MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS

SET LESSON
AND 1
SET OPERATIONS
TOPIC

Topic 1: Set and Set Operations

LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR THE LESSON

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. discuss sets, equality of sets, subsets, power set and equivalence
of sets;
2. evaluate set operations and Venn diagram; and
3. evaluate problem solving using Venn diagram.

The idea of a set is very basic in the study of mathematics. It must be introduced
before a course in Algebra, Geometry or Analysis is taught. Words like army, fleet, bundle,
and school, as well as solutions, numbers and answers connote sets.

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TOPIC 1: SET AND SET OPERATIONS

SUB-TOPICS

1.1 Sets
1.2 Finite and Infinite Sets
1.3 Equality of Sets
1.4 Subsets
1.5 Power Set
1.6 Equivalence of Sets
1.7 Set Operations and Venn Diagram

1.1 SETS
A set is intuitively defined as a collection of well-defined objects.

Example 1 A class of Math for Engineers students is a set.

Example 2 The days in a week is a set.
Example 3 The set of even numbers is a set of numbers divisible by 2.

Generally, sets are denoted by capital letters like 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶 and so on. If 𝐴 is a set,
the objects belonging to 𝐴 are called elements. Unless otherwise specified, these
elements are denoted by small case letters such as 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 and so on. Thus, if 𝑎 belongs to
set 𝐴 we may write 𝑎 ∈ 𝐴 which is read as “𝑎 is an element of 𝐴”. If 5 does not belong to
set 𝐴, we write 5 ∉ 𝐴.

Describing Sets
There are two (2) common methods of describing set, namely:
1. The Roster or Tabular Method
By this method, the elements are enumerated or listed and enclosed in braces.

Example 4 If 𝑉 is the set of vowels in the English alphabet, then by

roster method, we write
𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢}

2. The Rule or Set-builder Form

By this method, the general property of elements is given.

Example 5 If 𝑉 is the set of vowels in the English alphabet, then by

roster method, we write

𝑉 = {𝑥|𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑣𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑙𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑒𝑡}

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1.2 FINITE AND INFINITE SETS
Consider the following sets
𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢}

𝑆 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
𝑍 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, … }
𝐸 = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, … }

Counting their elements, set 𝑉 has 5, 𝑆 has 6 but we can only say that 𝑍 and 𝐸
have many elements. Sets 𝑉 and 𝑆 are called finite sets while 𝑍 and 𝐸 are called infinite
sets.
Therefore, a set is finite if for any nonnegative integer 𝑛, 𝑆 has exactly 𝑛 distinct
elements. Otherwise, 𝑆 is an infinite set.

1.3 EQUALITY OF SETS

Consider the collections 𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢} and 𝑊 = {𝑎, 𝑖, 𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑒, 𝑜, 𝑢, 𝑖}. The
elements in 𝑉 are the letters 𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜 and 𝑢 which exactly the same letters that belong to
𝑊. Writing these sets by the se-builder form, we have
𝑉 = {𝑥|𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑣𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑙𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑒𝑡}.
Thus, two seta are equal if every element in one is an element of the other.
Otherwise, the sets are unequal.

Example 6 The set 𝑃 of prime numbers less than 15 is written

𝑃 = {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13}
and the set 𝑀 of odd numbers less than 15 is written
𝑀 = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13}.

We can see that 2 belongs to 𝑃 but not to 𝑀. Likewise, 1

and 9 belong to 𝑀 but not to 𝑃. Here, we say
𝑀 ≠ 𝑃.

1.4 SUBSETS
Consider the sets 𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢}, 𝑇 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖} and 𝑆 = {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑒}. Every
element in 𝑇 belongs to 𝑉 but the element 𝑏 in 𝑆 does not belong to 𝑉. We say 𝑇 is a
subset of 𝑉 whereas 𝑆 is not a subset of 𝑉.
If for two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, every element in 𝐴 is in 𝐵, then 𝐴 is called a subset of 𝐵,
denoted by 𝐴 ⊆ 𝐵.
We can also define the equality of sets using the concept of a subset.
Consider again the following sets: 𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢} and 𝑊 =
{𝑎, 𝑖, 𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑒, 𝑜, 𝑢, 𝑖}. Since, every element in 𝑊 is in 𝑉, we have 𝑊 ⊆ 𝑉 and since every
element in 𝑉 is in 𝑊, we have 𝑉 ⊆ 𝑊. That is, 𝑉 and 𝑊 are each other’s subset. Hence,
𝑉 = 𝑊.
If for the sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 where 𝐴 is a subset of 𝐵 and if there is at least one element
in 𝐵 that is not in 𝐴, then 𝐴 is called a proper subset of 𝐵 denoted by 𝐴 ⊂ 𝐵.
From the sets 𝑉, 𝑇 and 𝑆 given above, 𝑇 ⊂ 𝑉 but 𝑆 ⊄ 𝑉.
Any set 𝐴 has trivial subsets, namely, the set 𝐴 itself and the empty set, the set
which has no elements and is denoted by ∅ 𝑜𝑟 { }.

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1.5 POWER SET
Consider set 𝐷 = {1, 2, 3}, the power set of 𝐷, denoted by 𝑃(𝐷), is the set of all
the subsets of 𝐷, that is 𝑃(𝐷) = {1}, {2}, {3}, {1,2}, {1,3}, {2,3}, {1,2,3}, ∅ .
The number of subsets 𝑛 of a given set is given by the formula 𝑛 = 2 where 𝑘 is
the number of elements in the set is. Thus, set 𝐷 = {1, 2, 3} has 𝑛 = 2 = 8 subsets.

