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Chapter 1
Algebra of sets
This article is about algebraic properties of set operations in general. For a boolean algebra of sets, see Field of sets.
The algebra of sets denes the properties and laws of sets, the set-theoretic operations of union, intersection, and
complementation and the relations of set equality and set inclusion. It also provides systematic procedures for evalu-
ating expressions, and performing calculations, involving these operations and relations.
Any set of sets closed under the set-theoretic operations forms a Boolean algebra with the join operator being union,
the meet operator being intersection, the complement operator being set complement, the bottom being and the top
being the universal set.
1.1 Fundamentals
The algebra of sets is the set-theoretic analogue of the algebra of numbers. Just as arithmetic addition and multiplication
are associative and commutative, so are set union and intersection; just as the arithmetic relation less than or equal
is reexive, antisymmetric and transitive, so is the set relation of subset.
It is the algebra of the set-theoretic operations of union, intersection and complementation, and the relations of
equality and inclusion. For a basic introduction to sets see the article on sets, for a fuller account see naive set theory,
and for a full rigorous axiomatic treatment see axiomatic set theory.
Commutative laws:
AB =BA
AB =BA
Associative laws:
(A B) C = A (B C)
(A B) C = A (B C)
Distributive laws:
A (B C) = (A B) (A C)
A (B C) = (A B) (A C)
2
1.3. THE PRINCIPLE OF DUALITY 3
The union and intersection of sets may be seen as analogous to the addition and multiplication of numbers. Like
addition and multiplication, the operations of union and intersection are commutative and associative, and intersection
distributes over union. However, unlike addition and multiplication, union also distributes over intersection.
Two additional pairs of laws involve the special sets called the empty set and the universal set U ; together with
the complement operator (AC denotes the complement of A). The empty set has no members, and the universal set
has all possible members (in a particular context).
Identity laws:
A=A
AU =A
Complement laws:
A AC = U
A AC =
The identity laws (together with the commutative laws) say that, just like 0 and 1 for addition and multiplication,
and U are the identity elements for union and intersection, respectively.
Unlike addition and multiplication, union and intersection do not have inverse elements. However the complement
laws give the fundamental properties of the somewhat inverse-like unary operation of set complementation.
The preceding ve pairs of lawsthe commutative, associative, distributive, identity and complement lawsencompass
all of set algebra, in the sense that every valid proposition in the algebra of sets can be derived from them.
Note that if the complement laws are weakened to the rule (AC )C = A , then this is exactly the algebra of proposi-
tional linear logic.
Each of the identities stated above is one of a pair of identities such that each can be transformed into the other by
interchanging and , and also and U.
These are examples of an extremely important and powerful property of set algebra, namely, the principle of duality
for sets, which asserts that for any true statement about sets, the dual statement obtained by interchanging unions and
intersections, interchanging U and and reversing inclusions is also true. A statement is said to be self-dual if it is
equal to its own dual.
idempotent laws:
AA=A
AA=A
domination laws:
AU =U
A=
absorption laws:
4 CHAPTER 1. ALGEBRA OF SETS
A (A B) = A
A (A B) = A
As noted above, each of the laws stated in proposition 3 can be derived from the ve fundamental pairs of laws stated
above. As an illustration, a proof is given below for the idempotent law for union.
Proof:
The following proof illustrates that the dual of the above proof is the proof of the dual of the idempotent law for
union, namely the idempotent law for intersection.
Proof:
Intersection can be expressed in terms of set dierence :
A B = A (A B)
De Morgans laws:
(A B)C = AC B C
(A B)C = AC B C
double complement or Involution law:
C
(AC ) = A
complement laws for the universal set and the empty set:
C = U
UC =
uniqueness of complements:
If A B = U , and A B = , then B = AC
reexivity:
AA
antisymmetry:
A B and B A if and only if A = B
1.7. THE ALGEBRA OF RELATIVE COMPLEMENTS 5
transitivity:
If A B and B C , then A C
The following proposition says that for any set S, the power set of S, ordered by inclusion, is a bounded lattice, and
hence together with the distributive and complement laws above, show that it is a Boolean algebra.
PROPOSITION 7: If A, B and C are subsets of a set S then the following hold:
existence of joins:
AAB
If A C and B C , then A B C
existence of meets:
AB A
If C A and C B , then C A B
The following proposition says that the statement A B is equivalent to various other statements involving unions,
intersections and complements.
