Transitive relation

In mathematics, a binary relation R over a set X is transitive if whenever an element a is related to an element b and b is
related to an element c then a is also related to c. Transitivity (or transitiveness) is a key property of both partial order
relations and equivalence relations.

Contents
Formal definition
Examples
Properties
Closure properties
Other properties
Transitive extensions and transitive closure
Relation properties that require transitivity
Counting transitive relations
Intransitivity
See also
Notes
References
External links

Formal definition
In terms of set theory, the binary relation R defined on the set X is a transitive relation if,[1]

for all a, b, c ∈ X, if a R b and b R c, then a R c.

Or, in symbolic form,

Where, for example, a R b is the infix notation for (a, b) ∈ R.

Examples
"Is greater than", "is at least as great as," and "is equal to" (equality) are transitive relations on various sets, for instance, the
set of real numbers or the set of natural numbers:

whenever x > y and y > z, then also x > z

whenever x ≥ y and y ≥ z, then also x ≥ z
whenever x = y and y = z, then also x = z.

On the other hand, "is the mother of" is not a transitive relation, because if Alice is the mother of Brenda, and Brenda is the
mother of Claire, then Alice is not the mother of Claire. What is more, it is antitransitive: Alice can never be the mother of
Claire.

More examples of transitive relations:

"is a subset of" (set inclusion)

 "divides" (divisibility)
"implies" (implication)
The empty relation on any non-empty set X is transitive,[2][3] because the conditional defining a transitive relation is
logically true if the antecedent is false, resulting in the statement being true (vacuous truth).

A relation R containing only one ordered pair is transitive for the same reason.

Properties

Closure properties
The inverse (converse) of a transitive relation is always transitive. For instance, knowing that "is a subset of" is
transitive and "is a superset of" is its inverse, one can conclude that the latter is transitive as well.

The intersection of two transitive relations is always transitive. For instance, knowing that "was born before" and "has
the same first name as" are transitive, one can conclude that "was born before and also has the same first name as" is
also transitive.

The union of two transitive relations need not be transitive. For instance, "was born before or has the same first name
as" is not a transitive relation, since e.g. Herbert Hoover is related to Franklin D. Roosevelt, which is in turn related to
Franklin Pierce, while Hoover is not related to Franklin Pierce.

The complement of a transitive relation need not be transitive. For instance, while "equal to" is transitive, "not equal to"
is only transitive on sets with at most one element.

Other properties
A transitive relation is asymmetric if and only if it is irreflexive.[4]

A transitive relation need not be reflexive. When it is, it is called a preorder. For example, on set X ={1,2,3}, the relations;

R = {(1,1),(2,2),(3,3),(1,3),(3,2)} is reflexive, but not transitive, as element (1,2) is absent,

R = {(1,1),(2,2),(3,3),(1,3)} is reflexive as well as transitive, so, it is a preorder,

R = {(1,1),(2,2),(3,3)} is reflexive as well as transitive, another preorder.

Transitive extensions and transitive closure

Let R be a binary relation on set X. The transitive extension of R, denoted R1, is the smallest binary relation on X such that
R1 contains R, and if (a, b) ∈ R and (b, c) ∈ R then (a, c) ∈ R1.[5] For example, suppose X is a set of towns, some of which
are connected by roads. Let R be the relation on towns where (A, B) ∈ R if there is a road directly linking town A and town
B. This relation need not be transitive. The transitive extension of this relation can be defined by (A, C) ∈ R1 if you can
travel between towns A and C by using at most two roads.

If a relation is transitive then its transitive extension is itself, that is, if R is a transitive relation then R1 = R.

The transitive extension of R1 would be denoted by R2, and continuing in this way, in general, the transitive extension of Ri
would be Ri + 1. The transitive closure of R, denoted by R* or R∞ is the set union of R, R1, R2, ... .[6]

The transitive closure of a relation is a transitive relation.[6]

The relation "is the mother of" on a set of people is not a transitive relation. However, in biology the need often arises to
consider motherhood over an arbitrary number of generations: the relation "is a matrilinear ancestor of" is a transitive
relation and it is the transitive closure of the relation "is the mother of".