1.6 EQUIVALENCE OF SETS

Consider set 𝑅 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Comparing this set with 𝑉 = {𝑎, 𝑒, 𝑖, 𝑜, 𝑢}, we find
that they have the same number of elements , 5, but they have different characteristics.
It is noticed that for each element in 𝑅 there corresponds an element in 𝑉, or vice versa.
This tells us that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the elements of 𝑅 and
𝑉. When the sets are so related that there is a one-to-one correspondence between their
elements, they are called equivalent sets. Thus, 𝑅 and 𝑉 are equivalent sets, written 𝑅~𝑉.

1.7 SET OPERATIONS AND VENN DIAGRAM

Set Operations
1. Union
The union od two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵 and read as
"𝐴 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐵", is the set of all elements that belong to 𝐴 or to 𝐵 or to both 𝐴 and
𝐵. The union operation is commutative. Thus form Example 7, 𝑅 ∪ 𝑆 = 𝑆 ∪ 𝑅.

Example 7 Consider sets 𝑊 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8}, 𝑅 = {1, 3, 5, 7},

𝑆 = {2, 4, 6, 8} and 𝑍 = {2, 3, 5, 8}. Then

𝑅 ∪ 𝑆 = 𝑊 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8}
𝑅 ∪ 𝑍 = {1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8}
and 𝑆 ∪ 𝑊 = 𝑊.

2. Intersection
The intersection of two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵, and read as
“𝐴 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐵", is the set of all elements that belong to both 𝐴 and 𝐵.

Example 8 The elements 3 and 5 are common to the sets 𝑅 and 𝑍

above so
𝑅 ∩ 𝑍 = {3, 5}.
Similarly, all the elements in 𝑍 are in 𝑊, thus,
𝑊 ∩ 𝑍 = 𝑍.
But the sets 𝑅 and 𝑆 do not have common elements, thus,
𝑅 ∩ 𝑆 = ∅.

The intersection operation is commutative. That is, 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 = 𝐵 ∩ 𝐴.

If 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 has at least one element, 𝐴 and 𝐵 are called joint sets. If 𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 =
∅, then 𝐴 and 𝐵 are called disjoint sets.

3. Set Complement
The set consisting of all the elements under consideration is called the
universal set, denoted by 𝑈. For example, in the sets given above, we can let 𝑈 =
𝑊 = {1, 2, 3, 4, ,5, 6, 7, 8} and the sets 𝑅, 𝑆, and 𝑍 are its subsets.

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The complement of a set 𝐵, denoted by 𝐵′ and read as “B prime”, is the
set of elements in the universal set that are not in 𝐵.

Example 9 In the given sets where 𝑈 = 𝑊,

𝑅 = 𝑆,
𝑆 =𝑅
𝑍 = {1, 4, 6, 7}
𝑈′ = ∅ and
∅ =𝑈

4. Set Difference
The difference of two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by 𝐴 − 𝐵 and read as
"𝐴 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐵", is the set of elements in 𝐴 which are not in 𝐵, that is, the set
of elements in the first set that are not in the second set.

Example 10 Referring to the sets 𝑊, 𝑅, 𝑆, and 𝑍 given above,

𝑊 − 𝑅 = 𝑆 = {2, 4, 6, 8}
𝑊 − 𝑆 = 𝑅 = {1, 3, 5, 7}
𝑆 − 𝑍 = {4, 6}
𝑍 − 𝑅 = {2, 8} 𝑎𝑛𝑑
𝑅 − 𝑆 = 𝑅.

The Venn Diagram

The elements of a set can be represented by dots (or point) on the plane and the
collection of these can be enclosed by figures. This representation of sets is called Venn
Diagram and the operations are done by shading.

Example 11 Let the Universal set 𝑈 be the set of points in a

parallelogram, 𝐶 be the set of points in a circle and 𝑇 be
the set of points in a triangle.

Figure 1 Given diagram

𝐶 ∩ 𝑇 is given by

Figure 2 𝐶∩𝑇

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Example 11 Let the Universal set 𝑈 be the set of points in a

parallelogram, 𝐶 be the set of points in a circle and 𝑇 be
the set of points in a triangle.

𝐶 − 𝑇 is given by

Figure 3 𝐶−𝑇
𝐶 ∪ 𝑇 is given by

Figure 4 𝐶∪𝑇
(𝐶 − 𝑇)′ is given by

Figure 5 (𝐶 − 𝑇)′

Solutions of Verbal Problems Using Venn Diagram

Not all verbal problems can be solved by algebraic formulations. However, they
can be solved using Venn diagrams. Consider the following illustrations.

Problem: Ms. Julieta Cruz took survey of three TV programs watched by the students
in her class. The figures she gathered were as follows:
News (N) 17 students
Concerts (C) 23 students

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Sports (S) 19 students
News and Concerts 6 students
News and Sports 4 students
Concerts and Sports 9 students
News, Concerts and Sports 3 students
(a) How many students were there in the class?
(b) How many students viewed only one program?

Solution:
Using geometric figures represent the set of students who watched a particular
TV program.

Figure 6 Venn diagram of the given problem.

In the intersection of the circles, we have 3, since there were three students who
watched all three TV programs; in the intersection of 𝐶 and 𝑆 we have 9 = 3 + 6; in the
intersection of 𝑁 and 𝑆 we have 4 = 3 + 1; and in the intersection of 𝑁 and 𝐶 we have
6 = 3 + 3. Now we can observe that in set 𝑁 there are 17 = 10 + 3 + 3 + 1 students;
in 𝐶 there are 23 = 11 + 3 + 3 + 6; and in 𝑆 there are 19 = 9 + 6 + 3 + 1. To answer
(a) we add all the numbers in the Venn Diagram, that is, 10 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 11 =
43 students in the class of Ms. Cruz. For (b) we add the numbers that are not in any of the
intersection, that is, there are 10 + 11 + 9 = 30 students who viewed only one program.