PROPOSITION 8: For any two sets A and B, the following are equivalent:
AB
AB =A
AB =B
AB =
B C AC
The above proposition shows that the relation of set inclusion can be characterized by either of the operations of set
union or set intersection, which means that the notion of set inclusion is axiomatically superuous.
C \ (A B) = (C \ A) (C \ B)
C \ (A B) = (C \ A) (C \ B)
C \ (B \ A) = (A C) (C \ B)
(B \ A) C = (B C) \ A = B (C \ A)
(B \ A) C = (B C) \ (A \ C)
A\A=
\A=
A\=A
B \ A = AC B
(B \ A)C = A B C
U \ A = AC
A\U =
6 CHAPTER 1. ALGEBRA OF SETS
Set (mathematics)
Topological space a subset of (X) , the power set of X , closed with respect to arbitrary union, nite
intersection and containing and X .
1.9 References
Stoll, Robert R.; Set Theory and Logic, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications (1979) ISBN 0-486-63829-4. The
Algebra of Sets, pp 1623
Courant, Richard, Herbert Robbins, Ian Stewart, What is mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and
Methods, Oxford University Press US, 1996. ISBN 978-0-19-510519-3. SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER II
THE ALGEBRA OF SETS
7
8 CHAPTER 2. COMPLEMENT (SET THEORY)
2.1.1 Denition
If A is a set, then the absolute complement of A (or simply the complement of A) is the set of elements not in A. In
other words, if U is the universe that contains all the elements under study, and there is no need to mention it because
it is obvious and unique, then the absolute complement of A is the relative complement of A in U:[1]
A = U \ A
Formally:
A = {x U | x
/ A}.
The absolute complement of A is usually denoted by A . Other notations include Ac , A , A , U A , and A .[2]
2.1.2 Examples
Assume that the universe is the set of integers. If A is the set of odd numbers, then the complement of A is the
set of even numbers. If B is the set of multiples of 3, then the complement of B is the set of numbers congruent
to 1 or 2 modulo 3.
Assume that the universe is the standard 52-card deck. If the set A is the suit of spades, then the complement
of A is the union of the suits of clubs, diamonds, and hearts. If the set B is the union of the suits of clubs and
diamonds, then the complement of B is the union of the suits of hearts and spades.
2.1.3 Properties
Let A and B be two sets in a universe U. The following identities capture important properties of absolute comple-
ments:
De Morgans laws:[3]
(A B) = A B .
(A B) = A B .
Complement laws:[3]
A A = U.
A A = .
= U.
U = .
IfA B then ,B A .
(this follows from the equivalence of a conditional with its contrapositive).
(A ) = A.
A \ B = A B.
(A \ B) = A B.
The rst two complement laws above show that if A is a non-empty, proper subset of U, then {A, A } is a partition
of U.
2.2. RELATIVE COMPLEMENT 9
2.2.1 Denition
If A and B are sets, then the relative complement of A in B,[3] also termed the set-theoretic dierence of B and
A,[4] is the set of elements in B but not in A.
The relative complement of A in B is denoted B A according to the ISO 31-11 standard. It is sometimes written B
A, but this notation is ambiguous, as in some contexts it can be interpreted as the set of all elements b a, where
b is taken from B and a from A.
Formally:
B \ A = {x B | x
/ A}.
2.2.2 Examples
{1, 2, 3} \ {2, 3, 4} = {1} .
{2, 3, 4} \ {1, 2, 3} = {4} .
If R is the set of real numbers and Q is the set of rational numbers, then R \ Q is the set of irrational numbers.
2.2.3 Properties
Let A, B, and C be three sets. The following identities capture notable properties of relative complements:
C \ (A B) = (C \ A) (C \ B) .
10 CHAPTER 2. COMPLEMENT (SET THEORY)
C \ (A B) = (C \ A) (C \ B) .
C \ (B \ A) = (C A) (C \ B) ,
C \ (C \ A) = (C A)
(B \ A) C = (B C) \ A = B (C \ A) .
(B \ A) C = (B C) \ (A \ C) .
A\A=.
\A=.
A\=A.
