Set Theory - Basic Concepts

Basic Concepts

Set theory begins with a fundamental binary relation between an object o and a set A. If o is a member (or element) of A, write o ∈ A. Since sets are objects, the membership relation can relate sets as well.

A derived binary relation between two sets is the subset relation, also called set inclusion. If all the members of set A are also members of set B, then A is a subset of B, denoted A ⊆ B. For example, {1,2} is a subset of {1,2,3}, but {1,4} is not. From this definition, it is clear that a set is a subset of itself; for cases where one wishes to rule out this, the term proper subset is defined. A is called a proper subset of B if and only if A is a subset of B, but B is not a subset of A.

Just as arithmetic features binary operations on numbers, set theory features binary operations on sets. The:

• Union of the sets A and B, denoted A ∪ B, is the set of all objects that are a member of A, or B, or both. The union of {1, 2, 3} and {2, 3, 4} is the set {1, 2, 3, 4} .
• Intersection of the sets A and B, denoted A ∩ B, is the set of all objects that are members of both A and B. The intersection of {1, 2, 3} and {2, 3, 4} is the set {2, 3} .
• Set difference of U and A, denoted U \ A, is the set of all members of U that are not members of A. The set difference {1,2,3} \ {2,3,4} is {1}, while, conversely, the set difference {2,3,4} \ {1,2,3} is {4} . When A is a subset of U, the set difference U \ A is also called the complement of A in U. In this case, if the choice of U is clear from the context, the notation Ac is sometimes used instead of U \ A, particularly if U is a universal set as in the study of Venn diagrams.
• Symmetric difference of sets A and B is the set of all objects that are a member of exactly one of A and B (elements which are in one of the sets, but not in both). For instance, for the sets {1,2,3} and {2,3,4}, the symmetric difference set is {1,4} . It is the set difference of the union and the intersection, (A ∪ B) \ (A ∩ B) or (A \ B) ∪ (B \ A).
• Cartesian product of A and B, denoted A × B, is the set whose members are all possible ordered pairs (a,b) where a is a member of A and b is a member of B. The cartesian product of {1, 2} and {red, white} is {(1, red), (1, white), (2, red), (2, white)}.
• Power set of a set A is the set whose members are all possible subsets of A. For example, the power set of {1, 2} is { {}, {1}, {2}, {1,2} } .

Some basic sets of central importance are the empty set (the unique set containing no elements), the set of natural numbers, and the set of real numbers.