IGCSE Mathematics Sets and set notation

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SETS AND SET NOTATION

We often deal with groups or collection of objects, such a set of books, a group of
students, a list of cities in a country, a collection of baseball cards, etc.
Sets may be thought of as a mathematical way to represent collections or groups
of objects.
Although it was invented at the end of the 19th century, set theory is now an
essential foundation for various other topics in mathematics.

Definition: A set is a well defined group of objects or symbols.

(or: A set is a collection of distinct objects, considered as an object in its own
right. )
Sets are named with capital letters: A, B, C, S,

Elements
The objects in sets are called elements (or members).
If an element e belongs to set S this is represented as e S.
If an element f does not belong to set S this is represented as f S.
Writing sets
1. Listing method
All of the elements of a set are written.
A = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}
2. Set - builder method
A typical element is named, along with its description, such as:
B = {x | x is an odd number from 1 to 10}
The vertical bar | is read: such that, and it also can be written as :
3. Venn diagram
A Venn diagram is used for graphical representation of the set as a collection of
its objects.

Example 1
a)

A particular set consist of the following elements :

A = {Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, }

i . Descibe the set _____________________________________________________
ii . Add another two elements to the set _________________________________
iii. Is the set finite or infinite ? Give your reason
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b) List the elements of the following sets.
i. D = {Days of the week}
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ii. E = {Even numbers between 1 and 9}
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iii. S = {Square numbers less than 100}
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c)

A = {Three-sided shapes}
B = {Shapes with two equal sides}
C = {Shapes with two parallel sides}

Complete the following with or

i. Rhombus ___ A.
ii . Trapezium ___ C.
iii. Isosceles triangle ___ B

Empty Set
A set with no elements in it is called an empty set.
This set is unique and it is denoted with the symbol or with empty braces { }.
Infinite set
Set which contain an infinite number of elements is called infinite set.
These sets are often given by a few elements and ellipses which indicate that this
sequence continues indefinitely.
A = {1, 2, 3, }

Subsets and Proper Subsets

Let say A = {2,4,6,8,10,12} and C = {4, 8}.
Since all the elements in set C are in set A, therefore C is the subset of A and
written as C

A.

Subsets of C = {4,8} are {4}, {8}, {4,8} and .

All the subsets apart from C itself are called proper subsets, and the symbol
for that is

Cardinality of sets (Number of elements)

The number of elements in a set A is called its cardinality and is denoted by n
(A) .
For example in set C above, n (C) = 2.
Example 2
a) P = { factors of 36 }
i. List the elements of subset Q = {square numbers}
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ii. List the elements of subset R = {prime numbers }
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iii. List the elements of subset S = {multiples of 8}
b) M = {p, q, r}
i. List all the subsets of M.
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ii. List all the proper subsets of M.
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