CSEC MATHEMATICS

HANDOUT # 1

IMPORTANT NOTICE
WE ARE ALREADY BEHIND
SCHEDULE
SO LET’S START!

Introduction to Sets
Forget everything you know about numbers.
In fact, forget you even know what a number is.
This is where mathematics starts.
Instead of math with numbers, we will now think about math with "things".

Definition
What is a set? Well, simply put, it's a collection.
First we specify a common property among "things" (we define this word later)
and then we gather up all the "things" that have this common property.

For example, the items you wear: hat, shirt, jacket, pants, and so on.

I'm sure you could come up with at least a hundred.

This is known as a set.

Or another example is types of fingers.

This set includes index, middle, ring, and pinky.

So it is just things grouped together with a certain property in common.

Notation
There is a fairly simple notation for sets. We simply list each element (or
"member") separated by a comma, and then put some curly brackets around
the whole thing:
 The curly brackets { } are sometimes called "set brackets" or "braces".
This is the notation for the two previous examples:

{socks, shoes, watches, shirts, ...}

{index, middle, ring, pinky}

Notice how the first example has the "..." (three dots together).

The three dots ... are called an ellipsis, and mean "continue on".
So that means the first example continues on ... for infinity.

(OK, there isn't really an infinite amount of things you could wear, but I'm not
entirely sure about that! After an hour of thinking of different things, I'm still
not sure. So let's just say it is infinite for this example.)

So:

• The first set {socks, shoes, watches, shirts, ...} we call an infinite set,
• the second set {index, middle, ring, pinky} we call a finite set.

But sometimes the "..." can be used in the middle to save writing long lists:

Example: the set of letters:

{a, b, c, ..., x, y, z}

In this case it is a finite set (there are only 26 letters, right?)

Numerical Sets
So what does this have to do with mathematics? When we define a set, all we
have to specify is a common characteristic. Who says we can't do so with
numbers?

Set of even numbers: {..., -4, -2, 0, 2, 4, ...}

Set of odd numbers: {..., -3, -1, 1, 3, ...}
Set of prime numbers: {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, ...}
Positive multiples of 3 that are less than 10: {3, 6, 9}
And the list goes on. We can come up with all different types of sets.

There can also be sets of numbers that have no common property, they are
just defined that way. For example:

{2, 3, 6, 828, 3839, 8827}

{4, 5, 6, 10, 21}
{2, 949, 48282, 42882959, 119484203}

Are all sets that I just randomly banged on my keyboard to produce.

Why are Sets Important?

Sets are the fundamental property of mathematics. Now as a word of warning,
sets, by themselves, seem pretty pointless. But it's only when we apply sets in
different situations do they become the powerful building block of mathematics
that they are.

Math can get amazingly complicated quite fast. Graph Theory, Abstract
Algebra, Real Analysis, Complex Analysis, Linear Algebra, Number
Theory, and the list goes on. But there is one thing that all of these share
in common: Sets.

Universal Set
At the start we used the word "things" in quotes.

We call this the universal set. It's a set that contains

everything. Well, not exactlyeverything. Everything that is
relevant to our question.

In Number Theory the universal set is all the integers, as

Number Theory is simply the study of integers.
But in Calculus (also known as real analysis), the universal set
is almost always the real numbers .
And in complex analysis, you guessed it, the universal set is
the complex numbers.
Some More Notation
When talking about sets, it is fairly standard to use Capital Letters to
represent the set, and lowercase letters to represent an element in that set.

So for example, A is a set, and a is an element in A. Same with B and b, and

C and c.

Now you don't have to listen to the standard, you can use something like m to
represent a set without breaking any mathematical laws (watch out, you can
get π years in math jail for dividing by 0), but this notation is pretty nice and
easy to follow, so why not?

Also, when we say an element a is in a set A, we use the symbol to show it.
And if something is not in a set use .

Example: Set A is {1,2,3}. We can see that 1 A, but 5 A

Equality
Two sets are equal if they have precisely the same members. Now, at first
glance they may not seem equal, so we may have to examine them closely!

Example: Are A and B equal where:

• A is the set whose members are the first four positive whole numbers
• B = {4, 2, 1, 3}

Let's check. They both contain 1. They both contain 2. And 3, And 4. And we
have checked every element of both sets, so: Yes, they are equal!

And the equals sign (=) is used to show equality, so we write:

A=B

Example: Are these sets equal?

• A is {1, 2, 3}
• B is {3, 1, 2}
Yes, they are equal!

They both contain exactly the members 1, 2 and 3.