For the example of towns and roads above, (A, C) ∈ R* provided you can travel between towns A and C using any number
of roads.
Relation properties that require transitivity
Preorder – a reflexive transitive relation
Partial order – an antisymmetric preorder
Total preorder – a total preorder
Equivalence relation – a symmetric preorder
Strict weak ordering – a strict partial order in which incomparability is an equivalence relation
Total ordering – a total, antisymmetric transitive relation

Counting transitive relations

No general formula that counts the number of transitive relations on a finite set (sequence A006905 in the OEIS) is
known.[7] However, there is a formula for finding the number of relations that are simultaneously reflexive, symmetric, and
transitive – in other words, equivalence relations – (sequence A000110 in the OEIS), those that are symmetric and
transitive, those that are symmetric, transitive, and antisymmetric, and those that are total, transitive, and antisymmetric.
Pfeiffer[8] has made some progress in this direction, expressing relations with combinations of these properties in terms of
each other, but still calculating any one is difficult. See also.[9]

Number of n-element binary relations of different types

partial total equivalence
n all transitive reflexive preorder total preorder
order order relation
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 16 13 4 4 3 3 2 2
3 512 171 64 29 19 13 6 5
4 65536 3994 4096 355 219 75 24 15
2 2−n n n
n 2n 2n Σk=0 k! S(n, k) n! Σk=0 S(n, k)
OEIS A002416 A006905 A053763 A000798 A001035 A000670 A000142 A000110

Intransitivity
Some binary relations are not transitive; they are called intransitive. Examples
arise in situations such as political questions or group preferences.[10]

See also
Transitive reduction
Quasitransitive relation
Nontransitive dice
Rational choice theory

Notes
Sometimes, when people are asked
1. Smith, Eggen & St. Andre 2006, p. 145 their preferences through a series of
binary questions, they will give
2. Smith, Eggen & St. Andre 2006, p. 146
logically impossible responses: 1 is
3. https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/cs173/sp2011/Lectures/relations.pdf
better than 2, and 2 is better than 3,
but 3 is better than 1.
 4. Flaška, V.; Ježek, J.; Kepka, T.; Kortelainen, J. (2007). Transitive Closures of Binary Relations I (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20131102214049/http://www.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~jezek/120/transitive1.pdf) (PDF). Prague: School of Mathematics
- Physics Charles University. p. 1. Archived from the original (http://www.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~jezek/120/transitive1.pdf)
(PDF) on 2013-11-02. Lemma 1.1 (iv). Note that this source refers to asymmetric relations as "strictly antisymmetric".
5. Liu 1985, p. 111
6. Liu 1985, p. 112
7. Steven R. Finch, "Transitive relations, topologies and partial orders" (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~sfinch/csolve/
posets.pdf), 2003.
8. Götz Pfeiffer, "Counting Transitive Relations (http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/journals/JIS/VOL7/Pfeiffer/pfeiffer6.html)",
Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 7 (2004), Article 04.3.2.
9. Gunnar Brinkmann and Brendan D. McKay,"Counting unlabelled topologies and transitive relations (http://cs.anu.edu.a
u/~bdm/papers/topologies.pdf)"
10. Drum, Kevin (November 2018). "Preferences are not transitive" (https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/11/pref
erences-are-not-transitive/). Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-11-29.

References
Grimaldi, Ralph P. (1994), Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics (3rd ed.), Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-19912-2
Liu, C.L. (1985), Elements of Discrete Mathematics, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-038133-X
Gunther Schmidt, 2010. Relational Mathematics. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-76268-7.
Smith, Douglas; Eggen, Maurice; St.Andre, Richard (2006), A Transition to Advanced Mathematics (6th ed.),
Brooks/Cole, ISBN 978-0-534-39900-9

External links
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001) [1994], "Transitivity" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=p/t093810),
Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. / Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-1-
55608-010-4
Transitivity in Action (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/triangle/remarkable.shtml) at cut-the-knot

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