Math Preparedness Booklet

MATH*1160

c
2016
Marcus R. Garvie,
Department of Mathematics & Statistics
University of Guelph, ON, Canada
Fall 2016

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . .
Number Systems . . . . . . . . . .
Sets and subsets . . . . . . . . . .
Notation for Intervals . . . . . . . .
Some Mathematical Cautions . . . .
Some Math Notation and Terminology

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Introduction

Professors often make the mistake of assuming students know the basics, and forget
that students come from various backgrounds with different levels of math preparation. This short booklet covers the sort of notation, terminology and assumptions
that you are expected to know before starting Math*1160. Its not exhaustive, but
hopefully covers some common areas that we will frequently need. The material in
Section 6 is particularly relevant to the more formal aspects of a more advanced
course in mathematics (with theorems and proofs etc, ) and may be new to some of
you. Please read through the sections and do the short exercises. Answers are given
at the end of the booklet. If there is anything you dont understand please come and
see me!

Number Systems

1. Natural Numbers: N = {1, 2, 3, . . .}.

2. Integers: Z = {. . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . .}.
3. Rational Numbers: Q = {p/q | p, q Z, q 6= 0}.
E.g., 1/4 = 0.25, 1/3 = 0.333 . . . = 0.
3, 3 = 3/1. Decimal expansions
terminate or repeat.
4. Irrational Numbers (W):
The set of all numbers that cannot be represented as the ratio of integers
p/q (most numbers on the real number line).
Decimal expansions do not terminate and do not repeat.

E.g.,
2 = 1.41421356 . . .
Any number that cant be expressed as a perfect square.
= 3.14159265 . . . , e = 2.7182818284 . . .
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5. Real Numbers: R = Q W, i.e. the set of Rationals and Irrationals combined.

The real number line is illustrated below:

6. The set of positive and set of negative real numbers are denoted R+ and R
respectively. The set of nonnegative real numbers is thus R+ {0}.

7. Complex Numbers (C): set of numbers of the form a+bi, a, b R, i = 1.

These numbers are not needed in this course.

What is the hierarchy of the number systems?

Exercise 1
Classify the following numbers as rational, irrational, or an integer:
(a) (0.333 . . .) is =
(b) 2.5 is =
(c)

5 is . . .

(d) 0 is . . .
(e) sin(/2) is =
(f) (0.303003000300003 . . .) is . . .
(g) is . . .
(h) + e is . . .
6

Sets and subsets

A set is a collection of items. The items (in our case, usually numbers) are called
elements. It is usual to represent the set by a capital letter, the elements by lower
case letters, and to use curly brackets to enclose the elements in a collection. For
example, the set of integers between 3 and 10 is written as:
S = {x | x is an integer between 3 and 10} = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}.
We read the vertical line | as such that . This set has a finite number of elements
and so is called a finite set. We also have infinite sets, e.g.
X = {x | x is an even positive integer} = {2, 4, 6, 8 . . .}.
The . . . indicates that the sequence of numbers continues indefinitely. To denote
that an element x belongs to a set X we write x X. The empty set is denoted
. As we shall see below, a set does not have to comprise a discrete set of numbers
- it can also denote all numbers in a given interval, e.g. {x | 1 < x 3}.

Definition 1
Let X and Y be two sets. Then we say that X is a subset of Y , written
X Y if all the elements of X are in Y . If X = Y then X and Y contain
the same elements. If X is a proper subset of Y , written X Y then all
the elements of X are in Y , but some elements of Y are not in X.

Notes:
X Y means X Y or X = Y .
X Y is illustrated in the following Venn diagram:

Definition 2
Let X and Y be two sets. The union of X and Y , written X Y , means
the set of elements that are in X, in Y , or in both X and Y :
X Y = {x | x X or x Y }.

Definition 3
Let X and Y be two sets. The intersection of X and Y , written X Y , is
the set of elements that are in both X and Y (i.e., the elements they share):
X Y = {x | x X and x Y }.

Exercise 2
(a) The proper subsets of {1, 2, 3} are:
(b) {1, 2} {2, 3, 4} =
(c) {1, 2} {2, 3, 4} =
(d) {1, 2, 3} {4, 5, 6} =
(e) {x R | x > 2} {x R | x 3} =
(f) {x R | x 0} {x R | x < 0} =
(g) {x R | x 5} {x R | x < 4} =

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Notation for Intervals

Bounded intervals
Open interval:

Closed interval:

Neither Open or Closed:

(a, b) = {x R | a < x < b}

[a, b] = {x R | a x b}

(a, b] = {x R | a < x b}

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Neither Open or Closed:

[a, b) = {x R | a x < b}

Unbounded intervals
The endpoints a and b can be or + respectively:
(a, +) = {x R | x > a}

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[a, +) = {x R | x a}

(, b) = {x R | x < b}

(, b] = {x R | x b}

Note: R = (, +).

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Some Mathematical Cautions

We often write x = +, or x = . This is an abuse of notation. The symbols

stand for positive and negative quantities that are unbounded (i.e., no matter
how large in magnitude these numbers are they can be made larger). Thus

Caution !
Infinity is not a number.

