SET AND SET THEORY

SET – A well-defined collection of objects concrete or abstract of any kind.

Example:
C is a set of vowels in the English Alphabet
D is a set of comprehensions of students in Mathematics

Set theory deals with operations between, relations among, and statements about sets.

ACTIVITY 1
Identify whether the given set is CONCRETE or ABSTRACT
1. A set of fishes in the ocean ____________________
2. A set of feelings one feel when listening to a beautiful music _____________
3. A set of planets in the solar system _____________
4. A set of understandings of the students in Algebra ______________
5. A set of female students enrolled in Algebra ______________

Three methods of listing down the elements of a set:

1. Verbal description
A = { all letters of the English alphabet }
2. Roster method
A ={a,b,c.d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z }
3. Descriptive or Set builder notation
A = {x/x is a letter in the English Alphabet }
Example:
B is set of even numbers >2<10 – Verbal description
B = { 4,6,8 } – Roster method
B = { b is an even number greater than 2 but less than 10 } - Descriptive method
read as” B is a set of all b’s such that b is an even number greater than 2 but less than 10”
 ACTIVITY 2
List down the elements of the given set using (a) Roster method (b) Descriptive method
1. M is a set of odd numbers >1<9
2. N is a set of consonants in the English alphabet
3. P is a set of things you bring to work
4. Q is a set of months in the calendar
5. R is a set of your siblings

KINDS OF SET
1. Empty set
A set that has no element should be called as Empty set. Another name for Empty set could be
Null set and Void set. Number of element in set X is represented as n(X). The empty set is
denoted as Φ. Thus, n(Φ) = 0. The cardinality of an empty set is zero since it has no element.
Example:
B is a set of carabaos in a classroom
To write the elements of set B; B = { } or B = Ø

2. Singleton set
A set that has one and only one element should be called as Singleton set. Sometimes, it is
known as unit set. The cardinality of singleton is one. If A is a singleton, then we can express it
as
A = {x : x = A}
Examples:
C is a set of sun in the solar system
D = {5}

3. Finite and Infinite set

A set that has predetermined number of elements or finite number of elements are said to be
Finite set. Like {1 ,2, 3, 4, 5, 6} is a finite set whose cardinality is 6, since it has 6 elements.
Otherwise, it is called as infinite set. It may be uncountable or countable. The union of some
infinite sets are infinite and the power set of any infinite set is infinite.

Examples:
Set of all the days in a week is a finite set.
Set of all integers is infinite set.

4. Equal sets: (symbol: = )

Two sets A and B are said to be equal if they contain the same elements. Every element of A is
an element of B and every element of B is an element of A.

Example:
A = {p, q, r, s}

B = {p, s, r, q}

Therefore, A = B

5. Equivalent Sets: (symbol: )

Two sets A and B are said to be equivalent if their cardinal number is same, i.e., n(A) = n(B). The
symbol for denoting an equivalent set is ‘↔’.

Example:
A = {1, 2, 3} n(A) = 3

B = {p, q, r} n(B) = 3

Therefore, A ↔ B

6. Disjoint Sets:
Two sets A and B are said to be disjoint, if they do not have any element in common.
Example:
A = {x x is an even number}

B = {x x is an odd number}.

Clearly, A and B do not have any element in common and are disjoint sets.

7. Subset
If A and B are two sets, and every element of set A is also an element of set B, then A is called
a subset of B and we write it as A ⊆ B or B ⊇ A
The symbol ⊂ stands for ‘is a subset of’ or ‘is contained in’

• Every set is a subset of itself, i.e., A ⊂ A, B ⊂ B.

• Empty set is a subset of every set.

• Symbol ‘⊆’ is used to denote ‘is a subset of’ or ‘is contained in’.

• A ⊆ B means A is a subset of B or A is contained in B.

• B ⊆ A means B contains A.
Example:
1. Let A = {2, 4, 6}

B = {6, 4, 8, 2}

A is a subset of B

Since, all the elements of set A are contained in set B.

B is not the subset of A

Since, all the elements of set B are not contained in set A.

8. Union of sets
Union of two or else most numbers of sets could be the set of all elements that belongs to
every element of all sets. In the union set of two sets, every element is written only once even if
they belong to both the sets. This is denoted as ‘∪’. If we have sets A and B, then the union of
these two is A U B and called as A union B.

Mathematically, we can denote it as A U B = {x : x ∈ A or x∈ B}

The union of two sets is always commutative i.e.A U B = B U A.

Example:
A = {1,2,3}
B = {1,4,5}

A U B = {1,2,3,4,5}

9. Intersection of sets
It should be the set of elements that are common in both the sets. Intersection is similar to
grouping up the common elements. The symbol should be denoted as ‘∩’. If A and B are two
sets, then the intersection is denoted as A ∩ B and called as A intersection B and
mathematically, we can write it as
A∩B={x:x∈A∧x∈B}

Example:
A = {1,2,3,4,5}
B = {2,3,7}
A ∩ B = {2,3}

10. . Compliment of a set

In complement of a set if U be the universal set and A a subset of U, then the complement of A
is the set of all elements of U which are not the elements of A.

Symbolically, we denote the complement of A with respect to U as A’.

Example:
If U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

A = {1, 3, 7} find A'.

Solution:

We observe that 2, 4, 5, 6 are the only elements of U which do not belong to A.

