INTRODUCTION TO DISCRETE

SETS
1. Notations and terminologies of sets
2.Ways of describing sets
3. Kinds of Sets
4. Operations on sets
5. Venn Diagram
At the end of this lesson, you must have

1. understood the meaning and purpose of discrete

mathematics
2. performed ways of describing sets and its operations
3. practiced the use of set operations;
4. applied the set operations to a diagram; and
5. evaluated your understanding of the lesson.
 The study in logic is important in understanding
mathematical reasoning. Logic has numerous
applications to computer science. These rules are used
in the design of
computer circuits,
construction of computer programs,
verification of the correctness of programs, and in many
other ways.
 Discrete Mathematics
 is the study of mathematical structures that are countable
or otherwise distinct and separable. Examples of structures
that are discrete are combinations, graphs, and logical
statements.
 is a mathematics that deals with discrete objects.
 Discrete objects are those objects which are separated from
or not connected to. Integers, automobiles, houses, and
people are some of the examples of a discrete object.
 is the foundation for the formal approaches. It
discusses languages used in mathematical
reasoning, basic concepts, and their properties and
relationships among them

 Discrete mathematics is also concerned with

techniques to solve certain types of problems
such as how to count or enumerate quantities.
Logic is a language for reasoning. It is a
collection of rules we use when doing logical
reasoning.
Human reasoning has been observed over
centuries from at least the times of Greeks, and
patterns appearing in reasoning have been extracted,
abstracted, and streamlined.
 In logic we are interested in truth or falsehood of
statements, and how it can be determined from other
statements.
However, instead of dealing with individual
specific statements, we are going to use SYMBOLS to
represent arbitrary statements so that the results can
be used in many similar but different cases.
The formalization also promotes the clarity of
thought and eliminates mistakes.
Introduction to Sets
Mind Setter:
How would you know if a person belongs to your family?
Are the members of your immediate family shows a physical feature that is
unique?

Set is a collection of well-defined objects with the

members called the elements. Sets are denoted by
Capital Letters.
Example: Let A = { a,b,c}

Example:

Let Program Language = { Java, Python, Ruby and

HTML}
There are five ways to describe a set:
1.Describe the properties of the elements.
2.List the elements, also called the roster.
3.Use the characteristic function.
4.Use the recursive formula. This is done by giving one element a
rule by which the rest of the elements can be found.
5.Use set operation
 Set can also be written in terms of the BUILDER NOTATION.
Example:
A = {x | x is element of X}
means “Set A contains x’s, such that x is contained in set X”.
Direction: Use builder notation to describe the following sets.
o A = {1,2,3,4,5}
A={x|x is a positive number from 1 to 5}
a. B = {2,4,6,8,10}
b. C = all numbers between -2 and 2.
c. B = set of insects which starts with letter b
d. P = set of planets
Subset is a set whose elements belong to another set.

Example: A is a subset of B if and only if all elements of A are in B.

Empty Set is a set containing no elements. It is also called the null

set.
1.Trivial Subset
a.Empty set is a subset of A, for any set A.
b.Set A is a subset of Set A, for any set A.
2. Proper Subset – are any subset other than the trivial
subset.
Example: Let A = {1,2,3}
Proper subsets of A: {1},{2},{3},{1,2},{1,3},{2,3}
Trivial Subset of A : empty set and A.
Equal Set – are sets having the same elements.
Example: Let A = {1,2,3} and B = {2,1,3}
Finite Set – if the number of elements is countable (possible
to count)
Infinite Set – if the number of elements is uncountable
(impossible to count)
Power Set of A (P(A)) is the collection of all positive subsets of any

set. The number of elements of the power set is denoted by |P(A)| =

2n where n is the number of elements of A.

Example: Let A = {1,2,3,4}

|A| = 4 , |P(A)| = 24 = 16
 Given: A = {1,2,3}
P (A) = 23 = 8
P(A) = {Ø,{1},{2},{3},{1,2},{1,3},{2,3},{1,2,3}}
The set Ø and (1,2,3) are called trivial sets while
{1},{2},{3},{1,2},{1,3},{2,3} are called non-trivial subsets or proper
subsets. P(A) refers to the class of all subsets of A.
TWO METHODS OF WRITING SETS
1. Roster Method – the elements of the set are enumerated and separated by a
comma.
Example: M={2,4,6,8,10} M={2,4,6,8,10, …}
2. Rule Method – a descriptive phrase is used to describe the elements of the
set.
Example: M={x|x is an even number which is greater than or equal to two
but less than or equal to 10}
 Cardinal Number – it is the number of elements in the set.

