SOUTH UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE, SCIENCE

AND TECHONOLOGY (SUMST) FACULTY OF

MEDICINE
Basic Set Theory

Dr. Paride O. Lolika

Lecture: 1
What is a Set

I A set is a well-defined collection of distinct objects.

I The objects in a set are called the elements or members of the
set.
I Capital letters A, B, C ,.... usually denote sets.
I Lowercase letters a, b, c,.... denote the elements of a set.
I A set is typically expressed by curly braces, { } enclosing its
elements.
Examples

I If A is a set and a is an element of it, we write a ∈ A. The

fact that a is not an element of A is written as a ∈
/ A. For
instance, if A is the set {1, 4, 9, 2}, then 1 ∈ A; 4 ∈ A ; 2 ∈ A
and 9 ∈ A. But 7 ∈
/ A.
I Let X = {apple, tomato, orange}. Here, orange ∈ X , but
potato ∈
/ X.
Examples...Cont.

I Consider the list of digits 1, 2, 1, 4, 2. Is it a set?

I Let X = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}. Then X is the set of first
10 natural numbers. Or equivalently, X is the set of integers
between 0 and 11.
Examples...Cont.

The following notations will be followed throughout the course.

I N = {1, 2, 3, ...}, the set of Natural numbers;
I W = {0, 1, 2, 3, ...}, the set of whole numbers
I Z = {0, 1, −1, 2, −2, 3, −3, ...}, the set of Integers;
I Q = { qp , p, q ∈ Z, q 6= 0}, the set of Rational numbers;
I R=the set of Real numbers;
Main ways for specifying a set. They are:

I Listing all its elements (Tabular form), e.g.,

X = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}. Then X is the set of even integers
between 0 and 12.
I Stating a property with notation (set-builder form), e.g. (a)
X = {x : x is a prime number }. This is read as X is the set of
all x such that x is a prime number”. Here, x is a variable and
stands for any object that meets the criteria after the colon.
Cont...Main ways for specifying a set. They are:

I (b) The set X = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10} in the set-builder notation can

be written as i.

X = {x : 0 < x ≤ 10, x is an even integer }

, or ii. X = {x : 1 < x < 11, x is an even integer }, or iii.

X = {x : 2 ≤ x ≤ 10, x is an even integer }.
Finite and Infinite sets

Sets can be finite or infinite

I Definition: A set is finite if it consists of a specific number of
different elements. Otherwise is infinite
I Example: Let M be the set of the days of the week. Then M
is finite.
I Example: Let N = {2, 4, 6, 8, ...}. Then N is infinite.
Equality of sets

I Definition: Set A is equal to set B if they both have the same

elements or members. We denote the equality of sets A and B
by A = B.
I Example: Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {3, 1, 4, 2}. Then
A = B. Note that a set does not change if its elements are
rearranged.
I Example: Let C = {5, 5, 5, 7} and D = {7, 5, 7, 6}. Then
C = D. (A set does not change if its elements are repeated).
Cont... Equality of sets

I Example: Observe that the sets {1; 2; 3} and {3, 1, 2} are the
same as the order in which the elements appear doesn’t
matter.
I Example: Let E = {x : x 2 − 3x = −2}, F = {2, 1} and
G = {1, 2, 2, 1}. Then E = F = G
Null set (Empty set) and singleton set

I Definition: The set that contains no element is called the

empty set or the null set and is denoted by { } or ∅. A set
that has only one element is called a singleton set
I Example: Let A be the set of people in the world who are
older than 200 years. A according to known statistics A is the
null set.
I Example: Let B = {x : x 2 = 4, x is odd}. Then B is the
empty set.
Subsets

I Definition: if every element in a set A is also a member of a

set B, then A is called a subset of B. We denote this
relationship by writing A ⊂ B which can also be read ”A is
contained in B”.
I Example (1): The set C = {1, 3, 5} is a subset of
D = {5, 4, 3, 2, 1}, since each number 1, 3 and 5 belonging to
C also belongs to D.
Cont...Subsets

I Example (2): The set E = {2, 4, 6} is a subset of

F = {6, 2, 4}, since each number 2, 4 and 6 belonging to E
also belongs to F . Note, in particular, that E = F . In a similar
manner it can be shown that every set is a subset of itself.
I Let G = {x : x is even}, that is G = {2, 4, 6, ...}, and let
F = {x : x is a positive power of 2} that is let
F {2, 4, 8, 16, ...}. Then F ⊂ G that is F is contained in G
Cont...Subsets

