52 CHAPTER 2 | Sets

s e c t i o n 2.1 Basic Properties of Sets

Sets
In an attempt to better understand the universe, ancient astronomers classified certain
groups of stars as constellations. Today we still find it extremely helpful to classify items
into groups that enable us to find order and meaning in our complicated world.
Any group or collection of objects is called a set. The objects that belong in a set are
the elements, or members, of the set. For example, the set consisting of the four seasons
has spring, summer, fall, and winter as its elements.
The following two methods are often used to designate a set.
The Granger Collection

■ Describe the set using words.

■ List the elements of the set inside a pair of braces, { }. This method is called the
roster method. Commas are used to separate the elements.
For instance, let’s use S to represent the set consisting of the four seasons. Using the
The constellation Scorpius is a
roster method, we would write
set of stars.
S  spring, summer, fall, winter
The order in which the elements of a set are listed is not important. Thus the set con-
TA K E N O T E sisting of the four seasons can also be written as

Sets can also be designated

d bby using
i S  winter, spring, fall, summer
set-builder notation. This method is The following table gives two examples of sets, where each set is designated by a
described on pages 54 to 55. word description and also by using the roster method.

POINT OF INTEREST TA B L E 2.1 Define Sets by Using a Word Description and the Roster Method

Description Roster method

The set of denominations of U.S. paper {$1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100}
US Department
of the Treasury

currency in production at this time

The set of states in the United States {California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii}
that border the Pacific Ocean
Paper currency in denominations of
$500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000 has
been in circulation, but production of
these bills ended in 1945. If you just
happen to have some of these bills, you ▼ example 1 Use The Roster Method to Represent a Set
can still cash them for their face value.
Use the roster method to represent the set of the days in a week.
Solution {Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday}

▼ check your progress 1 Use the roster method to represent the set of
months that start with the letter A.
Solution See page S4. ◀
TA K E N O T E

Some sets can be describedd in

i more
than one way. For instance, {Sunday, ▼ example 2 Use a Word Description to Represent a Set
Saturday} can be described as the days
of the week that begin with the letter Write a word description for the set
S, as the days of the week that occur in
A  a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
a weekend, or as the first and last days
of a week. Solution Set A is the set of letters of the English alphabet.
 S E C T I O N 2.1 | Basic Properties of Sets 53

▼ check your progress 2 Write a word description for the set {March, May}.
Solution See page S4. ◀

The following sets of numbers are used extensively in many areas of mathematics.

▼ Basic Number Sets

Natural Numbers or Counting Numbers N  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...
TA K E N O T E
Whole Numbers W  0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...
In this chapter, the letters N, W, I, Q,
Integers I  ... , 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...
Ᏽ, and R will often be used to represent
the basic number sets defined at the Rational Numbers Q  the set of all terminating or repeating decimals
right. Irrational Numbers Ᏽ  the set of all nonterminating, nonrepeating decimals
Real Numbers R  the set of all rational or irrational numbers

The set of natural numbers is also called the set of counting numbers. The three
dots ... are called an ellipsis and indicate that the elements of the set continue in a manner
suggested by the elements that are listed.
The integers ... , 4, 3, 2, 1 are negative integers. The integers 1, 2, 3, 4, ... are
positive integers. Note that the natural numbers and the positive integers are the same set of
numbers. The integer zero is neither a positive nor a negative integer.
If a number in decimal form terminates or repeats a block of digits, then the
p
number is a rational number. Rational numbers can also be written in the form ,
q
where p and q are integers and q  0. For example,

1 3
 0.25  and    0.27
4 11

are rational numbers. The bar over the 27 means that the block of digits 27 repeats without
end; that is, 0.27  0.27272727. . . .
A decimal that neither terminates nor repeats is an irrational number. For
instance, 0.35335333533335. . . is a nonterminating, nonrepeating decimal and thus is an
irrational number.
Every real number is either a rational number or an irrational number.

▼ example 3 Use The Roster Method to Represent a Set of Numbers

Use the roster method to write each of the given sets.

a. The set of natural numbers less than 5
b. The solution set of x  5  1
c. The set of negative integers greater than 4
Solution
a. The set of natural numbers is given by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, .... The natural num-
bers less than 5 are 1, 2, 3, and 4. Using the roster method, we write this set as
1, 2, 3, 4.
b. Adding 5 to each side of the equation produces x  6. The solution set of
x  5  1 is 6.
c. The set of negative integers greater than 4 is 3, 2, 1.
54 CHAPTER 2 | Sets

▼ check your progress 3 Use the roster method to write each of the given
sets.
a. The set of whole numbers less than 4
b. The set of counting numbers larger than 11 and less than or equal to 19
c. The set of negative integers between 5 and 7
Solution See page S4. ◀

Definitions Regarding Sets

A set is well defined if it is possible to determine whether any given item is an element
of the set. For instance, the set of letters of the English alphabet is well defined. The set
of great songs is not a well-defined set. It is not possible to determine whether any given
song is an element of the set or is not an element of the set because there is no standard
method for making such a judgment.

The statement “4 is an element of the set of natural numbers” can be written using
mathematical notation as 4 僆 N. The symbol 僆 is read “is an element of.” To state that
“3 is not an element of the set of natural numbers,” we use the “is not an element of”
symbol, 僆, and write 3 僆 N.

