With Question/Answer Animations
Note: These slides were made available by Kenneth H. Rosen (book author), the author of
the textbook Discrete Mathematics and its Applications. They were edited by Abdullah
Heyari (course instructor) to fit the requirements of the course Discrete Structures (CS201)
taught at the German Jordanian University during the second semester of the academic
year 2024 – 2025.
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter Summary
2.1 Sets
The Language of Sets
Set Operations
Set Identities
2.2 Functions
Types of Functions
Operations on Functions
Computability
2.3 Sequences and Summations
Types of Sequences
Summation Formulae
Section Summary
Set Operations
Union
Intersection
Complementation
Difference
More on Set Cardinality
Set Identities
Proving Identities
Membership Tables
Boolean Algebra
Propositional calculus and set theory are both
instances of an algebraic system called a Boolean
Algebra. This is discussed in Chapter 12.
The operators in set theory are analogous to the
corresponding operator in propositional calculus.
As always there must be a universal set U. All sets are
assumed to be subsets of U.
Union
Definition: Let A and B be sets. The union of the sets
A and B, denoted by A ∪ B, is the set:
Example: What is {1, 2, 3} ∪ {3, 4, 5}?
Venn Diagram for A ∪ B
Solution: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} U
A B
Intersection
Definition: The intersection of sets A and B,
denoted by A ∩ B, is
Note if the intersection is empty, then A and B are
said to be disjoint.
Example: What is? {1,2,3} ∩ {3,4,5} ?
Venn Diagram for A ∩B
Solution: {3}
Example: What is? U
A B
{1,2,3} ∩ {4,5,6} ?
Solution: ∅
Complement
Definition: If A is a set, then the complement of the A
(with respect to U), denoted by 𝐴̅ is the set U – A
𝐴̅ = {x ∈ U | x ∉ A}
(The complement of A is sometimes denoted by Ac .)
Example: Let the universe U be the set of positive integers
less than 100, that is U = {1, 2, …, 99}. Let the set A = {x | x >
70}. What is 𝐴̅?
Solution: 𝐴̅ = {x | x ≤ 70}. U
Recall that all the elements of A must 𝐴̅
A
lie within U. So, it is implicitly
assumed that A = {x | 70 < x < 100}.
Venn Diagram for Complement
Difference
Definition: Let A and B be sets. The difference of A
and B, denoted by A – B, is the set containing the
elements of A that are not in B. The difference of A and
B is also called the complement of B with respect to A.
A – B = {x | x ∈ A x ∉ B} = A ∩B
U
A
B
Venn Diagram for A − B
The Cardinality of the Union of Two Sets
• Inclusion-Exclusion U
|A ∪ B| = |A| + | B| − |A ∩ B| A B
Venn Diagram for A, B, A ∩ B, A ∪ B
• Example: Let A be the math majors in your class and B be the CS majors. To
count the number of students who are either math majors or CS majors, add
the number of math majors and the number of CS majors, and subtract the
number of joint CS/math majors.
• We will return to this principle in Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 where we will derive
a formula for the cardinality of the union of n sets, where n is a positive integer.
Review Questions
Example: U = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10} A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5},
B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
1. A ∪ B
Solution: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
2. A ∩ B
Solution: {4, 5}
3. Ā
Solution: {0, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
4.
Solution: {0, 1, 2, 3, 9, 10}
5. A – B
Solution: {1, 2, 3}
6. B – A
Solution: {6, 7, 8}
Symmetric Difference (optional)
Definition: The symmetric difference of A and B,
denoted by is the set
Example:
U = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B ={4, 5, 6, 7, 8} U
What is ? A B
Solution: {1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8}
Venn Diagram
Set Identities [1]
Identity laws
Domination laws
Idempotent laws
Complementation law
Continued on next slide
Set Identities [2]
Commutative laws
Associative laws
Distributive laws
Continued on next slide
Set Identities [3]
De Morgan’s laws
Absorption laws
Complement laws
Proving Set Identities
Different ways to prove set identities:
1. Prove that each set (side of the identity) is a subset of
the other.
2. Use set builder notation and propositional logic.
3. Membership Tables: Verify that elements in the same
combination of sets always either belong or do not
belong to the same side of the identity. Use 1 to
indicate it is in the set and a 0 to indicate that it is not.
Proof of Second De Morgan Law
Example: Prove that
Solution: We prove this identity by showing that:
1) and
2)
Continued on next slide
Proof of Second De Morgan Law
These steps show that:
Continued on next slide
Proof of Second De Morgan Law
These steps show that:
Set-Builder Notation: Second De
Morgan Law
Definition (Membership Table): A membership table for set
theory is similar to truth table in propositional logic. It
demonstrates all the possible cases were an element either
belongs or doesn’t belong to a set or to multiple sets.
Belonging to a set is denoted by 1 whereas not belonging by 0.
Membership Table
Example: Construct a membership table to show that the distributive law holds.
Solution:
A B C
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1
1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Generalized Unions and Intersections
Let A1, A2 ,…, An be an indexed collection of sets.
We define:
These are well defined, since union and intersection are
associative.
Example: Let Ai = {i, i + 1, i + 2, …} for i = 1, 2,…, then,
