Topics of today’s lecture

Sets

Mathematical induction

More about sets

Function/mapping
Sets
Historical definition of sets by Georg Cantor 1895

By a set we are to understand any collection into a whole M

of definite and well-separate objects m of our intuition or of
our thought. These objects are called the “elements” of M.
Characteristic properties of sets
I Arrangement of the objects, multiple mentioning of objects,
etc. play no rôle.
A set does not know a first, second, etc. object.
I Aside of this the basic operations are important to
“construct” a new set from two or more sets:
union, intersection, difference.
I A given object x is either contained in a set M or not.
I “x ∈ M” short for “object x is contained in the set M”.
I “x ∈
/ M” short for “object x is not in the set M”.
I The objects x with x ∈ M are called the elements of
M.
I Correspondingly “x ∈ M” is read as “x (is) element
of M” and “x ∈ / M” as “x (is) no element of M”.
I To define sets either the elements of the set can be
explicitly enumerated or the set is defined implicitly by
declaration of a characteristic property of the elements.
Sets
Definition
I Equal Sets: We define the equality of two sets

A=B

if A and B have the same elements.

I Subset: We say that A is a subset of B and we write
A⊂B or B⊃A
if every element of A is also an element of B.
(We say that A is included in B.)
I The empty set: The set which has no element is called the
empty set and is denoted by {} or ∅.

Example
{1, 3} ⊂ {1, 2, 3, 4}.
The power set
Definition (power set of a set)
Let X be any set. The set of all subsets of X is called the
power set of X and is denoted by P (X ).
That is we define

P (X ) = {A : A ⊂ X } .

Example

I Power set of {1, 3}?

P ({1, 3}) = {∅, {1} , {3} , {1, 3}}.
I P ({1, 2, 5}) =
{∅, {1} , {2} , {5} , {1, 2} , {2, 5} , {1, 5} , {1, 2, 5}}.
I P (∅) = {∅}.
The power set

Remark
If M is a set the number of elements of this set is denoted by
|M|.
For example:
I |{1, 3}| = 2,
I |{1, 2, 5}| = 3.

Theorem
Let M be a finite set.
Number of elements of the power set |P (M)| = 2|M| .

Proof by mathematical induction.

Mathematical induction
Mathematical induction

. . . is a proof method based on the fundamental properties of

the set N of natural numbers 1, 2, 3, . . .
Axiom of induction every set M which contains 1 and
with every number n also n + 1 comprises the set of the
natural numbers.
Remark
I Sometimes also the number zero 0 is counted to the
natural numbers. For distinction we write N0 for the set
of numbers starting with 0.
I Also N0 satisfies an axiom of induction rephrased
respectively.
I Also for defining the axiom of induction is suitable.
Recursive definitions
Example (the factorials)
The natural number n! is recursively declared by

0! = 1, (n + 1)! = n! (n + 1) .

Example (sum sign, product sign)

Let . be numbers as well as n ∈ N.
Pn a1 , a2 , a3 , . .Q n
k=1 ak and k=1 ak is defined recursively.

1
X n+1
X n
X
ak = a1 , ak := an+1 + ak ,
k=1 k=1 k=1
Y1 n+1
Y n
Y
ak = a1 , ak := an+1 · ak .
k=1 k=1 k=1
Theorem

For every natural number N holds

N
X 1
n= N (N + 1) .
2
n=1
Proof by mathematical induction
Let M denote the set of all natural numbers N to which
the claim applies.
P1
I 1∈M
n=1 n = 1
on the right in contrast stands 12 · 1 · 2 = 1.
I N ∈M ⇒N +1∈M
To check is (under assumption of the formula for N):
N+1
P N
P
n = (N + 1) + n= (due to the definition
n=1 n=1
of the sum sign)
= (N + 1) + 12 N (N + 1) = (due to the induction
hypothesis)
1
= 2 (N + 1) (N + 2).
This is the claim for N + 1 in place of N. So holds

N ∈M ⇒N +1∈M

the formula is always true.

Proof of |P (X )| = 2|X |
Mathematical induction on n = |X |.
I Base clause (n = 0): |X | = 0.
Therefore X = ∅ and |P (∅)| = |{∅}| = 1 = 20 .
I Induction step (n → n + 1):
suppose the claim holds for all sets of size n ≥ 0
i. e. if Y has n elements then |P (Y )| = 2n .
Let X = {a1 , a2 , . . . , an , an+1 } be a set of size n + 1.
We have to reason that |P (X )| = 2n+1 .
We distinguish two kinds of subsets A ⊂ X .
One kind contains an+1 the other one does not contain
an+1 .
By induction hypothesis there are 2n subsets of
{a1 , a2 , . . . , an }.
Therefore of both kinds there are exactly 2n subsets.
In total there are 2n + 2n = 2n+1 subsets of X .
This is the claim for n + 1 in place of n.
More about sets
Ordered pairs & Cartesian products of sets
Definition
Let A and B be sets.
The Cartesian product of A and B is defined by

A × B = {(a, b) : a ∈ A, b ∈ B}

i. e. the Cartesian product A × B is the set of all ordered

pairs (a, b) with a ∈ A and b ∈ B.

Example
Cartesian product of A = {1, 3}, B = {1, 2, 5},
 
(1, 1) , (1, 2) , (1, 5) ,
A×B = .
(3, 1) , (3, 2) , (3, 5)

Let |A| = 2, |B| = 3. Then |A × B| = 2 · 3.

Sets
Remark
In general (useful) |A × B| = |A| · |B|.

Union of sets: (denoted by ∪ called “union”)

The union of sets A, B ⊂ H is defined by

A ∪ B = {x ∈ H : x ∈ A or x ∈ B}.