It doesn't matter where each member appears, so long as it is there.

Subsets
When we define a set, if we take pieces of that set, we can form what is called
a subset.

Example: the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

A subset of this is {1, 2, 3}. Another subset is {3, 4} or even another is {1},
etc.

But {1, 6} is not a subset, since it has an element (6) which is not in the
parent set.

In general:

A is a subset of B if and only if every element of A is in B.

So let's use this definition in some examples.

Example: Is A a subset of B, where A = {1, 3, 4} and B = {1,

4, 3, 2}?

1 is in A, and 1 is in B as well. So far so good.

3 is in A and 3 is also in B.

4 is in A, and 4 is in B.

That's all the elements of A, and every single one is in B, so we're done.

Yes, A is a subset of B

Note that 2 is in B, but 2 is not in A. But remember, that doesn't matter, we

only look at the elements in A.
Let's try a harder example.

Example: Let A be all multiples of 4 and B be all multiples

of 2.
Is A a subset of B? And is B a subset of A?

Well, we can't check every element in these sets, because they have an infinite
number of elements. So we need to get an idea of what the elements look like
in each, and then compare them.

The sets are:

• A = {..., -8, -4, 0, 4, 8, ...}

• B = {..., -8, -6, -4, -2, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, ...}

By pairing off members of the two sets, we can see that every member of A is
also a member of B, but not every member of B is a member of A:

So:

A is a subset of B, but B is not a subset of A

Proper Subsets
If we look at the defintion of subsets and let our mind wander a bit, we come to
a weird conclusion.

Let A be a set. Is every element in A an element in A? (Yes, I wrote that

correctly.)

Well, umm, yes of course, right?

So doesn't that mean that A is a subset of A?

This doesn't seem very proper, does it? We want our subsets to be proper. So
we introduce (what else but) proper subsets.

A is a proper subset of B if and only if every element in A is also in B, and

there exists at least one element in B that is not in A.

This little piece at the end is only there to make sure that A is not a proper
subset of itself. Otherwise, a proper subset is exactly the same as a normal
subset.

Example:

{1, 2, 3} is a subset of {1, 2, 3}, but is not a proper subset of {1, 2, 3}.

Example:

{1, 2, 3} is a proper subset of {1, 2, 3, 4} because the element 4 is not in

the first set.

Notice that if A is a proper subset of B, then it is also a subset of B.

Even More Notation

When we say that A is a subset of B, we write A B.

Or we can say that A is not a subset of B by A B ("A is not a subset of B")

When we talk about proper subsets, we take out the line underneath and so it
becomes A B or if we want to say the opposite, A B.

Empty (or Null) Set

This is probably the weirdest thing about sets.
As an example, think of the set of piano keys on a guitar.

"But wait!" you say, "There are no piano keys on a guitar!"

And right you are. It is a set with no elements.

This is known as the Empty Set (or Null Set).There aren't any elements in it.
Not one. Zero.

It is represented by

Or by {} (a set with no elements)

Some other examples of the empty set are the set of countries south of the
south pole.

So what's so weird about the empty set? Well, that part comes next.

Empty Set and Subsets

So let's go back to our definition of subsets. We have a set A. We won't define it
any more than that, it could be any set. Is the empty set a subset of A?

Going back to our definition of subsets, if every element in the empty set is
also in A, then the empty set is a subset of A. But what if we
have no elements?

It takes an introduction to logic to understand this, but this statement is one

that is "vacuously" or "trivially" true.

A good way to think about it is: we can't find any elements in the empty set
that aren't in A, so it must be that all elements in the empty set are in A.
So the answer to the posed question is a resounding yes.

The empty set is a subset of every set, including the empty set itself.

Order
No, not the order of the elements. In sets it does not matter what order the
elements are in.

Example: {1,2,3,4} is the same set as {3,1,4,2}

When we say order in sets we mean the size of the set.

Another (better) name for this is cardinality.

A finite set has finite order (or cardinality). An infinite set has infinite order (or
cardinality).

For finite sets the order (or cardinality) is the number of elements.

Example: {10, 20, 30, 40} has an order of 4.

For infinite sets, all we can say is that the order is infinite. Oddly enough, we
can say with sets that some infinities are larger than others, but this is a more
advanced topic in sets.

ACTIVITY
Which one of the following sets is infinite?
A The set of whole numbers less than 10
B The set of prime numbers less than 10
C The set of integers less than 10
D The set of factors of 10
A is the set of factors of 12.
Which one of the following is not a member of A?
A3
B4
C5
D6

X is the set of multiples of 3

Y is the set of multiples of 6
Z is the set of multiples of 9

Which one of the following is true?