F# Set.dierence a b[8]
a - b[9]
Falcon di = a - b[10]
Haskell dierence a b
a \\ b[11]
Java di = a.clone();
di.removeAll(b);[12]
Julia setdi[13]
Mathematica Complement[14]
MATLAB setdi[15]
OCaml Set.S.di[16]
2.5. SEE ALSO 11
Octave setdi[17]
PARI/GP setminus[18]
Pascal SetDierence := a - b;
Perl 5 # for perl version >= 5.10 @a = grep {not $_ ~~ @b} @a;
Python di = a.dierence(b)[20]
di = a - b[20]
R setdi[21]
Ruby di = a - b[23]
Scala a.di(b)[25]
a -- b[25]
grep -vf b a # less ecient, but works with small unsorted sets
Algebra of sets
Symmetric dierence
12 CHAPTER 2. COMPLEMENT (SET THEORY)
2.6 Notes
[1] The set other than A is thus implicitly mentioned in an absolute complement, and explicitly mentioned in a relative com-
plement.
[7] Common Lisp HyperSpec, Function set-dierence, nset-dierence. Accessed on September 8, 2009.
[12] Set (Java 2 Platform SE 5.0). JavaTM 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 API Specication, updated in 2004. Accessed on
February 13, 2008.
[13] . The Standard Library--Julia Language documentation. Accessed on September 24, 2014
[14] Complement. Mathematica Documentation Center for version 6.0, updated in 2008. Accessed on March 7, 2008.
[15] Setdi. MATLAB Function Reference for version 7.6, updated in 2008. Accessed on May 19, 2008.
[18] PARI/GP Users Manual Archived September 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
[25] scala.collection.Set. Scala Standard Library 2.11.7, Accessed on July 12, 2015.
[26] comm(1) Archived 2008-10-19 at the Wayback Machine., Unix Seventh Edition Manual, 1979.
2.7 References
Bourbaki, N. (1970). Thorie des ensembles (in French). Paris: Hermann. ISBN 978-3-540-34034-8.
Devlin, Keith J. (1979). Fundamentals of contemporary set theory. Universitext. Springer. ISBN 0-387-
90441-7. Zbl 0407.04003.
Halmos, Paul R. (1960). Naive set theory. The University Series in Undergraduate Mathematics. van Nostrand
Company. Zbl 0087.04403.
2.8. EXTERNAL LINKS 13
Element (mathematics)
In mathematics, an element, or member, of a set is any one of the distinct objects that make up that set.
3.1 Sets
Writing A = {1, 2, 3, 4} means that the elements of the set A are the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Sets of elements of A,
for example {1, 2} , are subsets of A.
Sets can themselves be elements. For example, consider the set B = {1, 2, {3, 4}} . The elements of B are not 1, 2,
3, and 4. Rather, there are only three elements of B, namely the numbers 1 and 2, and the set {3, 4} .
The elements of a set can be anything. For example, C = {red, green, blue} , is the set whose elements are the colors
red, green and blue.
First usage of the symbol in the work Arithmetices principia nova methodo exposita by Giuseppe Peano.
The relation is an element of, also called set membership, is denoted by the symbol "". Writing
xA
means that "x is an element of A". Equivalent expressions are "x is a member of A", "x belongs to A", "x is in A"
and "x lies in A". The expressions "A includes x" and "A contains x" are also used to mean set membership, however
some authors use them to mean instead "x is a subset of A".[1] Logician George Boolos strongly urged that contains
be used for membership only and includes for the subset relation only.[2]
Another possible notation for the same relation is
14
3.3. CARDINALITY OF SETS 15
A x,
meaning "A contains x", though it is used less often.
The negation of set membership is denoted by the symbol "". Writing
x
/A
means that "x is not an element of A".
The symbol was rst used by Giuseppe Peano 1889 in his work Arithmetices principia nova methodo exposita. Here
he wrote on page X:
which means
The symbol itself is a stylized lowercase Greek letter epsilon (""), the rst letter of the word , which means is.
The Unicode characters for these symbols are U+2208 ('element of'), U+220B ('contains as member') and U+2209
('not an element of'). The equivalent LaTeX commands are "\in, "\ni and "\notin. Mathematica has commands
"\[Element]" and "\[NotElement]".
The number of elements in a particular set is a property known as cardinality; informally, this is the size of a set. In
the above examples the cardinality of the set A is 4, while the cardinality of either of the sets B and C is 3. An innite
set is a set with an innite number of elements, while a nite set is a set with a nite number of elements. The above
examples are examples of nite sets. An example of an innite set is the set of positive integers = { 1, 2, 3, 4, ... }.
