Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Set Theory and Boolean Algebra

Basics of set theory

Ashish Kumar Kesarwany

Mathematics Division, School of Advanced Sciences and Languages

VIT Bhopal University, Bhopal-Indore Highway, Kothrikalan, Sehore, Madhya Pradesh,
466114, India

February 1, 2024
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Table of Contents

1 Sets

2 Operations on sets

3 Exercises
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Notations
The following notations will be followed throughout this course.

1. The empty set, denoted by ϕ, is the set that has no element.

2. N := {1, 2, . . .}, the set of Natural numbers;

3. W := {0, 1, 2, . . .}, the set of whole numbers;

4. Z := {. . . , −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . .}, the set of Integers;

n o
p
5. Q := q : p, q ∈ Z, q ̸= 0 , the set of rational numbers;

6. R :=, the set of real numbers; and

7. C :=, the set of Complex numbers.

Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Definition (Set)
A set is a “well-defined collection” of “distinct” objects. Thus, the principal
property of a set is that of “membership” or “belonging”. Well-defined,
in this context, would enable us to determine whether a particular object
is a member of a set or not.

Remark
(1) Members of the collection comprising the set are also referred to as
elements of the set. Elements of a set can be just about anything from real
physical objects to abstract mathematical objects. An important feature
of a set is that its elements are “distinct” or “uniquely identifiable.”

(2) A set is typically expressed by curly braces, { } enclosing its elements.

If A is a set and a is an element of it, we write a ∈ A. The fact that a
is not an element of A is written as a ∈ / A. For instance, if A is the set
{1, 4, 9, 2}, then 1 ∈ A, 4 ∈ A, 2 ∈ A and 9 ∈ A. But 7 ∈ / A, π ∈ / A, the
English word ‘four’ is not in A, etc.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Example
1 Let X = {apple, tomato, orange}. Here, orange ∈ X , but potato ∈
/
X.

2 Observe that the sets {1, 2, 3}, {3, 1, 2} and

{digits in the number 12321} are the same as the order in which the
elements appear doesn’t matter.

3 Let X = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}. Then X is the set of first 10

natural numbers. Or equivalently, X is the set of integers between 0
and 11.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Example
1 Let X = {apple, tomato, orange}. Here, orange ∈ X , but potato ∈
/
X.

2 Observe that the sets {1, 2, 3}, {3, 1, 2} and

{digits in the number 12321} are the same as the order in which the
elements appear doesn’t matter.

3 Let X = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}. Then X is the set of first 10

natural numbers. Or equivalently, X is the set of integers between 0
and 11.

Definition
The set S that contains no element is called the empty set or the null
set and is denoted by { } or ϕ. A set that has only one element is called
a singleton set.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Representation of sets

One has three main ways for specifying a set. They are:

(1) Listing all its elements (list notation), e.g., X = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}.
Then X is the set of even integers between 0 and 12.

(2) Stating a property with notation (predicate notation), e.g.,

(a) X = {x : x is a prime number}. This is read as “X is the set of all x
such that x is a prime number”. Here, x is a variable and stands for
any object that meets the criteria after the colon.

(b) The set X = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10} in the predicate notation can be written
as
(i) X = {x : 0 < x ≤ 10, x is an even integer}, OR

(ii) X = {x : 1 < x < 11, x is an even integer}, OR

(iii) X = {x : 2 ≤ x ≤ 10, x is an even integer}, etc.

Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Representation of sets Cont. . .

(3) Defining a set of rules which generate its members (recursive nota-
tion), e.g., let

X = {x : x is an even integer greater than 3}

Then, X can also be specified by

(a) 4 ∈ X

(b) whenever x ∈ X , then x + 2 ∈ X , and

(c) every element of X satisfies the above two rules.

Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Definition
Let X and Y be two sets.
1 Suppose X is the set such that whenever x ∈ X , then x ∈ Y as
well. Here, X is said to be a subset of the set Y , and is denoted by
X ⊆ Y . When there exists x ∈ X such that x ∈ / Y , then we say that
X is not a subset of Y ; and we write X ⊈ Y .

2 If X ⊆ Y and Y ⊆ X , then X and Y are said to be equal, and is

denoted by X = Y .

