School of Computer Studies

AES Institute of Computer Studies

FYiMCA: Semester I
114-Business Mathematics
Unit 1 Set Theory
Faculty: Ms. Heena Timani

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Introduction
Basic Concept and Notations
Representation of Sets
Various Definitions of Set Theory
Set Identities
Applications of Set Theory

Most of the mathematics is based upon the theory of sets.

In mathematical analysis we often deal with groups, collections, aggregates, populations,
families etc. The language of a set is a means to study collections in an organized manner. A set
is a collection or aggregates of definite and distinguishable objects selected by means of some
rules or descriptions.
Basic Concepts and Notations
Definition :- A set is collection of well defined objects, called the elements or members of the
set.
The following are the certain illustrations.
The set of all Master of Computer Applications Institutions of Gujarat.
The set of number of days in a week.
The set of natural numbers less than 50.
The set of all integers between 0 to 30.
Capital letters A,B,C. Y,Z are generally used to denote the sets and lower case a,b,c,or
1,2,3
are used to denote the elements of a set.
If x is an element of set A or x belongs to set A it is represented by the notations x A ,
Similarly If y is not an element of set A then y A .
No elements of a set are identical. If an element occurs more than one, it is listed only once in a
set.

Representation of a set (Sets are represented by two methods)

1. Listing method or Roster method or tabular method or enumeration method.
2. Set builder method or Property method or Characteristic method.
Listing Method In this method all elements of set are listed, separated by commas and
enclosed within brackets.
For example set of positive integers less than or equal to 4.
A 1,2,3,4 The order in which elements are listed is not important.
Thus 2,1,3,4 1,2,4,3 4,1,2,3

Set Builder Method

In set builder method we define the elements of the set by specifying a property that they
have in common.
For Example
The set of square of positive integers less than 7.
It is written in property method as
A x / x a 2 , a Z , a 7 , A x / x a 2 ,Where a is a positive int eger less than 7

Set of Natural Numbers N 1,2,3,4,......................

Set of all positive and negative integers Z ........... 3,2,1,0,1,2,3,4,......................

Set of all(positive-Negative) Z ........... 3,2,1,0,1,2,3,4,......................

Set of all rational number Q p / q, p Z , q Z , q 0

Q ................... 2 / 3,0,1 / 6............. p / q, p Z , q Z , q 0

Set of all real number R ........... 3,2 / 6,0,1, 5, 2,3,3.8,4,.6 81.....................

Terminology of Set Theory

Universal Set : The set which contains all the observations under consideration is called
the universal set. It is denoted by U.
Null Set: A set which contains no elements at all is called null set.
It is denoted by or {}
For example A x / x is odd natural number divisible by 2 A
Singleton Set: A set which contains only a single element is called singleton set.
For Example A={5}
Notation is an element of
If x is an element of the set A, we write this as x A. x A means x is not an element
of A. For example If A = {3, 17, 2 } then 3 A, 17 A, 2 A and 5 A.
If A = { x | x is a prime number } then 5 A, and 6 A.

Subset of a set : The set A is said to be subset of a set B . If and only if every element of
set A is also an element of set B and it is denote by A B
If A is a subset of B we write A B to designate that relationship.
If A is a proper subset of B we write A B to designate that relationship.
If A is not a subset of B we write A B to designate that relationship.
For example The set of all odd positive integers between 1 to 25 is a subset of all
positive integers between 1 to 25.
If A is not sub set of B i.e A B In this situation atleast one element of set A does not
belong to B.
Important properties of subset
Every set is subset of it self. A B
The null set is subset of every set. Thus for any set A, is A
If A B, B C then A C
If A is a sub set of B then B is called Supper set of A.
Proper subset of a set : Any subset A of set B is called the proper sub set of B, if there is
atleast one element of set B which is not present in set A or does not belong to A .i.e.if
A B ,AB.It is denoted by A B .
The set A = {1, 2, 3} is a subset of the set B ={1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} because each element of A
is an element of B. We write A B to designate this relationship between A and B.
We could also write {1, 2, 3} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
The set A = {3, 5, 7} is not a subset of the set B = {1, 4, 5, 7, 9} because 3 is an element
of A but is not an element of B.
The empty set is a subset of every set, because every element of the empty set is an
element of every other set.
For example A={1,2},B={1,2,3},C={2,1,3}then set A and Set B are subset of C,
But A is proper subset of A and B while B is is not proper subset of CSince B=C.
Equality of two sets: The two set A and B are said to be equal if and only if A B and
A B We can write A=B . That is A and B both have same elements.