3.4 Examples
Using the sets dened above, namely A = {1, 2, 3, 4 }, B = {1, 2, {3, 4}} and C = { red, green, blue }:
2A
{3,4} B
3,4 B
{3,4} is a member of B
Yellow C
The cardinality of D = { 2, 4, 8, 10, 12 } is nite and equal to 5.
The cardinality of P = { 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, ...} (the prime numbers) is innite (this was proven by Euclid).
3.5 References
[1] Eric Schechter (1997). Handbook of Analysis and Its Foundations. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-622760-8. p. 12
[2] George Boolos (February 4, 1992). 24.243 Classical Set Theory (lecture). (Speech). Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA.
16 CHAPTER 3. ELEMENT (MATHEMATICS)
Suppes, Patrick (1972) [1960], Axiomatic Set Theory, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., ISBN 0-486-61630-4 -
Both the notion of set (a collection of members), membership or element-hood, the axiom of extension, the
axiom of separation, and the union axiom (Suppes calls it the sum axiom) are needed for a more thorough
understanding of set element.
Empty set
4.1 Notation
Common notations for the empty set include " {} ", "", and " ". The latter two symbols were introduced by the
Bourbaki group (specically Andr Weil) in 1939, inspired by the letter in the Norwegian and Danish alphabets
(and not related in any way to the Greek letter ).[1] Although now considered an improper use of notation, in the
past, " 0 " was occasionally used as a symbol for the empty set.[2]
The empty-set symbol is found at Unicode point U+2205.[3] In LaTeX, it is coded as \emptyset for or \varnothing
for .
4.2 Properties
In standard axiomatic set theory, by the principle of extensionality, two sets are equal if they have the same elements;
therefore there can be only one set with no elements. Hence there is but one empty set, and we speak of the empty
set rather than an empty set.
The mathematical symbols employed below are explained here.
For any set A:
The Cartesian product of A and the empty set is the empty set:
A : A =
17
18 CHAPTER 4. EMPTY SET
A : A A =
The power set of the empty set is the set containing only the empty set:
2 = {}
4.2. PROPERTIES 19
card() = 0
The connection between the empty set and zero goes further, however: in the standard set-theoretic denition of
natural numbers, we use sets to model the natural numbers. In this context, zero is modelled by the empty set.
For any property:
Conversely, if for some property and some set V, the following two statements hold:
V =
20 CHAPTER 4. EMPTY SET
By the denition of subset, the empty set is a subset of any set A. That is, every element x of belongs to A. Indeed,
if it were not true that every element of is in A then there would be at least one element of that is not present in A.
Since there are no elements of at all, there is no element of that is not in A. Any statement that begins for every
element of " is not making any substantive claim; it is a vacuous truth. This is often paraphrased as everything is
true of the elements of the empty set.
sup = min({, +} R) = ,
and
inf = max({, +} R) = +.
That is, the least upper bound (sup or supremum) of the empty set is negative innity, while the greatest lower bound
(inf or inmum) is positive innity. By analogy with the above, in the domain of the extended reals, negative innity
is the identity element for the maximum and supremum operators, while positive innity is the identity element for
minimum and inmum.
4.3.2 Topology
Considered as a subset of the real number line (or more generally any topological space), the empty set is both closed
and open; it is an example of a clopen set. All its boundary points (of which there are none) are in the empty set,
and the set is therefore closed; while for every one of its points (of which there are again none), there is an open
neighbourhood in the empty set, and the set is therefore open. Moreover, the empty set is a compact set by the fact
that every nite set is compact.
The closure of the empty set is empty. This is known as preservation of nullary unions.
The empty set can be turned into a topological space, called the empty space, in just one way: by dening the empty
set to be open. This empty topological space is the unique initial object in the category of topological spaces with
continuous maps. In fact, it is a strict initial object: only the empty set has a function to the empty set.
There is already an axiom implying the existence of at least one set. Given such an axiom together with the
axiom of separation, the existence of the empty set is easily proved.
In the presence of urelements, it is easy to prove that at least one set exists, viz. the set of all urelements
(assuming there is not a proper class of them). Again, given the axiom of separation, the empty set is easily
proved.