3 If X ⊆ Y and X ̸= Y , then X is called a proper subset of Y .

Thus, X is a proper subset of Y if and only if X ⊆ Y and X ̸= Y .
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Example
1 For any set X , we see that X ⊆ X . Thus, ϕ ⊆ ϕ. Also, ϕ ⊆ X .
Hence, the empty set is a subset of every set. It thus follows that
there is only one empty set.

2 We know that N ⊆ W ⊆ Z ⊆ Q ⊆ R ⊆ C.

3 Note that ϕ ∈
/ ϕ.

4 Let X = {a, b, c}. Then a ∈ X but {a} ⊆ X . Also, {{a}} ̸⊆ X .

5 Notice that {{a}} ̸⊆ {a} and {a} ⊆ {{a}}; though {a} ∈ {a, {a}}
and also {a} ⊆ {a, {a}}.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Operations on sets

We now mention some set operations that enable us in generating new

sets from existing ones.

Definition
Let X and Y be two sets.
(1) The union of X and Y , denoted by X ∪ Y , is the set that consists
of all elements of X and also all elements of Y . More specifically,

X ∪ Y = {x : x ∈ X or x ∈ Y }.

(2) The intersection of X and Y , denoted by X ∩ Y , is the set of all

common elements of X and Y . More specifically,

X ∩ Y = {x : x ∈ X and x ∈ Y }.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Definition Cont. . .
(3) The difference of X and Y , denoted by X \ Y or simply X − Y , is
the set containing those elements that are in X but not in Y . An
element x belongs to the difference of X and Y if and only if x ∈ X
and x ∈/ Y . More specifically,

X ∩ Y = {x : x ∈ X and x ∈
/ Y }.

(4) The sets X and Y are said to be disjoint if X ∩ Y = ϕ.

(5) Let U be the universal set. The complement of the set X , denoted
by X̄ or X c , is the complement of X with respect to U. In other
words, the complement of the set X is U − A: An element x belongs
to Ac if and only if x ∈/ A. More specifically,

Ā = {x ∈ U : x ∈
/ A}.

(6) The set (X − Y ) ∪ (Y − X ), denoted by X ∆Y , is called the

symmetric difference of X and Y .
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Example
(1) Let A = {1, 2, 4, 18} and B = {x : x is an integer 0 < x ≤ 5}.
Then,

A ∪ B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18} and A ∩ B = {1, 2, 4}.

(2) Let S = {x ∈ R : 0 ≤ x ≤ 1} and T = {x ∈ R : 0.5 ≤ x < 7}.

Then,

S∪T = {x ∈ R : 0 ≤ x < 7} and S∩T = {x ∈ R : 0.5 ≤ x ≤ 1}.

(3) Let X = {{b, c}, {{b}, {c}}, b} and Y = {a, b, c}. Then

X ∩ Y = {b} and X ∪ Y = {a, b, c, {b, c}, {{b}, {c}}}.

Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Example
(1) Let A = {1, 2, 4, 18} and B = {x ∈ Z : 0 < x ≤ 5}. Then,

A − B = {18}, B − A = {3, 5}, and A∆B = {3, 5, 18}.

(2) Let S = {x ∈ R : 0 ≤ x ≤ 1} and T = {x ∈ R : 0.5 ≤ x < 7}.

Then,

S−T = {x ∈ R : 0 ≤ x < 0.5} and T −S = {x ∈ R : 1 < x < 7}.

(3) Let X = {{b, c}, {{b}, {c}}, b} and Y = {a, b, c}. Then

X − Y = {{b, c}, {{b}} and Y − X = {a, c}

and
X ∆Y = {a, c, {b, c}, {{b}, {c}}}.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Definition
Let X be a set. Then, the set that contains all subsets of X is called the
power set of X and is denoted by P(X ) or 2X .
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Definition
Let X be a set. Then, the set that contains all subsets of X is called the
power set of X and is denoted by P(X ) or 2X .

Example
(1) Let X = ϕ. Then P(ϕ) = P(X ) = {ϕ, X } = {ϕ}.

(2) Let X = {ϕ}. Then P({ϕ}) = P(X ) = {ϕ, X } = {ϕ, {ϕ}}.

(3) Let X = {a, b, c}. Then

P(X ) = {ϕ, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {a, c}, {b, c}, {a, b, c}}.