Intersection of sets: (denoted by ∩ called “intersection”)

The intersection of sets A, B ⊂ H is defined by

A ∩ B = {x ∈ H : x ∈ A and x ∈ B}.

Definition (disjoint sets)

The sets A and B are called disjoint if A ∩ B = {}
(they have no elements in common).
Sets
Difference of sets: (denoted by \).
The difference of sets A, B ⊂ H is defined by

A \ B = {x ∈ H : x ∈ A and x∈
/ B}.

Remark

A \ B = A \ (A ∩ B) .

Example

I A = {1, 3, 4}, B = {1, 4, 6},

A ∪ B = {1, 3, 4, 6}, A ∩ B = {1, 4},
I C = {2, 6},
A ∩ C = ∅ i. e. A and C are disjoint,
I A \ B = {3}, B \ A = {6}, A \ C = {1, 3, 4}.
Intervals

I open intervals:

(a, b) = {x ∈ R : a < x < b} ,

I closed intervals:

[a, b] = {x ∈ R : a ≤ x ≤ b} ,

I half-open intervals:
(a, b] = {x ∈ R : a < x ≤ b} or
[a, b) = {x ∈ R : a ≤ x < b}.
Commutativity, associativity, & distributivity
The union and intersection are commutative operations (i. e.
ordering does not matter)

A ∪ B = B ∪ A and A ∩ B = B ∩ A

and associative operations (i. e. brackets do not matter)

(A ∪ B) ∪ C = A ∪ (B ∪ C) and (A ∩ B) ∩ C = A ∩ (B ∩ C).

The union is distributive with respect to the intersection

A ∪ (B ∩ C) = (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ C)

and the intersection is distributive with respect to the union

A ∩ (B ∪ C) = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C) .
Sets
Analogue to addition and multiplication of real numbers:
I a+b =b+a and a · b = b · a,
I (a + b) + c = a + (b + c) and (a · b) · c = a · (b · c),
I a · (b + c) = (a · b) + (a · c).

Theorem (De Morgan’s laws)

I The complement of a union is the intersection of the

complements:

C \ (A ∪ B) = (C \ A) ∩ (C \ B) .

I The complement of an intersection is the union of the

complements:

C \ (A ∩ B) = (C \ A) ∪ (C \ B) .
Important sets

I N = {1, 2, 3, 4, . . .} the set of all natural numbers,

I N0 = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .},
I Z = {. . . , −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, . . .} the set of all integers,
n o
I Q = qp : p ∈ Z, q ∈ N the set of rational numbers,
I R the set of real numbers (numberline),
I relations: N ⊂ N0 ⊂ Z ⊂ Q ⊂ R.
Function/mapping
Function/mapping
Definition (function/mapping)
A function f : X → Y consists of
I a set X called the domain of the function,
I a set Y called the co-domain of the function, and
I a rule f : x 7→ f (x) (or a machinery) by which every
x ∈ X is assigned to one and only one element
f (x) ∈ Y .

Example
f1 : R → R, f1 : x 7→ x 2 , 7 x 2.
f2 : N → R, f2 : x →
Is there any difference between f1 and f2 ? Yes:
I the functions f1 and f2 are different (although they
“do” the same with natural numbers),
I f2 can handle only natural numbers!
Examples of functions

Definition (identity)
Let X be a set. The function

X →X
id X :
x 7→ x

is called the identity on X.

Definition (projection onto the 1st factor)

Let X and Y be sets. Then the function

X ×Y →X
π1 :
(x, y) 7→ x

is called the projection onto the first factor .

Examples of functions
Definition (constant function)
Let X and Y be sets and y0 ∈ Y . Then the function

X →Y
x 7→ y0

is called a constant function.

Definition (floor/ceiling function)

bc : R → Z, x 7→ bxc, de : R → Z, x 7→ dxe,

bxc = largest integer smaller or equal to x

= max {k ∈ Z : k ≤ x},
dxe = smallest integer larger or equal to x
= min {k ∈ Z : k ≥ x}.
Range/image
Definition (range/image)
Let f : X → Y be a function between the sets X and Y
and let A ⊂ X .
I The set f (A) = {f (x) ∈ Y : x ∈ A} is called the
image of A under the function f .
I The set f (X ) is the range of f .

Remark
Note that there can be elements in the co-domain Y such
that there is no x in the domain X with f (x) = y!

Example
f : R → R, f : x 7→ x 2 .  Let now A = N.
Determine f (A) = f (N) = x 2 : x ∈ N .
Pre-image

Let f : X → Y be a function between the sets X and Y

and let B ⊂ Y .
The set
f −1 (B) = {x ∈ X : f (x) ∈ B}
is called the pre-image of B under the function f .
Injective, surjective, and bijective

Let f :X →Y be a function.
I f is called injective if no two elements of X are
mapped to the same element of Y i. e. for all
x1 , x2 ∈ X with x1 6= x2 it holds that

f (x1 ) 6= f (x2 ) .

I f is called surjective if for every element y ∈ Y there

is at least one element x ∈ X such that f (x) = y
i. e. f (X ) = Y .
I f is called bijective if it is both injective and surjective.
Inverse function

If f :X →Y is bijective then the function


Y →X
f −1 :
f (x) 7→ x

is called the inverse function to f .

We read the symbol f −1 as “f inverse”.
Graph of a function

Let f :A→B be a function. Then

Gf = {(x, f (x)) : x ∈ A} .

That means x runs through all elements of the domain.

Example
f : R → R, x 7→ f (x) = x 2 ,
n  o
Gf = x, x 2 : x ∈ R .

Remark
Gf ⊂ A × B. Actually B can be shrunk to the range of f .