Nothing is better than eternal happiness; a ham sandwich is better than nothing; therefore, a ham sand-
wich is better than eternal happiness
is often used to demonstrate the philosophical relation between the concept of nothing and the empty set. Darling
writes that the contrast can be seen by rewriting the statements Nothing is better than eternal happiness and "[A]
ham sandwich is better than nothing in a mathematical tone. According to Darling, the former is equivalent to The
set of all things that are better than eternal happiness is " and the latter to The set {ham sandwich} is better than
the set ". It is noted that the rst compares elements of sets, while the second compares the sets themselves.[5]
Jonathan Lowe argues that while the empty set:
"...was undoubtedly an important landmark in the history of mathematics, we should not assume that
its utility in calculation is dependent upon its actually denoting some object.
All that we are ever informed about the empty set is that it (1) is a set, (2) has no members, and
(3) is unique amongst sets in having no members. However, there are very many things that 'have no
members, in the set-theoretical sensenamely, all non-sets. It is perfectly clear why these things have
no members, for they are not sets. What is unclear is how there can be, uniquely amongst sets, a set
which has no members. We cannot conjure such an entity into existence by mere stipulation.[6]
22 CHAPTER 4. EMPTY SET
George Boolos argued that much of what has been heretofore obtained by set theory can just as easily be obtained
by plural quantication over individuals, without reifying sets as singular entities having other entities as members.[7]
Nothing
4.6 References
[1] Earliest Uses of Symbols of Set Theory and Logic.
[2] Rudin, Walter (1976). Principles of Mathematical Analysis (PDF) (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 300. ISBN
007054235X.
[4] Bruckner, A.N., Bruckner, J.B., and Thomson, B.S., 2008. Elementary Real Analysis, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall. P. 9.
[5] D. J. Darling (2004). The universal book of mathematics. John Wiley and Sons. p. 106. ISBN 0-471-27047-4.
[7] George Boolos, 1984, To be is to be the value of a variable, The Journal of Philosophy 91: 43049. Reprinted in
his 1998 Logic, Logic and Logic (Richard Jerey, and Burgess, J., eds.) Harvard Univ. Press: 5472.
Graham, Malcolm (1975), Modern Elementary Mathematics (Hardcover) (2nd ed.), New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, ISBN 0155610392
In mathematics, the intersection A B of two sets A and B is the set that contains all elements of A that also belong
to B (or equivalently, all elements of B that also belong to A), but no other elements.[1]
For explanation of the symbols used in this article, refer to the table of mathematical symbols.
A B = {x : x A and x B}.
23
24 CHAPTER 5. INTERSECTION (SET THEORY)
That is, x is an element of the intersection A B if and only if x is both an element of A and an element of B.
For example:
The number 9 is not in the intersection of the set of prime numbers {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, ...} and the set of odd
numbers {1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, ...}.[2]
Intersection is an associative operation; that is, for any sets A, B, and C, one has A (B C) = (A B) C. Intersection
is also commutative; for any A and B, one has A B = B A. It thus makes sense to talk about intersections of multiple
sets. The intersection of A, B, C, and D, for example, is unambiguously written A B C D.
Inside a universe U one may dene the complement Ac of A to be the set of all elements of U not in A. Now the
intersection of A and B may be written as the complement of the union of their complements, derived easily from De
Morgans laws:
A B = (Ac Bc )c
5.2. ARBITRARY INTERSECTIONS 25
Intersections of the Greek, English and Russian alphabet, considering only the shapes of the letters and ignoring their pronunciation
( )
x A (A M, x A) .
AM
26 CHAPTER 5. INTERSECTION (SET THEORY)
The notation for this last concept can vary considerably. Set theorists will sometimes write "M", while others will
instead write "AM A". The latter notation can be generalized to "iI Ai", which refers to the intersection of the
collection {Ai : i I}. Here I is a nonempty set, and Ai is a set for every i in I.
In the case that the index set I is the set of natural numbers, notation analogous to that of an innite product may be
seen:
Ai .
i=1
When formatting is dicult, this can also be written "A1 A2 A3 .... This last example, an intersection of
countably many sets, is actually very common; for an example see the article on -algebras.
5.3. NULLARY INTERSECTION 27
Note that in the previous section we excluded the case where M was the empty set (). The reason is as follows: The
intersection of the collection M is dened as the set (see set-builder notation)
A = {x : A M, x A}.
