boolean is the name of the set {0, 1} together with
operators on one or more elements of this set, such as
AND, OR, and NOT.

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 Venn diagrams:
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 Sets can be represented graphically using Venn

diagrams.
 In Venn diagrams the universal set U, which contains
all the objects under consideration, is represented
by a rectangle.
 Inside this rectangle, circles or other geometrical
figures are used to represent sets.
 Sometimes points are used to represent the
particular elements of the set.
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 Venn diagrams:
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Example:
 A Venn diagram that represents V = {a, e, i, o, u}

the set of vowels in the English alphabet

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 Subset:
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 The set A is said to be a subset of B if and only if every

element of A is also an element of B.
 We use the notation A  B to indicate that A is a subset of the
set B.
 We see that A  B if and only if
the quantification
x (x  A → x  B) is true.
Examples:
 The set of all odd positive integers less than 10 is subset of the set of
all positive integers .
 The set of rational numbers is subset of the set of real numbers .

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 Subsets:
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 For every set S,

S
SS

Proper subset:
When a set A is a subset of a set B but A ≠ B,
A  B, and A  B
We write A  B and say that A is a proper subset of B
 For A  B to be true, it must be the case that
x ((x  A)  (x  B))  x ((x  B)  (x  A))

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 Subsets:
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Quick Examples:
{1,2,3}  {1,2,3,4,5}
{1,2,3}  {1,2,3,4,5}

 Is   {1,2,3}? Yes!
 Is   {1,2,3}? No!
 Is   {,1,2,3}? Yes!
 Is   {,1,2,3}? Yes!

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 Subsets:
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Quiz Time:
 Is {x}  {x,{x}}?
Yes!
 Is {x}  {x,{x}}? Yes!
 Is {x}  {x}? Yes!
 Is {x}  {x}? No!

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 Finite and Infinite Sets:
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 Finite set
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|.
| A  B | = | A| + | B| - | A  B|

N.B. We only count

unrepeated elements
 Infinite set
A set is said to be infinite if it is not finite. For example,
the set of positive integers is infinite.
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 Cardinality:
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Find
 S = {1,2,3}, |S| = 3.

 S = {3,3,3,3,3}, |S| = 1
 S = , |S| = 0.

 S = { , {}, {,{}} }, |S| = 3.

 S = {0,1,2,3,…}, |S| is infinite

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 Sets:
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Ways to Define Sets:

 Explicitly: {John, Paul, George, Ringo}
 Implicitly: {1,2,3,…}, or {2,3,5,7,11,13,17,…}

 Set builder: { x : x is prime }, { x | x is odd }.

In general { x : P(x) is true }, where P(x) is some

description of the set.

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 The power of a set:
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 Many problems involve testing all combinations of

elements of a set to see if they satisfy some property.
 To consider all such combinations of elements of a set S,
we build a new set that has as its members all the
subsets of S.
 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).
 if a set has n elements , then the power has 2n elements.

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 The power of a set:
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Example:
What is the power set of the set {0, 1, 2}?
P({0,1,2}) is the set of all subsets of {0, 1, 2}
P({0,1,2})= { , {0},{1},{2},{0,1},{0,2},{1,2},{0,1,2}}
What is the power set of the empty set? What is the
power set of the set {} ?
P()= {} N.B. the power set of any subset
has at least two elements
P({})= {,{}} The null set and the set itself

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 The Power Set:
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Quick Quiz:
Find the power set of the following:
 S = {a}, P(S)= {, {a}}.

 S = {a,b}, P(S) = {, {a}, {b}, {a,b}}.

 S = , P(S) = {}.

 S = {,{}}, P(S) = {, {}, {{}}, {,{}}}.

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 Cartesian Products:
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 The order of elements in a collection is often

important.
 Because sets are unordered, a different structure is
needed to represent ordered collections.
 This is provided by ordered n-tuples.
 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.

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 Cartesian Products:
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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.
A×B = {(a, b) | a  A  b  B}.
A1×A2×…×An={(a1, a2,…, an) | aiAi for i=1,2,…,n}.
A×B not equal to B×A
Example :
A={1,2} , B={3,4}
 A×B={(1,3),(1,4),(2,3),(2,4)}
 B×A={(3,1),(3,2),(4,1),(4,2)}

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 Cartesian Products:
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Example:
What is the Cartesian product A × B × C, where
A = {0, 1}, B = {1, 2}, and C = {0, 1, 2}?