(4) Let X = {{b, c}, {{b}, {c}}}. Then

P(X ) = {ϕ, {{b, c}}, {{{b}, {c}}}, {{b, c}, {{b}, {c}}}}.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Note
One way to show that two sets have the same elements is to show that
each set is a subset of the other. In other words, we can show that if A
and B are sets with A ⊆ B and B ⊆ A, then A = B. This turns out to be
a useful way to show that two sets are equal.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

We now state a few properties related to the operations on sets.

Lemma 1
Let R, S and T be sets. Then,
1 S ∪ T = T ∪ S and S ∩ T = T ∩ S
(union and intersection are commutative operations).
2 R ∪ (S ∪ T ) = (R ∪ S) ∪ T and R ∩ (S ∩ T ) = (R ∩ S) ∩ T
(union and intersection are associative operations).
3 S ⊆ S ∪ T, T ⊆ S ∪ T.
4 S ∩ T ⊆ S, S ∩ T ⊆ T .
5 S ∪ ϕ = S, S ∩ ϕ = ϕ.
6 S ∪ S = S ∩ S = S.
7 R ∪ (S ∩ T ) = (R ∪ S) ∩ (R ∪ T ).
(union distributes over intersection).
8 R ∩ (S ∪ T ) = (R ∩ S) ∪ (R ∩ T ).
(intersection distributes over union).
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Lemma 2
Let U be the universal set and S, T ⊆ U. Then,
1 U c = ϕ and ϕc = U.
2 S ∪ S c = U and S ∩ S c = ϕ.
3 S ∪ U = U and S ∩ U = S.
4 (S c )c = S.
5 S ⊆ S c if and only if S = ϕ.
6 S c ⊆ T c if and only if T ⊆ S.
7 S = T c if and only if S ∩ T = ϕ and S ∪ T = U.
8 S − T = S ∩ T c and T − S = T ∩ S c .
9 S∆T = (S ∪ T ) − (S ∩ T ).
10 De-Morgan’s Laws:
(a) (S ∪ T )c = S c ∩ T c .
(b) (S ∩ T )c = S c ∪ T c .
The De-Morgan’s laws help us to convert arbitrary set expressions into
those that involve only complements and unions or only complements
and intersections.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Exercise 1:
1 Complete the proof of Lemma 1.

2 Prove the following:

(a) S ∪ (S ∩ T ) = S ∩ (S ∪ T ) = S.

(b) S ∪ T = T if and only if S ⊆ T .

(c) If R ⊆ T and S ⊆ T then R ∪ S ⊆ T .

(d) If R ⊆ S and R ⊆ T then R ⊆ S ∩ T .

(e) If S ⊆ T then R ∪ S ⊆ R ∪ T and R ∩ S ⊆ R ∩ T .

(f) If S ∪ T ̸= ϕ then either S ̸= ϕ or T ̸= ϕ.

(g) If S ∩ T ̸= ϕ then both S ̸= ϕ and T ̸= ϕ.

(h) S ∪ T = S ∩ T if and only if S = T .

Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Exercise 2:
Let S and T be subsets of a universal set U.
1 Then prove Lemma 2.

2 Suppose that S∆T = T . Is S = ϕ?

Exercise 3:
Determine whether each of these statements is true or false.
1 0 ∈ ϕ.
2 ϕ ∈ {0}.
3 {0} ⊆ ϕ
4 ϕ ⊆ {0}
5 {0} ∈ {0}.
6 {0} ⊆ {0}
7 {ϕ} ⊆ {ϕ}
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Definition(Cardinality of a set)
The number of element of a set is called the cardinality of the set.

Exercise 4:
What is the cardinality of each of these sets?
1 {a}.
2 {{a}}.
3 {a, {a}}.
4 {a, {a}, {a, {a}}}.

Exercise 5:
Find the power set of each of these sets, where a and b are distinct
elements.
1 {a}.
2 {a, b}.
3 {ϕ, {ϕ}}.
Sets Operations on sets Exercises

Exercise 6:
Let A, B, and C be sets. Show that A ∪ (B ∩ C ) = (C̄ ∪ B̄) ∩ Ā.

Exercise 7:
Let A and B are sets. Show that
1 (A ∩ B) ⊆ A.
2 A ⊆ (A ∪ B)
3 A − B ⊆ A.
4 A ∩ (B − A) = ϕ
5 A ∪ (B − A) = A ∪ B.

Exercise 8:
Show that if A and B are sets, then A − B = A ∩ B̄.

Exercise 9:
Show that if A and B are sets, then (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B̄) = A.