(⊂ means "subset")
AX⊂Y
BX⊂Z
CZ⊂Y
DZ⊂X

A is the set of positive factors of 6

B is the set of prime factors of 6
C is the set of positive proper factors of 6
D is the set of positive factors of 3
Which one of the following is true?
AA=B
BA=C
CB=C
DC=D
Which one of the following is the null set?
A The set of subsets of the null set
B The set of even prime numbers
C The set of factors of 7
D The set of rational expressions for π

A = {a, b, c, d}
How many subsets does the set A have?
A4
B6
C 16
D 65

S = {a, b, c, d, e}
How many proper subsets does the set S have?
A 15
B 31
C 32
D 33

A, B and C are three sets such that A is a subset of B and B is a subset of C.

Which one of the following statements must always be true?
A B is a subset of A
B C is a subset of B
C C is a subset of A
D A is a subset of C

P is the set of factors of 5

Q is the set of factors of 25
R is the set of factors of 125
Which one of the following is false?
A P⊂Q
B Q⊂R
C R⊂P
D P⊂R

A is the set of prime numbers less than 10

B is the set of odd numbers less than 10
C is the set of even numbers less than 10

How many of the following statements are true?

A⊂B
B⊂A
A⊂C
C⊂A
B⊂C
C⊂A

(⊂ means "is a proper subset of")

A1
B2
C3
D None

What is a Subset?
A subset is a set contained in another set

It is like you can choose ice cream from the following flavors:

{banana, chocolate, vanilla}

You could choose any one flavor {banana}, {chocolate}, or {vanilla},

Or any two flavors: {banana, chocolate}, {banana, vanilla},

or {chocolate, vanilla},

Or all three flavors (no that isn't greedy),

Or you could say "none at all thanks", which is the "empty set": {}

Example: The set {alex, billy, casey, dale}

Has the subsets:

• {alex}
• {billy}
• etc ...

It also has the subsets:

• {alex, billy}
• {alex, casey}
• {billy, dale}
• etc ...

Also:

• {alex, billy, casey}

• {alex, billy, dale}
• etc ...

And also:
 • the whole set: {alex, billy, casey, dale}
• the empty set: {}

Now let's start with the Empty Set and move on up ...

The Empty Set

How many subsets does the empty set have?

You could choose:

• the whole set: {}

• the empty set: {}

But, hang on a minute, in this case those are the same thing!

So the empty set really has just 1 subset (which is itself, the empty set).

It is like asking "There is nothing available, so what do you choose?" Answer

"nothing". That is your only choice. Done.

A Set With One Element

The set could be anything, but let's just say it is:

{apple}

How many subsets does the set {apple} have?

• the whole set: {apple}

• the empty set: {}

And that's all. You can choose the one element, or nothing.

So any set with one element will have 2 subsets.

 A Set With Two Elements
Let's add another element to our example set:

{apple, banana}

How many subsets does the set {apple, banana} have?

It could have {apple}, or {banana}, and don't forget:

• the whole set: {apple, banana}

• the empty set: {}

So a set with two elements has 4 subsets.

A Set With Three Elements

How about:

{apple, banana, cherry}

OK, let's be more systematic now, and list the subsets by how many elements
they have:

Subsets with one element: {apple}, {banana}, {cherry}

Subsets with two elements: {apple, banana}, {apple, cherry}, {banana,

cherry}

And:

• the whole set: {apple, banana, cherry}

• the empty set: {}

In fact we could put it in a table:

Number
List of
subsets
zero elements {} 1
one element {apple}, {banana}, {cherry} 3
{apple, banana}, {apple, cherry}, {banana,
two elements
cherry}
3

three
elements
{apple, banana, cherry} 1

Total: 8

(Note: did you see a pattern in the numbers there?)

Sets with Four Elements (Your Turn!)

Now try to do the same for this set:

{apple, banana, cherry, date}

Here is a table for you:

Number
List of
subsets

zero elements {}

one element

two elements

three
elements

four elements

Total:
 (Note: if you did this right, there will be a pattern to the numbers.)

Sets with Five Elements

And now:

{apple, banana, cherry, date, egg}

Here is a table for you:

Number
List of
subsets

zero elements {}

one element

two elements

three
elements

four elements

five elements

Total:

(Was there a pattern to the numbers?)

Sets with Six Elements

What about:
 {apple, banana, cherry, date, egg, fudge}
OK ... we don't need to complete a table, because...