AxBxC = {(0,1,0), (0,1,1), (0,1,2), (0,2,0), (0,2,1),

(0,2,2), (1,1,0), (1,1,1), (1,1,2), (1,2,0), (1,2,1), (1,2,2)}

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28 Sets and sets operations
Sets Operations

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 UNION:
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The union of two sets A and B is:

A  B = { x : x  A v x  B}
 If A = {1, 2, 3}, and B = {2, 4}, then

 A  B = {1,2,3,4}
B
A

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 Intersection:
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The intersection of two sets A and B is:

A  B = { x : x  A  x  B}
 If A = {Charlie, Lucy, Linus}, and B = {Lucy, Desi},
then

 A  B = {Lucy} B
A

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 Intersection:
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If A = {x : x is a US president}, and

B = {x : x is deceased}, then

A  B = {x : x is a deceased US president}

B
A

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 Disjoint:
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If A = {x : x is a US president}, and B = {x : x is in this room},

then

A  B = {x : x is a US president in this room} =

B
A
Sets whose intersection
is empty are
called disjoint sets

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 Complement:
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The complement of a set A is:

ഥ = A’ = { x : x  A}
A
AB=BA
If A = {x : x is bored}, then
ഥ = {x : x is not bored} = 
A

U =U
A
and

U=

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 Difference:
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The set difference, A - B, is:

U
A
B

A-B={x:xAxB}
A-B=AB
ഥ

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 Symmetric Difference:
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The symmetric difference, A  B, is:

A  B = { x : (x  A  x  B) v (x  B  x  A)}

= (A - B)  (B - A)

U
Like
A “exclusive or”
B

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 Symmetric Difference:
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Example:
Let A = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7} B = {3,4,p,q,r,s}
Then we have
A  B=
{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,p,q,r,s}
AB=
{3,4}
We get AB= {1,2,5,6,7,p,q,r,s}
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 TABLE 1: Set Identities
Identity Name
AU =A
Identity laws
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AU=A
AU U=U
Domination laws
A=
A  A=A
Idempotent laws
AA=A
(A) = A Complementation laws
A B=B  A
Commutative laws
AB=BA
A  (B  C) = (A  B)  C
Associative laws
A  (B  C) = (A  B)  C
A  (B U C) = (A  B)  (A  C)
Distributive laws
A  (B  C) = (A U B)  (A U C)
AUB=AB
De Morgan’s laws
AB=AUB
A  (A  B) = A
Absorption laws
A  (A  B) = A
A  A=U
Complement lawsDepartment
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AA=
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Let’s proof one of the Identities Using a Membership Table

A  (B  C) = (A  B)  (A  C)
TABLE 2: A Membership Table for the Distributive Property
A B C B  C A  (B  C) AB AC (A  B)  (A  C)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1
1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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 Exercise 1:
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List the members of these sets:

a) {x | x is a real number such that x² = 1}
{-1, 1}
b) {x | x is a positive integer less than 12}
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11}
c) {x | x is the square of an integer and x < 100}
{0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81}
d) {x | x is an integer such that x² = 2}


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 Exercise 2:
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Determine whether each of these pairs of sets are

equal:

a) {4, 3, 3, 7, 4, 7, 7, 3}, {4, 3, 7}

Yes
b) {{1}}, {1, {2}}
No
c) , {}
No

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 Exercise 3:
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 Determine whether these statements are true or false.

a) 0 ∈ ∅ False
b) ∅ ∈ {0} False
c) {0} ⊂ ∅ False
d) ∅ ⊂ {0} True
e) {0} ∈ {0} False
f) {0} ⊂ {0} False
g) {∅} ⊆ {∅} True

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 Exercise 4:
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 Use a Venn diagram to illustrate the relationships

𝐀 ⊂ 𝑩 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑩 ⊂ 𝑪 .

A B C

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 Exercise 5:
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 What is the cardinality of each of these sets?

a) {a}
 1

b) {{a}}
 1

c) {∅, {∅}}
 2

d) {a, {a}, {a, {a}}}

 3

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 Exercise 6:
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Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} and B = {0, 3, 6}. Find :

a) A ∪ B
 {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
b) A ∩ B
 {3}
c) A – B
 {1, 2, 4, 5}
d) B – A
 {0, 6}
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 Exercise 7:
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For U = {1, 2,3, 4,5,6,7,8,9,10} let A = {1, 2,3,4,5} , B

= {1,2, 4,8}, C = {1, 2,3,5,7}, and D = {2, 4,6,8} .
Determine each of the following:
a) (A∪B)∩C = {1,2,3,5}
b) A∪(B∩C)= {1,2,3,4,5}
c) C ∪ D = {1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
d) (A∪B)−C = {4,8}
e) A∪(B−C)= {1,2,3,4,5,8}
f) (B −C)−D = {}
g) B−(C−D)= {2,4,8}
h) (A∪B)−(C ∩D)= {1,3,4,5,8}
i) A ⊕ B = {3,5,8}
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 Exercise 8:
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 Draw the VENN DIAGRAM of these sets and

find (A∪B)−C and B′

A B
B

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 Exercise 9:
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Given the Universal set U={positive integers not larger than 12},
and the sets : A={positive integers not more than 6}
B={3,4,6,7} , C={5,6,7,8,9,10} , Find :
i) A U B =
{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}
ii) | A−B |=
3
iii) P(A‐B)=Power set of (A‐B)=

{ф,{1},{2},{5},{1,2},{1,5},{2,5},{1,2,5}}

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48

Refer to Chapter 2 for further reading

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