We can think of + as the limit of dividing a positive number by smaller and smaller
positive numbers h, e.g. limh0 h1 = +. In the limit we would be dividing by
zero which has no meaning in mathematics. Thus

Caution !
Dividing by zero is not permitted.

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Exercise 3
For what value(s) of x is the following equation invalid?
3x(x 2)
(x 2)
Answer =

because

= 3x.
.

This example also illustrates the following:

Caution !
0
is undefined (as division by zero is not allowed). Thus in particular,
0

0
0

6= 1.

In addition to dividing by zero there are two other things we cannot do:
Caution !
We cannot (i) take the square root of a negative number, and (ii) take logarithms
of zero or a negative number.

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Exercise 4
For what values of x are the following functions valid?

(a) x 3,
(b) log(x2 1)
(a) Answer:
(b) Answer:

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Some Math Notation and Terminology

There are some common notation and terminology used in mathematics that we
should clarify1. In the following we assume that A, B and C refer to mathematical
statements.
= or = :
A = B means A implies B, in other words if A is true then B is also true.
For example, consider the statements
A : n is divisible by 4 and,
B : n is divisible by 2.

Mathematicians use these things frequently and assume that everybody knows what they are talking about!
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then clearly A = B (e.g. if n = 16). The statement A = B means that

B implies A, which clearly does NOT follow in this example (e.g., if n = 6).
Exercise 5
Let
A: xN
B : x R.
Then
=
:
A B means that A = B AND A = B. In other words A and B
are equivalent statements. For example:
A : A triangle has three equal sides
B : A triangle has three equal angles.
Then clearly A B.
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Exercise 6
Let
A : A number x is a rational number
B : The decimal expansion of x is terminating or eventually repeating
C : A number x is an irrational number
Then

iff :
This is shorthand for if and only if and means the same as . For example,
A number is divisible by nine if and only if the sum of its digits are
divisible by 9
(E.g., 27 is divisible by 9 because 2 + 7 = 9 is divisible by 9). Of course like many
results this is something that would have to be rigorously justified.

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Contrapositive :
Let N A and N B stand for the statements not A and not B respectively, i.e.
the statements A and B are false. Then

Result 1
A = B iff

N B = N A.

We refer to the statement N B = N A as the contrapositive of the statement

A = B. For example, let
A : Something is a bat
B : Something is a mammal.
So
N A : Something is NOT a bat
N B : Something is NOT a mammal.
Check that Result 1 makes sense!
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Exercise 7
Let
A : x is an integer
B : x is rational.
The contrapositive of the statement A = B is
If x is not

then it is not

Necessary and Sufficient conditions :

The statement that A is a sufficient condition for B is equivalent to A = B,
while the statement A is a necessary condition for B is equivalent to A = B.
For example,
A : An object has 4 sides
B : An object is a square.
Then A is a necessary condition for B (A = B). But clearly, A is NOT a
sufficient condition for B (e.g., rectangles are not squares unless all the sides are the
same length). However, B IS a sufficient condition for A. Finally, the statement
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that A is necessary and sufficient for B is just another way of saying A B.

Exercise 8
Answer TRUE or FALSE to the following questions:
(a) Being a mammal is a sufficient condition for being human
(b) Being human is a sufficient condition for being a mammal
(c) Being brave is a necessary condition for being an effective firefighter
(d) Being rich is necessary for being happy
(e) Being an unmarried man is both necessary and sufficient for being a bachelor

:
The symbol means for all. For example
4x + 2
= 2x + 1 x R.
2
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In other words, the equation is valid for all real numbers.

s.t. :
The letters s.t. stands for such that. For example,
Solve n2 > 4 s.t. n N,
i.e., find the natural numbers that solve n2 > 4 (clearly, {3, 4, 5 . . .}).
or @ :
The symbol is shorthand for there exists. For example,
x R s.t. x2 4 = 0,
i.e. there exists a real solution to the given equation. We also use the symbol @ to
mean does not exist. For example,
@x R s.t. x2 + 1 = 0,
i.e., there are no real solutions of the given equation.
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!:
We use the exclamation mark ! in mathematics to denote unique or only one.
For example,
! x R s.t. x2 2x + 1 = 0,
i.e., there is only one real solution of the given equation, because x2 2x + 1 =
(x 1)2.

Answers
Exercise 1: (a) 1/3. Rational, (b) 5/2. Rational, (c) Irrational, (d) An integer, (e)
1, thus an integer, (f) Irrational, (g) Not a number, (h) An open question
Exercise 2: (a) {1}, {2}, {3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, (b) {1, 2, 3, 4}, (c) {2},
(d) , (e) {x R | 2 < x 3}, (f) R, (g)
Exercise 3: x = 2, because this would cause us to divide by zero
Exercise 4: (a) {x R | x 3}, (b) {x R | |x| > 1}
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Exercise 5: A, B
Exercise 6: A, B
Exercise 7: rational, an integer
Exercise 8: (a) false, (b) true, (c) true, (d) false, (e) true

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