Mathematic courses
Mathematic courses
MODULE ONE
Unit 1 Elementary Sets Theory
Unit 2 Basic Set Operations
Unit 3 Set of Numbers
UNIT 1:
Elementary SetsTheory
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Body
3.1 Sets
3.1.1 Notation
3.1.2 Finite and Infinite sets
3.1.3 Equality of sets
3.1.4 Null Set
3.2 Subsets
3.2.1 Proper subsets
3.2.2 Comparability
3.2.3 Set of sets
3.2.4 Universal set
3.2.5 Power set
3.2.6 Disjoint sets
3.3 Venn-Euler diagrams
3.4 Axiomatic development of set theory
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked assignment
7.0 References and Further readings
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This unit aims at introducing basic concepts that would be explained further in
subsequent units. There will be definition of terms and lots of examples and
exercises to help you as you go along.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
3.1 SETS
The objects in sets, as we shall see from examples, can be anything: But for
clarity, we now list ten particular examples of sets:
1.6 The students who are absent from school Example 1.7
Note that the sets in the odd numbered examples are defined, that is, presented,
by actually listing its members; and the sets in the even numbered examples
are defined by stating properties that is, rules, which decide whether or not a
particular object is a member of the set.
3.1.1 Notation
A, B, X, Y,......
Lower case letters will usually represent the elements in our sets:
A={1,3,7,10}
That is, the elements are separated by commas and enclosed in brackets { }.
Exercise 1.1
1. A = {x}│x ² = 4²}
2. B = {x}│x – 2 = 5}
3. C = {x}│x is positive, x is negative}
Solution:
1. It reads “A is the set of x such that x squared equals four”. The only
numbers which when squared give four are 2 and -2. Hence A = {2, -2}
2. It reads “B is the set of x such that x minus 2 equals 5”. The only
solution is 7; hence B = {7}
4. It reads “D is the set of x such that x is letter in the work ‘correct’. The
indicated letters a re c,o,r,e and t; thus D = {c,o,r,e,t}
But if we define a particular set by stating properties which its elements must
satisfy, for example, let B be the set of all even numbers, then we use a letter,
usually x, to represent an arbitrary element and we write:
B = {x│x is even}
Which reads “B is the set of numbers x such that x is even”. We call this the
set builders form of a set. Notice that the vertical line “│” is read “such as”.
In order to illustrate the use of the above notations, we rewrite the sets in
examples 1.1-1.10. We denote the sets by A 1, A 2, ..... A10 respectively.