Relations

•A relation is an ordered pair - paired according to some prescription.

• Example : Fatherhood : (Dasarath, Ram), (Humayun, Akbar), (Janak,

Sita)

• Example : Seniority : (General,Foot-soldier),(Professor, Lecturer)

•Cartesian product of two sets :

If we have two sets A and B , then the collection of all ordered pairs of
elements one from A and one from B is called the Cartesian product
of those sets and written :

A ⊗ B = {(a, b) : a ∈ A and b ∈ B }

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 Relations
Examples

A = {a,b,c} and B = {α, β}

A ⊗ B = {(a,α), (b,α), (c,α), (a,β), (b,β), (c,β)}

A ={tall, short} and B = {blond, brunette, red-head}

A ⊗ B = {(tall,blonde), (tall,brunette), (tall,red-head), (short,blond),
(short,brunette), (short,red-head) }

A relation or correspondence between elements of A and and those of

B is a subset F of A ⊗ B
If (a, b) ∈ F ⊂ A ⊗ B , then we write a F b

Let M ={x : x = all men} and H ={y: y=all humans} then relation
Fatherhood is a set F of ordered pairs (x, y) which is a subset of M ⊗H .
Here x consists of all men who are fathers of humans y. A man x is
related to a human y through the fatherhood relationship. Note that all
men are not fathers, so F ⊂ M ⊗H .
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 Relations
- D = {y : (y, x) ∈ F , for some x ∈ B }
This is called the Domain of the relation F D ⊆A

- R = {x : (y, x) ∈ F , for some y ∈ A }

This is called the Range of the relation F R ⊆B

For the Fatherhood relationship

• D is the collection of men who are fathers of a human. Here D ⊂ M

as not all men are fathers

• R is the collection of all humans, as all humans have fathers. Here R

=H

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• If F ⊆ A ⊗ A , then F is called a relationship in A

• L = {` : ` = all straight lines}, the relationship of parallel to P is a

relationship in L

• T = {t : t = all triangles}, the relationships of similar to S and

congruent to C are relationships in T .

A relation F in A is called symmetric if a F b ⇐⇒ b F a

A relation F in A is called reflexive if a F a ∀a ∈A

A relation F in A is called antisymmetric if a F a, b F a ⇒a=

b

A relation F in A is called transitive if a F b, b F c⇒a F c

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“Similar to” S is reflexive, symmetric and transitive

“Fatherhood” F is neither reflexive, nor symmetric nor transitive

“Ancestor of” AN is transitive but not reflexive nor symmetric

“Spouse of” SP is symmetric but not reflexive nor transitive

Less than “<” is transitive but not reflexive nor symmetric

Less than or equal to “≤” is reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive

Let X be a set of sets and let R ⊂ X ⊗X defined by : A R B if A

⊂B . Here the relationship R is reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive

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If for a relation F ⊂ A ⊗B , (a ,b ) ∈F and (a ,b ’)∈F ⇒ b 6= b ’ : then
the relation is called one-to-many. Example : fatherhood

If for a relation F ⊂ A ⊗B , (a ,b ) ∈F and (a ’,b )∈F ⇒ a 6= a ’ : then

the relation is called many-to-one. Example : brotherhood

If for a relation F ⊂ A ⊗B , (a ,b ) ∈F and (a ’,b )∈F ⇒ a = a ’ and

(a ,b ) ∈F and (a ,b ’)∈F ⇒ b = b ’ : then the relation is called
one-to-one. Example : equality

Definition : A relationship in A is called an Equivalence relationship if it

is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. It is written as ∼.
Examples : Equality, Similarity, Congruence, Parallelism (if we accept
that a line is parallel to itself), “ = mod(5)” defined on Z ⊗Z ,

Definition : Let there be an equivalence relation in X . ∀ x ∈X define a

set [x] = { y : x ∼ y }. This set is called the Equivalence Class of x

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 Equivalence Relations

Let us define an equivalence relation “ = mod(5)” on Z + ⊗Z + , then :

[0] = {0,5,10,15,20, . . . } [1] = {1,6,11,16,21, . . .} [2] = {2,7,12,17,22, . . .}
[3] = {3,8,13,18,23, . . .} [4] = {4,9,14,19,24, . . .}

1. If x ∼y : [x ] = [y ] : Take any member of [x ], z. z ∼x ⇒ z ∼y

(transitive). So it is also a member of [y ] ⇒ [x ]⊆ [y ].
Again taking any member of [y ] and using transitivity [y ]⊆[y ]
⇒ [x ]=[y ]

2. Let now x and y be two elements in X which are not equivalent.

Suppose there is a member common to both [x ] and [y ] say z.
Then z ∼ x and z ∼ y ⇒ x ∼y . But this is not possible. So [x] and [y]
cannot have any elements in common. [x ] ∩ [y ]=∅

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 Equivalence Classes

This means that two equivalence classes are either disjoint or identical.
Thus an equivalence relation on a setX decomposes X into disjoint
equivalence classes

For a set X and an equivalence relation ∼, we define a set of

equivalence classes {[x ]: x ∈X } as the quotient set : X /∼.

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 Functions

Let us define a relation F ⊂ A ⊗B such that :

- The domain of F = A
- (a ,b ) ∈F and (a ,b ’)∈F ⇒ b ’=b

Such a relation is called a Function

We say F is a mapping from A to B : F : A →B

If (a ,b ) ∈F , then we write b=F (a)

A is the domain of the function and B its Codomain or Range.

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