... you should be able to see a pattern by now!

Exercises
Directions: Read each question below. Select your answer by clicking on its button.
Feedback to your answer is provided in the RESULTS BOX. If you make a mistake,
rethink your answer, then choose a different button.

Which of the following is a subset of set G?

1. G = {d, a, r, e}

X = {e, a, r}
Error! Not a valid embedded object. Y = {e, r, a}

Z = {r, e, d}

All of the above.

RESULTS BOX:

Which of the following statements is true?

2.

Error! Not a valid embedded object. {vowels} {consonants}

{consonants} {vowels}

{vowels} {alphabet}

None of the above.

RESULTS BOX:
 Which of the following is NOT a subset of set A?

A = {2, 3, 5, 7, 11}
3.

B = {3, 5, 2, 7}

C = {2, 3, 7, 9}

D = {7, 2, 3, 11}

All of the above.

RESULTS BOX:

How many subsets will the set below have?

4. T = {Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday}

10

32
None of the above.

If R = {whole numbers < 5} and S = {4, 2, 0, 3, 1}, then which of the

5. following statements is true?

R=S

R has more elements than S.

S is null.

None of the above

 Doubling
The first thing to notice is that the total number of subsets doubles each time:

A set with n elements has 2n subsets

So you should be able to answer:

• How many subsets are there for a set of 6 elements? _____

• How many subsets are there for a set of 7 elements? _____

Another Pattern
Now let's think about subsets and sizes:

• The empty set has just 1 subset: 1

• A set with one element has 1 subset with no elements and 1 subset with one
element: 11
• A set with two elements has 1 subset with no elements, 2 subsets with one
element and 1 subset with two elements: 121
• A set with three elements has 1 subset with no elements, 3 subsets with one
element, 3 subsets with two elements and 1 subset with three elements: 13
31
• and so on!

Do you recognize this pattern of numbers?

They are the numbers from Pascal's Triangle !

This is very useful, because now you can check if you have the right number of
subsets.

Note: the rows start at 0, and likewise the columns.

Example: For the set {apple, banana, cherry, date, egg} you list subsets of
length three:

• {apple, banana, cherry}

• {apple, banana, date}
• {apple, banana, egg}
• {apple, cherry, egg}

But that is only 4 subsets, how many should there be?

Well, you are choosing 3 out of 5, so go to row 5, position 3 of Pascal's

Triangle (remember to start counting at 0) to find you need 10 subsets, so you
must think harder!

In fact these are the results: {apple,banana,cherry} {apple,banana,date}

{apple,banana,egg} {apple,cherry,date} {apple,cherry,egg} {apple,date,egg}
{banana,cherry,date} {banana,cherry,egg} {banana,date,egg}
{cherry,date,egg}

Calculating The Numbers

Is there a way of calculating the numbers such as 1, 4, 6, 4 and 1 (instead of
looking them up in Pascal's Triangle)?
 Yes, we can find the number of ways of selecting each number of elements
using Combinations .

There are four elements in the set, and:

• The number of ways of selecting 0 elements from 4 = 4C0 = 1

• The number of ways of selecting 1 element from 4 = 4C1 = 4
• The number of ways of selecting 2 elements from 4 = 4C2 = 6
• The number of ways of selecting 3 elements from 4 = 4C3 = 4
• The number of ways of selecting 4 elements from 4 = 4C4 = 1
• Total number of subsets = 16

Can you do the same for a set with five elements?

Complete the following:

• The number of ways of selecting 0 elements from 5 = 5C0 = 1

• The number of ways of selecting 1 element from 5 = ___________
• The number of ways of selecting 2 elements from 5 = ___________
• The number of ways of selecting 3 elements from 5 = ___________
• The number of ways of selecting 4 elements from 5 = ___________
• The number of ways of selecting 5 elements from 5 = ___________
• Total number of subsets = ___________

Conclusion
In this activity you have:

• Discovered a rule for determining the total number of subsets for a given set: A set
with n elements has 2n subsets.
• Found a connection between the numbers of subsets of each size with the numbers in
Pascal's triangle.
• Discovered a quick way to calculate these numbers using Combinations.
 Sets and Venn Diagrams

Sets
A set is a collection of things.

Ten Best Friends

You could have a set made up of your ten best friends:

• {alex, blair, casey, drew, erin, francis, glen, hunter, ira, jade}

Each friend is an "element" (or "member") of the set. It is normal to

use lowercase letters for them.