AM
If M is empty there are no sets A in M, so the question becomes which x's satisfy the stated condition?" The answer
seems to be every possible x. When M is empty the condition given above is an example of a vacuous truth. So the
intersection of the empty family should be the universal set (the identity element for the operation of intersection) [3]
Unfortunately, according to standard (ZFC) set theory, the universal set does not exist. A x for this problem can be
found if we note that the intersection over a set of sets is always a subset of the union over that set of sets. This can
symbolically be written as
A A.
AM AM
{ }
A= x A : A M, x A .
AM AM
28 CHAPTER 5. INTERSECTION (SET THEORY)
Now if M is empty there is no problem. The intersection is the empty set, because the union over the empty set is
the empty set. In fact, this is the operation that we would have dened in the rst place if we were dening the set
in ZFC, as except for the operations dened by the axioms (the power set of a set, for instance), every set must be
dened as the subset of some other set or by replacement.
Intersection graph
Logical conjunction
Naive set theory
Symmetric dierence
Union
Cardinality
Iterated binary operation
MinHash
5.5 References
[1] Stats: Probability Rules. People.richland.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
[3] Megginson, Robert E. (1998), Chapter 1, An introduction to Banach space theory, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 183,
New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. xx+596, ISBN 0-387-98431-3
Power set
{x,y,z}
The elements of the power set of the set {x, y, z} ordered with respect to inclusion.
itself, variously denoted as P(S), (S) (using the "Weierstrass p"), P(S), (S), or, identifying the powerset of S with
the set of all functions from S to a given set of two elements, 2S . In axiomatic set theory (as developed, for example,
in the ZFC axioms), the existence of the power set of any set is postulated by the axiom of power set.[1]
Any subset of P(S) is called a family of sets over S.
29
30 CHAPTER 6. POWER SET
6.1 Example
If S is the set {x, y, z}, then the subsets of S are
{x}
{y}
{z}
{x, y}
{x, z}
{y, z}
{x, y, z}
and hence the power set of S is {{}, {x}, {y}, {z}, {x, y}, {x, z}, {y, z}, {x, y, z}}.[2]
6.2 Properties
If S is a nite set with |S| = n elements, then the number of subsets of S is |P(S)| = 2n . This fact, which is the motivation
for the notation 2S , may be demonstrated simply as follows,
First, order the elements of S in any manner. We write any subset of S in the format {1 , 2 , ..., n }
where , 1 i n, can take the value of 0 or 1. If i = 1, the i-th element of S is in the subset; otherwise,
the i-th element is not in the subset. Clearly the number of distinct subsets that can be constructed this
way is 2n as i {0, 1} .
Cantors diagonal argument shows that the power set of a set (whether innite or not) always has strictly higher
cardinality than the set itself (informally the power set must be larger than the original set). In particular, Cantors
theorem shows that the power set of a countably innite set is uncountably innite. The power set of the set of natural
numbers can be put in a one-to-one correspondence with the set of real numbers (see Cardinality of the continuum).
The power set of a set S, together with the operations of union, intersection and complement can be viewed as the
prototypical example of a Boolean algebra. In fact, one can show that any nite Boolean algebra is isomorphic to
the Boolean algebra of the power set of a nite set. For innite Boolean algebras this is no longer true, but every
innite Boolean algebra can be represented as a subalgebra of a power set Boolean algebra (see Stones representation
theorem).
The power set of a set S forms an abelian group when considered with the operation of symmetric dierence (with the
empty set as the identity element and each set being its own inverse) and a commutative monoid when considered with
the operation of intersection. It can hence be shown (by proving the distributive laws) that the power set considered
together with both of these operations forms a Boolean ring.
This notion can be applied to the example above in which S = {x, y, z} to see the isomorphism with the binary
numbers from 0 to 2n 1 with n being the number of elements in the set. In S, a 1 in the position corresponding to
the location in the set indicates the presence of the element. So {x, y} = 110.
For the whole power set of S we get:
{x} = 100 = 4
{y} = 010 = 2
{z} = 001 = 1
{x, y} = 110 = 6
{x, z} = 101 = 5
{y, z} = 011 = 3
{x, y, z} = 111 = 7
6.5 Algorithms
If S is a nite set, there is a recursive algorithm to calculate P(S).
Dene the operation F (e, T) = {X {e} | X T}.
In English, return the set with the element e added to each set X in T.
Otherwise:
In other words, the power set of the empty set is the set containing the empty set and the power set of any other set
is all the subsets of the set containing some specic element and all the subsets of the set not containing that specic
element.
32 CHAPTER 6. POWER SET
Family of sets
Field of sets
6.10. NOTES 33
6.10 Notes
[1] Devlin 1979, p. 50
[3] Saunders Mac Lane, Ieke Moerdijk, (1992) Sheaves in Geometry and Logic Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-97710-4 See
page 58
6.11 References
Devlin, Keith J. (1979). Fundamentals of contemporary set theory. Universitext. Springer-Verlag. ISBN
0-387-90441-7. Zbl 0407.04003.
Halmos, Paul R. (1960). Naive set theory. The University Series in Undergraduate Mathematics. van Nostrand
Company. Zbl 0087.04403.
Puntambekar, A. A. (2007). Theory Of Automata And Formal Languages. Technical Publications. ISBN
978-81-8431-193-8.
In set theory, the union (denoted by ) of a collection of sets is the set of all elements in the collection.[1] It is one
of the fundamental operations through which sets can be combined and related to each other.
For explanation of the symbols used in this article, refer to the table of mathematical symbols.
A B = {x : x A or x B} .[2]
34
7.2. ALGEBRAIC PROPERTIES 35
For example, if A = {1, 3, 5, 7} and B = {1, 2, 4, 6} then A B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}. A more elaborate example
(involving two innite sets) is:
As another example, the number 9 is not contained in the union of the set of prime numbers {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, } and
the set of even numbers {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, }, because 9 is neither prime nor even.
Sets cannot have duplicate elements,[2][3] so the union of the sets {1, 2, 3} and {2, 3, 4} is {1, 2, 3, 4}. Multiple
occurrences of identical elements have no eect on the cardinality of a set or its contents.
A (B C) = (A B) C.
The operations can be performed in any order, and the parentheses may be omitted without ambiguity (i.e., either of
the above can be expressed equivalently as A B C). Similarly, union is commutative, so the sets can be written in
any order.[4]
The empty set is an identity element for the operation of union. That is, A = A, for any set A. This follows from
analogous facts about logical disjunction.
Since sets with unions and intersections form a Boolean algebra, intersection distributes over union
A (B C) = (A B) (A C)
A (B C) = (A B) (A C)
Within a given universal set, union can be written in terms of the operations of intersection and complement as
( )C
A B = AC B C
where the superscript C denotes the complement with respect to the universal set.
x M A M, x A.
This idea subsumes the preceding sectionsfor example, A B C is the union of the collection {A, B, C}. Also,
if M is the empty collection, then the union of M is the empty set.
7.4.1 Notations
The notation for the general conceptncan vary considerably. For a nite union of sets S1 , S2 , S3 , . .
. , Sn one
often
writes S1 S2 S3 Sn or i=1 Si . Various common notations for arbitrary unions include M , AM A
, and iI Ai , the last of which refers to the union of the collection {Ai : i I} where I is an index setand Ai
is a set for every i I . In the case that the index set I is the set of natural numbers, one uses a notation i=1 Ai
analogous to that of the innite series.[7]
Whenever the symbol "" is placed before other symbols instead of between them, it is of a larger size.
7.5. SEE ALSO 37
Disjoint union
Intersection (set theory)
7.6 Notes
[1] Weisstein, Eric W. Union. Wolframs Mathworld. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
[2] Vereshchagin, Nikolai Konstantinovich; Shen, Alexander (2002-01-01). Basic Set Theory. American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 9780821827314.
[3] deHaan, Lex; Koppelaars, Toon (2007-10-25). Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals. Apress. ISBN 9781430203483.
[4] Halmos, P. R. (2013-11-27). Naive Set Theory. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9781475716450.
[5] Dasgupta, Abhijit (2013-12-11). Set Theory: With an Introduction to Real Point Sets. Springer Science & Business Media.
ISBN 9781461488545.
[6] https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Finite_Union_of_Finite_Sets_is_Finite
[7] Smith, Douglas; Eggen, Maurice; Andre, Richard St (2014-08-01). A Transition to Advanced Mathematics. Cengage
Learning. ISBN 9781285463261.
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001) [1994], Union of sets, Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer Science+Business
Media B.V. / Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
Innite Union and Intersection at ProvenMath De Morgans laws formally proven from the axioms of set theory.
38 CHAPTER 7. UNION (SET THEORY)
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40 CHAPTER 7. UNION (SET THEORY)