SEMINAR TOPIC: SET THEORY Mrs. JAYASHRI S. PATTAR Asst. Prof IN MATHEMATICS Govt.

FIRST GRADE COLLEGE KHANAPUR Dist. BELGAUM SET: A set is a well defined collection of distinct objects.

By a well defined collection of objects we mean that there is rule (or rules) by means of which it is possible to say, without ambiguity, whether a particular object belongs to the collection or not. The objects in a set are distinct means we do not repeat an object over and over again in a set. Each object belonging to a set is called an element (or a member) of the set. Sets are usually denoted by capital letters A,B,C,Q,R,S etc and the elements by lower case letters a,b,c,x etc. The symbol is used to indicate belongs to or is an element of. thus XA => X is an element of the set A. The symbol is used to indicate does not belong to or is not an element of. thus XA => X is not an element of the set A. examples: 1. let V be the set of vowels in english alphabet, then the elements of V are A,E,I,O,U i.e V={A,E,I,O,U} AV, UV, G V, T V 2. Let E be the set of even natural numbers then, 6E, 512E, 3E, 127E Methods of describing a set There are two methods of describing a set.
1. Roster method(tabulation method): In this method a set is

described by listing all its elements, separating them by commas and enclosing them within curly brackets.

Example: 1. If A is the set of odd natural numbers less than 10, then in roster form, A={1,3,5,7,9} 2 If B is the set of letters of the word FOLLOW, then in roster form, B={F,O,L,W} When a set is described in roster form, the order of its elements is immaterial i.e the elements may be written down in any order.
2. Rule method(Property method): Listing the elements of a set is

sometimes difficult and sometime impossible. We do not have a roster form of the set Q of rational numbers or the set R of the real numbers. In rule method a set is described by means of some property which is shared by all the elements the set. We first write within braces a variable followed by a statement of property, in terms of the stated variable, that must be satisfied by each element of the set. Example: 1. If P is the set of all prime numbers, then P={x:x is a prime number} 2 If A is the set of all natural numbers between 10 and 100 then A={x:x N and 10<x<100} Finite and Infinite Sets:
1) Finite set: A set is said to be finite if the number of its elements is

finite. i.e if its elements can be counted, one by one, with the counting coming to an end. Example: 1 The set of letters in the English alphabet is finite 2 The set of all multiples of 5 less than 1000 is finite set. 2)Infinite set: A set is said to be infinite if the number of its elements is infinite.

i.e If we count its elements, one by one, the counting never comes to an end. Example: 1 The set of all points in a plane is an infinite set. 2 . The set of all natural numbers and the set of all real numbers are infinite sets.
3) Null set: A set having no elements is known as a null set or an

empty set and is denoted by or { } Example: 1.{ x:x = x} = 2. {x:x is an integer and x2 = 2}= because there is no integer whose square is 2. 4.. Singleton set: A set having only one element is called singleton set.Example: {a} is a singleton set. {0} or { } are not null sets but singular sets. 5. Subset and superset: If A and B are two sets such that every element of A is also an element of B, then A is called a subset of B and we write AcB.