Sets

An Overview of Sets

Set Overview

A set is a collection of elements. When defining a set, we often use curly braces
$S = \{\dots\}$
. The number of elements in a set is denoted
$\left| S \right|$
or
$n(S)$
. We can say an element
$a$
is a member of the set
$S$
by saying
$a \in S$
. Note that a set has no repeating elements.
Common sets have their own symbols:
$\N$
- the set of natural numbers (there is no agreement on whether this contains
$0$
or not)
$\mathbb{Z}$
- the set of integers
$\mathbb{Q}$
- the set of rational numbers
$\mathbb{R}$
- the set of real numbers
$\mathbb{C}$
- the set of complex numbers

Set-Builder Notation

This notation allows us to easily define sets. For example, if we wanted to define a set with all multiple of 3 up to 30, we could do the following:
$S = \{ x : x = 3k, k \in \N, x \leq 30 \}$

Set Rules

Assuming we have two sets
$A$
and
$B$
, we have a way to interact with them.

Equality

We say
$A = B$
if both sets have the exact same elements.

The Universal Set

The set
$U$
contains all elements of interest.

Union

The union of two sets
$A \cup B$
is a combination set of all elements in
$A$
or
$B$
.

Intersection

The intersection of two sets
$A \cap B$
is a set of all elements that appear in both
$A$
and
$B$
.

Set-Difference

The set-difference of
$A$
and
$B$
is the set of all elements in
$A$
not in
$B$
.
$A \setminus B = \{ a \in A : a \not \in B\}$

Complement

The complement of
$A$
, denoted
$A^\prime$
, is all elements of
$U$
not in
$A$
. You can think of it as
$U \setminus A$
.

Subset

If all elements of
$A$
are also elements of
$B$
, then
$A$
is a subset of
$B$
and this is denoted
$A \subseteq B$
. Note that means it is possible that
$A = B$
. To discount this possibility, we say
$A$
is a proper subset of
$B$
, denoted
$A \subset B$
.