Example: A = {H,O,U,S,E} (the cardinal number of A is 5)

Note: (The following are not an empty set: A = {0}, A = {Ø} and A

= {{}}, but A={} is an empty set)

Direction: Answer the following on your paper.

A.List the members of the following sets.

a. {x|x is a negative number less than -10}
b. {x|x is a positive odd integer less than or equal to 31}
c. {x|x is an integer such that x = 1 + 2n for all counting numbers
n.22}
d. {x|x a vowel of the word MATHEMATICS}
e. {x|x is a is a counting number < 10}
f. {x|x is a negative number less than -10}
1. Union. The union of two sets, written A  B, is the set of all
elements in A or B. Example A={1, 2} B={1, 3, 4} A  B =
{1,2,3,4}
2. Intersection. The intersection of two sets, written A  B, is the
set of all elements in A or B. Example A={1, 2} B={1, 3, 4} A  B
= {1}
3. Complement. The complement of set A, written A’, is the set of
all elements in the universal set which do not belong to A.
Example U={1,2,3,4,5} A={2,4} A’ = {1,3,5}
4. Difference of two sets. The difference of two sets A and B, written A \ B, is
the set of all elements in A which do not belong to B. Example A=[1, 2}
B={1, 3, 4} A \ B = { 2 }

5. Symmetric Difference of Two sets. The symmetric difference of two sets,

written A XOR B, is the set of all elements in A which do not belong to B

together with all elements in B which do not belong to A. Example A=[1,2}

B={1,3,4} A XOR B = { 2, 3, 4 }
EXAMPLE
Answer the following using the set operation
U = {a,e,i,o,u}
A ={a,e,i} C = {o} E={o,u}
B = {i,o,u} D = {e,i}
1. 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 = {a, e, i, o, u} or U
2. 𝐵 ∩ 𝐷 = { i }
3. C′ = { a,e,i,u }
4. B XOR D = { e,o,u }
EXAMPLE
Answer the following using the set operation

U = {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}
A = {2,4,6,8} C = {5,6,7,8,9} B = {1,3,5,7,9}
1. (B - A)’ B-A = B | {0,2,4,6,8}
2. 𝐶′ ∪ ∅ C’= {0,1,2,3,4}
3. (𝐵 ∩ 𝐶)′ B ∩ C = {5,7,9} | 𝑩 ∩ 𝑪 ′ = {𝟎, 𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟒, 𝟔, 𝟖}

Oral
1. 𝐵 ∪ 𝐶 ∩ 𝐴
Oral
2. (𝐵 ∩ 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵)′ (Intersection of B and A and its union to B)’
 Mathematicians Leonard Euler and John Venn
used diagrams represented by circles, ovals, or cloud-
like shapes on a plane to illustrate the principles of logic
and thus the method was named after them.

In set theory it is a convenient way of picturing set

relations such as equality and set operations such as
union, intersection, and complement.
 U
A B
b. Intersection of A and B
a. Union of A and B
U
A B
A U c. Complement of A

d. Difference of Set A to B

A B U
 e. Symmetric Difference of Two Sets
A B U XOR
 The Venn-Euler Diagram can be used in solving
problems as shown by the example below.
A survey on subjects being taken by 250 college students in Metro Manila
revealed the following information:
90 were taking Mathematics
145 were taking Filipino
88 were taking English
25 were taking Math and Filipino
38 were taking Filipino and English
59 were taking Math and English
15 were taking all the three subjects
Solve the following using the Venn-Euler
diagram
1. How many did not take any of the three
subjects?34
2. How many students took Mathematics
21
as their only subject?
3. How many students were taking
Mathematics and Filipino but not
English? 10
4. How many students were taking Filipino
and English but not Mathematics? 23
U={a,e,i,o,u} B

o C
D
A i u E
e
a
 EXAMPLE
Solve the following using the Venn-Euler Diagram.
To find out the preferences of 170 students on sports, a survey was made by the P.E.
department of FEU. The survey showed that 53 played basketball, 62 played football, 73 played
volleyball, 28 played basketball and football, 43 played volleyball and football, 35 played
basketball and volleyball, and 15 played all the three games.

73 a) How many did not play any of the three games?

Basketball
5 b) How many played basketball only? volleyball only? 10
c) How many played basketball and volleyball but not 5
football? 20
d) How many played football and basketball but not
13
20
volleyball? 13 15
e) How many played at least three games? 15 Football
f) How many played exactly two games? 61 6 28 Volleyball
g) How many played at least one game? 97 10
h)How many played any of the games? 21 U 73
i) How many played basketball and football? 28