For Example A 2,3,4 , B x / x N ,2 x 4

Equivalent Sets : If the number of elements of two sets are equal then it is known as
equivalent sets.
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For example A={2,3,4} and B={m,n,p}

i.e.Number of elements of both sets are equal to 3.
Power Set
A set consisting of all subsets of a given set is called the power set. The power set is
denoted by P(A)
For Example A={a,b,c}, P(A) is the set of all sub set of set.A={a,b,c}
P A
, a
, b
, c
, a, ba, c
, b, c
, a, b, c
Here note that in set A the number of elements of set A is 3 .i.e n=3

P A 2n 23 8 elements
Disjoint set : Two sets are said to be disjoint if there is not a singlt element common in
seta and set B. For example A={2,3,4}, B={1,5,7}Here A and B are disjoint set
A B
Set Operations:- Two or more sets can be combined using set operations to give rise to
new sets,These operations that play an important role many applications.
Venn Diagram : Set can also be represented by graphically by means of Venn diagram
in which the universal set is represented by the interior of circles that lie in side rectangle.
A B
Union of Two set : The union of two sets A and B denoted by
, which is the set of
elements that belong to A or B or both.
A B x / x A or x B,
For Example A 1,2,3, B 2,4,5 A B 1,2,3,4,5

Intersection of two set : The union of two sets A and B denoted by

set of elements that belong to A and B both.
A B x / x A and x B,

A B

, which is the

For Example A 1,2,3, B 2,4,5 A B 2

Complement of a Set : If U is the universal set and A is any set then the set of elements
that belongs to U but which do not belong to A is called Compliment of A and it is
denoted by A. A={x/ x A but xU}
For Example U={1,2,3,4,5,6} A= {1,3,4}, then A ={2,5,6}
Difference of two sets : If A and B are any two sets, then the set of elements that belongs
to A but does not belong to B is called the difference set of A and B .It is also called
relative complement of B with respect to A.It is denoted by A-B.
A B x / x A but x B , A B A ( A B)
For Example A= {1, 2, 3,4} and B = {1,3,5,7,8}Difference of set A and Set B will be
A-B={2,4}
For B-A .If A and B are any two sets, then the set of elements that belongs to B but does
not belong to A is called the difference set of B and A .It is also called relative
complement of A with respect to B. It is denoted by B-A.
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B A x / x B but x A, B-A = B - (AB)

For example A= {1,2,3,4} and B = {1,3,5,7,8} , (AB) ={1,3} Difference of set B and
set A will be B-A = B - (AB),
B-A={1,3,5,7,8} {1,3}={ 5,7,8}
Here note that A-B B-A
Symmetric Difference of Two Sets: If A and B are any two sets, then the set of elements
belongs set A or set B but not both is called the symmetric difference of set A and set B
It is denoted by A B. AB A B A B or AB A B B A
Ordered Pairs: A pair of objects whose components can occur in a specific order is
called an order pair. It is represented by listing the two components in the specific order
by separating comma and enclosing them parentheses.
For Example (1,2), (a,b), (4,5), (k,l) are ordered pair .
Cartesian Product of two sets : If set A and B are two sets, the set of all ordered pairs,
Whose first component belongs to set A and second component belong to set B is called
Cartesian product of set A and set B it is denoted by A X B
A B a, b/ a A and b B
For Example If A= {1, 2},B={3,5}then
A X B ={(1,3),(1,5),(2,3),(2,5)} B X A ={(3,1),(3,2),(5,1),(5,2)}.
Here note that A X B B X A
Cardinality or size of a set: Consider a set A , the number of elements of a set A is
denoted by n(A) or A
For example A= {1,2,3,4,5} then n(A)= 5, B={a, b, c, d} then n(B)=4