▼ example 4 Apply Definitions Regarding Sets

TA K E N O T E
Determine whether each statement is true or false.
Recall that N denotes the set off natural
numbers, I denotes the set of inte- 1
gers, and W denotes the set of whole a. 4 僆 2, 3, 4, 7 b. 5 僆 N c. 僆I
2
numbers.
d. The set of nice cars is a well-defined set.
Solution
a. Since 4 is an element of the given set, the statement is true.
b. There are no negative natural numbers, so the statement is false.
1
c. Since 2 is not an integer, the statement is true.
d. The word nice is not precise, so the statement is false.

▼ check your progress 4 Determine whether each statement is true or false.

a. 5.2 僆 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 b. 101 僆 I c. 2.5 僆 W
d. The set of all integers larger than ␲ is a well-defined set.
Solution See page S4. ◀

The empty set, or null set, is the set that contains no elements. The symbol  or   is
TA K E N O T E used to represent the empty set. As an example of the empty set, consider the set of natural
numbers that are negative integers.
Neither the set 0 nor the set  Another method of representing a set is set-builder notation. Set-builder notation is
represents the empty set because each especially useful when describing infinite sets. For instance, in set-builder notation, the
set has one element. set of natural numbers greater than 7 is written as follows:
membership
conditions
{x | x ∈ N and x > 7}

the of all such x is an element and x is

set elements x that of the set of greater than 7
natural numbers
 S E C T I O N 2.1 | Basic Properties of Sets 55

The preceding set-builder notation is read as “the set of all elements x such that x is an
element of the set of natural numbers and x is greater than 7.” It is impossible to list all
the elements of the set, but set-builder notation defines the set by describing its elements.

▼ example 5 Use Set-Builder Notation to Represent a Set

Use set-builder notation to write the following sets.

a. The set of integers greater than 3
b. The set of whole numbers less than 1000
Solution
a. x  x 僆 I and x  3 b. x  x 僆 W and x  1000

▼ check your progress 5 Use set-builder notation to write the following sets.
a. The set of integers less than 9
b. The set of natural numbers greater than 4
Solution See page S4. ◀

A set is finite if the number of elements in the set is a whole number. The cardinal
number of a finite set is the number of elements in the set. The cardinal number of a finite
set A is denoted by the notation nA. For instance, if A  1, 4, 6, 9, then nA  4. In
this case, A has a cardinal number of 4, which is sometimes stated as “A has a cardinality
of 4.”

▼ example 6 The Cardinality of a Set

Find the cardinality of each of the following sets.

a. J  2, 5 b. S  3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ... , 31 c. T  3, 3, 7, 51
Solution
a. Set J contains exactly two elements, so J has a cardinality of 2. Using mathe-
matical notation, we state this as nJ  2.
b. Only a few elements are actually listed. The number of natural numbers from 1 to 31
is 31. If we omit the numbers 1 and 2, then the number of natural numbers from 3 to
31 must be 31  2  29. Thus nS  29.
c. Elements that are listed more than once are counted only once. Thus nT   3.

▼ check your progress 6 Find the cardinality of the following sets.

a. C  1, 5, 4, 11, 13 b. D  0 c. E  
Solution See page S4. ◀

The following definitions play an important role in our work with sets.

▼ Equal Sets
Set A is equal to set B, denoted by A  B, if and only if A and B have exactly the
same elements.

For instance d, e, f   e, f, d .

56 CHAPTER 2 | Sets

▼ Equivalent Sets
Set A is equivalent to set B, denoted by A  B, if and only if A and B have the
same number of elements.

q u e s t i o n If two sets are equal, must they also be equivalent?

▼ example 7 Equal Sets and Equivalent Sets

State whether each of the following pairs of sets are equal, equivalent, both, or neither.
a. a, e, i, o, u, 3, 7, 11, 15, 19 b. 4, 2, 7, 3, 4, 7, 9
Solution
a. The sets are not equal. However, each set has exactly five elements, so the sets are
equivalent.
b. The first set has three elements and the second set has four elements, so the sets are
not equal and are not equivalent.

▼ check your progress 7

State whether each of the following pairs of sets
are equal, equivalent, both, or neither.
a. x  x 僆 W and x  5, , ,
, , , 
b. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, ... , 80, x  x 僆 N and x  17
Solution See page S4. ◀

MATHMATTERS Georg Cantor

Georg Cantor (kănt r) (1845–1918) was a German mathematician who developed
e
many new concepts regarding the theory of sets. Cantor studied under the famous
Science Photo Library/Photo Researchers

mathematicians Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker at the University of Berlin.

Although Cantor demonstrated a talent for mathematics, his professors were unaware
that Cantor would produce extraordinary results that would cause a major stir in the
mathematical community.
Cantor never achieved his lifelong goal of a professorship at the University of
Berlin. Instead he spent his active career at the undistinguished University of Halle.
It was during this period, when Cantor was between the ages of 29 and 39, that he
Georg Cantor produced his best work. Much of this work was of a controversial nature. One of the
simplest of the controversial concepts concerned points on a line segment. For in-
E
stance, consider the line segment AB and the line segment CD in the figure at
the left. Which of these two line segments do you think contains the most points?
A B Cantor was able to prove that they both contain the same number of points. In fact,
he was able to prove that any line segment, no matter how short, contains the same
number of points as a line, or a plane, or all of three-dimensional space. We will
C D take a closer look at some of the mathematics developed by Cantor in the last section
of this chapter.

answer Yes. If the sets are equal, then they have exactly the same elements; therefore, they also have the
same number of elements.