I Definition: Two sets A and B are equal, that is A = B, if and

only if A ⊂ B and B ⊂ A. If A is a subset of B, then we can
also write B ⊃ A which reads B is a super set of A or B
contains A. Further more, we can write A 6⊂ B or B 6⊃ A if A
is not a subset of B.
I The null set ∅ is considered to be a subset of every set.
I Every set is a subset to itself.
Proper subset

I Definition: B is a proper subset of A if B ⊂ A and B 6= A

I Sometimes B is a subset of A is denoted by B ⊆ A and B is a
proper subset of A is denoted by B ⊂ A.
Comparability of sets

I Definition: Two sets A and B are said to be comparable if

A ⊂ B or B ⊂ A
I Definition: Two sets A and B are said to be not comparable if
A 6⊂ B and B 6⊂ A.
I Example (1): Let A = {a, b} and B = {a, b, c}. Then A is
comparable to B, since A is a subset of B.
Cont...Comparability of sets

I Example (2): Let R = {a, b} and S = {b, c, d}. Then R and

S are not comparable, since a ∈ R and a ∈
/ S and c ∈ R and
c∈
/ S.
Set of sets or Family of sets or Class of sets

I Definition: a set where its members are all in form of sets is

called Set of sets or Family of sets or Class of sets and are
denoted sript letters such as A, B....
I Example (1): The set {{2, 3}, {2}, {5, 6}} is a family of sets.
Its members are the sets {2, 3}, {2} and {5, 6}
I Example (2) Let A = {2, {1, 3}, 4, {2, 5}}. Then A is not a
family of sets; here some elements of A are sets and some are
not.
Cont...Comparability of sets

I Example (2): Let R = {a, b} and S = {b, c, d}. Then R and

S are not comparable, since a ∈ R and a ∈
/ S and c ∈ R and
c∈
/ S.
Set of sets or Family of sets or Class of sets

I Definition: a set where its members are all in form of sets is

called Set of sets or Family of sets or Class of sets and are
denoted sript letters such as A, B....
I Example (1): The set {{2, 3}, {2}, {5, 6}} is a family of sets.
Its members are the sets {2, 3}, {2} and {5, 6}
I Example (2) Let A = {2, {1, 3}, 4, {2, 5}}. Then A is not a
family of sets; here some elements of A are sets and some are
not.
Universal set (Universe of discourse)

I In any application of the theory of sets, all the sets under

investigation will likely be subsets of a fixed set. We call this
set theb universal set or universe of discourse and is denoted
by U.
Power set

I The family of all the subsets of any set S is called the power
set of S. We denote the power set of S by 2S .
I Example (1): Let M = {a, b}. Then
2S = {{a, b}, {a}, {b}, ∅}.
I Example (2): Let T = {4, 7, 8}. Then
2T = {T , {4, 7}, {4, 8}, {7, 8}, {4}, {7}, {8}, ∅}.
I If a set S is finite, say S has n elements, then the power set of
S can be shown to have 2n elements.
Disjoint sets

I Definition: If sets A and B have no elements in common, then

we say that A and B are disjoint.
I Example (1): Let A = {1, 3, 7, 8} and B = {2, 4, 7, 9}. Then
A and B are not disjoint since 7 is in both sets.
I Example (2): Let E = {x, y , z} and F = {r , s, t}. Then E
and F are disjoint.
Venn-Euler Diagram

A simple and instructive way of illustrating the relationships

between sets is in the use of the so-called Venn-Euler diagrams or,
simply, Venn Diagrams, Here we represent a set by a simple plane
area, usually bounded by a circle. Example (1): Suppose A ⊂ B
and, say, A 6= B. Then A and B can be represented by either
diagram:
Cont...Venn-Euler Diagram

Example (2): Suppose A and B are not comparable. Then A and

B can be represented by the diagram on the right if they are
disjoint, or the diagram on the left if they are not disjoint:

Figure:
Cont..Venn-Euler Diagram

Example (3): Let A = {a, b, c, d} and B = {c, d, e, f }. Then we

illustrate theses sets with a venn-diagram of the form

Figure:
Line Diagram

Another useful and and instructive way of illustrating the

relationships between sets is by the use of the so called line
diagrams. If A ⊂ B, then we write B on the higher level than A
and connect them by a line:

Figure:
Line Diagram

If A ⊂ B and B ⊂ C , we write:

Figure:
Line Diagram

Example (1): Let A = {a}, B = {b} and C = {a, b}. Then the
line diagram of A, B and C is

Figure:
Line Diagram

Example (2): Let X = {x}, Y = {x, y }, Z = {x, y , z} and

W = {x, y , w }. Then the line diagram of X , Y , Z and W is

Figure: