1 RELATIONS AND FUNCTIONS

KEY CONCEPT INVOLVED

1. Relations - Let A and B be two non-empty sets then every subset of A × B defines a relation from A to B
and every relation from A to B is a subset of A × B.
Let R  A × B and (a, b)  R. then we say that a is related to b by the relation R as aRb. If (a, b)  R as
a R b.
2. Domain and Range of a Relation - Let R be a relation from A to B, that is, let R  A × B. then Domain
R = {a : a A, (a, b) R for some b B} i.e. dom. R is the set of all the first elements of the ordered pairs
which belong to R. Range R = (b : b B, (a, b) R for some a A} i.e. range R is the set of all the second
elements of the ordered pairs which belong to R. Thus Dom. R  A, Range R  B.
3. Inverse Relation - Let R  A × B be a relation from A to B. Then inverse relation R–1  B × A is defined by
R–1 {(b, a) : (a, b) R}
It is clear that
(i) aRb = bR–1 a
(ii) dom. R–1 = range R and range R–1 = dom R.
(iii) (R–1)–1 = R.
4. Composition of Relation - Let R A × B, S B × C be two relations. Then composition of the relations
R and S is denoted by SoR A × C and is defined by (a, c)  (SoR) iff b  B such that (a, b) 
R, (b, c) S.
5. Relations in a set - let A () be a set and R A × A i.e. R is a relation in the set A.
6. Reflexive Relations - R is a reflexive relation if (a, a) R,  a R it should be noted that if for any a A
such that a R a. then R is not reflexive.
7. Symmetric Relation - R is called symmetric relation on A if (x, y) R (y, x) R.
i.e. if x is related to y, then y is also related to x.
It should be noted that R is symmetric iff R–1 = R.
8. Anti Symmetric Relations - R is called an anti symmetric relation if (a, b) R and (b, a) R a = b.
Thus if a  b then a may be related to b or b may be related to a but never both.
9. Transitive Relations - R is called a transitive relation if (a, b) R (b, c) R (a, c) R
10. Identity Relations - R is an identity relation if (a, b) R iff a = b. i.e. every element of A is related to only
itself and always identity relation is reflexive symmetric and transitive.
11. Equivalence Relations - a relation R in a set A is called an equivalence relation if
(i) R is reflexive i.e. (a, a) R  a A
(ii) R is symmetric i.e. (a, b) R (b, a) R
(iii) R is transitive i.e. (a, b), (b, c) R (a, c) R.
12. Functions - Suppose that to each element in a set A there is assigned, by some rule, an unique element of
a set B. Such rules are called functions. If we let f denote these rules, then we write f : A  B as f is a
function of A into B.
13. Equal Functions - If f and g are functions defined on the same domain A and if f (a) = g (a) for every
a A, then f = g.
14. Constant Functions - Let f : A  B. If f (a) = b, a constant, for all a A, then f is called a constant function.
Thus f is called a constant function if range f consists of only one element.
15. Identity Functions - A function f is such that A  A is called an identity function if f (x) = x,  x A it is
denoted by IA.
16. One-One Functions (Injective) - Let f : A  B then f is called a one-one function. If no two different
elements in A have the same image i.e. different elements in A have different elements in B.
Denoted by symbol f is one-one if
f (a) = f (a)  a = a
i.e. a  a f (a)  f (a)
A mapping which is not one-one is called many one function.
17. Onto functions (Surjective) - In the mapping f : A  B, if every member of B appears as the image of
atleast one element of A, then we say “f is a function of A onto B or simply f is an onto functions” Thus
f is onto iff f (A) = B
i.e. range = codomain
A function which is not onto is called into function.
18. Inverse of a function - Let f : A  B and b B then the inverse of b i.e. f–1 (b) consists of those elements
in A which are mapped onto b i.e. f–1 (b) = {x ; x A, f (x) b}
 f–1 (b) A, f–1 (b) may be a null set or a singleton.
19. Inverse Functions - Let f : A  B be a one-one onto-function from A onto B. Then for each b B.
f–1 (b) A and is unique. So, f–1 : B  A is a function defined by f–1 (b) = a, iff f (a) = b.
Then f–1 is called the inverse function of f. If f has inverse function, f is also called invertible or non-
singular.
Thus f is invertible (non-singular) iff it is one-one onto (bijective) function.
20. Composition Functions - Let f : A  B and g : B  C, be two functions,
Then composition of f and g denoted by gof : A  C is defined by (gof) (a) = g {f (a)}.
21. Binary Operation - A binary operation  on a set A is a function  : A × A  A. We denote  (a, b) by a  b
22. Commutative Binary Operation - A binary operation  on the set A is commutative if for every a, b A,
a  b = b  a.
23. Associative Binary Operation - A binary operation  on the set A is associative if
(a  b)  c = a  (b  c).
24. An Identity Element e for Binary Operation - Let  : A × A  A be a binary operation. There exists an
element e  A such that a  e = a = e  a  a A, then e is called an identity element for Binary Operation  .
25. Inverse of an Element a - Let  : A × A  A be a binary operation with identity element e in A.
an element a A is invertible w.r.t. binary operation  , if there exists an element b in A such that
a  b = e = b  a. and b is called the inverse of a and is denoted by a–1.

CONNECTING CONCEPTS
1. In general gof  fog.
2. f : A  B, be one-one, onto then
f–1 of = IA and fof–1 = IB
3. f : A  B, g : B  C, h : C  D
then (hog) of = ho (gof).
4. f : A  B, g : B  C be one-one and onto then gof : A  C is also one-one onto and (gof)–1 = f–1 o g–1.
5. Let : A  B, then IB of = f and foIA = f. It should be noted that foIB is not defined since for
(foIB) (x) = fo {IB (x)} = f (x)
IB (x) exist when x B and f (x) exist when x A
6. f : A  B, g : B  C are both one-one, then gof : A  C is also one-one it should be noted that for gof to
be one-one f must be one-one.
7. If f : A  B g : B  C are both onto then gof must be onto. However, the converse is not true. But for gof
to be onto g must be onto.
8. The domain of the functions
(f + g) (x) = f (x) + g (x)
(f – g) (x) = f (x) – g (x)
(fg) (x) = f (x) g (x)
f (x)
is given by (dom. f)  (dom g) while domain of the function (f/g) (x) = is given by..
g (x)
(dom f) (dom. g) – {x : g (x) = 0}
9. If O (A) = m, O (B) = n, then total number of mappings from A to B is nm.
10. If A and B are finite sets and O (A) = m, O (B) = n, m  n.
n!
Then number of injection (one-one) from A to B is nPm = (n  m)!
11. If f : A  B is injective (one-one), then O(A)  O (B).
12. If f : A  B is surjective (onto), then O (A)  O (B).
13. If f : A  B is bijective (one-one onto), then O (A) = O (B).
14. Let f : A  B and O (A) = O (B), then f is one-one  it is onto.
15. Let f : A  B and X1, X2  A, then f is one-one iff f (X1  X2) = f (X1) f (X2)
16. Let f : A  B and X A, Y B, then in general f–1 (f (x)) X, f (f–1 (y)) Y
If f is one-one onto f–1 (f (x)) = x, f (f–1 (y)) = Y.