Therefore, A' = {2, 4, 5, 6}

Note:
The complement of a universal set is an empty set.

The complement of an empty set is a universal set.

The set and its complement are disjoint sets.

ACTIVITY 3
Given:
U = ( a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i )
A= ( a, e, i )
B = ( b, c, d, e )
C = ( c, d, e, f )
Find:
(1) AUB________________ (6) A∩C_______________
(2) AUC________________ (7) B∩C_______________
(3) BUC________________ (8) A∩B∩C_____________
(4) AUBUC______________ (9) A’__________________
(5) A∩B________________ (10) B’_________________
 VENN DIAGRAM
Pictorial representations of sets represented by closed figures are called set diagrams or Venn
diagrams.
Venn diagrams are useful in solving simple logical problems. Mathematician John Venn
introduced the concept of representing the sets pictorially by means of closed geometrical
figures called Venn diagrams.
In Venn diagrams, the Universal Set U is represented by a rectangle and all other sets under
consideration by circles within the rectangle. Venn diagrams are used to illustrate various
operations (union, intersection, difference).
We can express the relationship among sets through this in a more significant way.

In this,

• A rectangle is used to represent a universal set.

• Circles or ovals are used to represent other subsets of the universal set.

Venn diagrams in different situations

• If a set A is a subset of set B, then the circle representing set A is drawn inside the circle
representing set B.

If set A and set B have some elements in common, then to represent them, we draw two circles
which are overlapping.
 If set A and set B are disjoint, then they are represented by two non-intersecting circles.

In the following diagrams, the universal set is represented by a rectangular region and its
subsets by circles inside the rectangle. We represented disjoint set by disjoint circles and

intersecting sets by intersecting circles.

Example:

From the adjoining Venn diagram, find the following sets.

Find:
(1) A (7) AUB (13) B∩C

(2) B (8) AUC (14) A∩B∩C

(3) U (9) BUC (15) (BUC)’

(4) A‘ (10) AUBUC

(5) B‘ (11) A∩B

(6) C‘ (12) A∩C

 ACTIVITY 4
1. From the adjoining figure list the elements of the following sets:
(a) U______________________

(b) A'______________________

(c) B'______________________

(d) (A ∩ B)'_________________

(e) (A ∪ B)'_________________

(f) A' ∪ B'_________________

2. Let A = {1, 2, 3, 5, 6}, B = {3, 4, 6, 8} be two subsets of the universal

set ξ = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
Draw Venn diagrams to represent the following sets:

(a) A'
(b) B'
(c) A ∪ B
(d) A ∩ B
(e) (A ∪ B)'
(f) (A ∩ B)'
 APPLICATION OF THE VENN DIAGRAM
1. In a group of 100 customers at Big Red's Pizza Emporium, 80 of them ordered mushrooms on
their pizza and 72 of them ordered pepperoni. 60 customers ordered both mushrooms and
pepperoni on their pizza.
a. How many customers ordered mushrooms but no pepperoni?
b. How many customers ordered pepperoni but no mushrooms?
c. How many customers ordered neither of these two toppings?

2. Out of forty students, 14 are taking English Composition and 29 are taking Chemistry.
If five students are in both classes,
(a) How many students are in neither class?
(b) How many are in either class?
(c) How many students are taking English only?

(d) How many students are taking Chemistry only?

3. A survey of 85 students asked them about the subjects they liked to study. Thirty five
students liked math, 37 liked history, and 26 liked physics. Twenty liked math and history, 14
liked math and physics, and 3 liked history and physics. Two students liked all three subjects.
(a) How many of these students like math or physics?
(b) How many of these students didn’t like any of the three subjects?
(c) How many of these students liked math and history but not physics?
4. A group of 62 students were surveyed, and it was found that each of the students surveyed
liked at least one of the following three fruits: apricots, bananas, and cantaloupes.

34 liked apricots.
30 liked bananas.
33 liked cantaloupes.
11 liked apricots and bananas.
15 liked bananas and cantaloupes.
17 liked apricots and cantaloupes.
19 liked exactly two of the following fruits: apricots, bananas, and cantaloupes
a. How many students liked apricots, but not bananas or cantaloupes?
b. How many students liked cantaloupes, but not bananas or apricots?
c. How many students liked all of the following three fruits: apricots, bananas, and
cantaloupes?
d. How many students liked apricots and cantaloupes, but not bananas?

ACTIVITY 5
Draw the Venn diagram and answer the following questions:
1. In a class of 30 students, 19 are studying French, 12 are studying Spanish and 7 are
studying both French and Spanish. How many students are not taking any foreign
languages?

2. 100 students were interviewed

28 took PE, 31 took BIO, 42 took ENG, 9 took PE and BIO, 10 took PE and ENG, 6 took BIO
and ENG, 4 took all three subjects.
a) How many students took none of the three subjects?
b) How many students took PE but not BIO or ENG?
c) How many students took BIO and PE but not ENG?

3. A Class of 40 students completed a survey on what pets they like. The choices were: Cats,
Dogs, and Birds. Everyone liked at least one pet.
10 students liked Cats and Birds but not dogs
6 students liked Cats and Dogs but not birds
2 students liked Dogs and Birds but not Cats
2 students liked all three pets
10 students liked Cats only
9 students liked Dogs only
1 student liked Birds only
How many students liked;
(a) Cats (b) birds (c) dogs