Now let's say that alex, casey, drew and hunter play Soccer:

Soccer = {alex, casey, drew, hunter}

(It says the Set "Soccer" is made up of the elements alex, casey, drew and
hunter.)

And casey, drew and jade play Tennis:

Tennis = {casey, drew, jade}

We can put their names in two separate circles:

 Union
You can now list your friends that play Soccer OR Tennis.

This is called a "Union" of sets and has the special symbol ∪:

Soccer ∪ Tennis = {alex, casey, drew, hunter, jade}

Not everyone is in that set ... only your friends that play Soccer or Tennis (or
both).

In other words we combine the elements of the two sets.

We can show that in a "Venn Diagram":

Venn Diagram: Union of 2 Sets

A Venn Diagram is clever because it shows lots of information:

• Do you see that alex, casey, drew and hunter are in the "Soccer" set?
• And that casey, drew and jade are in the "Tennis" set?
• And here is the clever thing: casey and drew are in BOTH sets!

All that in one small diagram.

Intersection
"Intersection" is when you must be in BOTH sets.

In our case that means they play both Soccer AND Tennis ... which is casey
and drew.

The special symbol for Intersection is an upside down "U" like this: ∩

And this is how we write it:

Soccer ∩ Tennis = {casey, drew}

In a Venn Diagram:
 Venn Diagram: Intersection of 2 Sets

Which Way Does That "U" Go?

Think of them as "cups": ∪ holds more water than ∩, right?

So Union ∪ is the one with more elements than Intersection ∩

Difference
You can also "subtract" one set from another.

For example, taking Soccer and subtracting Tennis means people that play
Soccer but NOT Tennis ... which is alex and hunter.

And this is how we write it:

Soccer − Tennis = {alex, hunter}

Summary So Far
• ∪ is Union: is in either set or both sets
• ∩ is Intersection: only in both sets
• − is Difference: in one set but not the other
 Three Sets
You can also use Venn Diagrams for 3 sets.

Let us say the third set is "Volleyball", which drew, glen and jade play:

Volleyball = {drew, glen, jade}

But let's be more "mathematical" and use a Capital Letter for each set:

• S means the set of Soccer players

• T means the set of Tennis players
• V means the set of Volleyball players

The Venn Diagram is now like this:

Union of 3 Sets: S ∪ T ∪ V

You can see (for example) that:

• drew plays Soccer, Tennis and Volleyball

• jade plays Tennis and Volleyball
• alex and hunter play Soccer, but don't play Tennis or Volleyball
• no-one plays only Tennis

We can now have some fun with Unions and Intersections ...

This is just the set S

S = {alex, casey, drew, hunter}

This is the Union of Sets T and V

T ∪ V = {casey, drew, jade, glen}

 This is the Intersection of Sets S and V

S ∩ V = {drew}

And how about this ...

• take the previous set S ∩ V

• then subtract T:

This is the Intersection of Sets S and V minus Set T

(S ∩ V) − T = {}

Hey, there is nothing there!

That is OK, it is just the "Empty Set". It is still a set, so we use the curly
brackets with nothing inside: {}

The Empty Set has no elements: {}

Universal Set
The Universal Set is the set that has everything. Well,
not exactly everything. Everything that we are interested in now.

Sadly, the symbol is the letter "U" ... which is easy to confuse with the ∪ for
Union. You just have to be careful, OK?

In our case the Universal Set is our Ten Best Friends.

U = {alex, blair, casey, drew, erin, francis, glen, hunter, ira, jade}

We can show the Universal Set in a Venn Diagram by putting a box around the
whole thing:
 Now you can see ALL your ten best friends, neatly sorted into what sport they
play (or not!).

And then we can do interesting things like take the whole set and subtract the
ones who play Soccer:

We write it this way:

U − S = {blair, erin, francis, glen, ira, jade}

Which says "The Universal Set minus the Soccer Set is the Set {blair, erin,
francis, glen, ira, jade}"

In other words "everyone who does not play Soccer".

Complement
And there is a special way of saying "everything that is not", and it is
called "complement".

We show it by writing a little "C" like this:

Sc
Which means "everything that is NOT in S", like this:

Sc = {blair, erin, francis, glen, ira, jade}

(exactly the same as the U − S example from above)

Summary
• ∪ is Union: is in either set or both sets
• ∩ is Intersection: only in both sets
• − is Difference: in one set but not the other
• Ac is the Complement of A: everything that is not in A
• Empty Set: the set with no elements. Shown by {}
• Universal Set: all things we are interested in

PRACTICE EXERCISE