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Introduction
Web site "Set Theory" offers educational
tools and resources to help you learn fundaments of mathematics. You
can take full advantage of the "Internet style of
learning."
Set
theory
was developed in
the second half of the Nineteenth Century. It has its roots in the work of
Georg Cantor, although contributions of others were significant.
Ultimately, the goal of Set Theory was to provide a common axiomatic basis
for all of mathematics.
Here you can find out something about sets,
basic operations on sets, functions, relations, Cartesian product,
denumerable sets and cardinality.
If we
consder that the team responseable for this site is one set, then its
members are: Tina Skrtic, Matej Loncaric and Sandra
Basic(coach).
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TERMINOLOGY AND NOTATION
| ALEPH |
 |
aleph is used for the
Hebrew letter aleph |
| ALEPH ZERO |
0 |
aleph0 is used
for aleph-zero, the zero'th well-ordered infinite cardinal;
aleph0=w = {0, 1, 2,
...}
|
| BIJECTION |
|
A function is bijective or a bijection
or a one-to-one correspondence if it is both injective and
surjective. There is exactly one element of the domain which maps to
each element of the co-domain.
|
| CARDINAL NUMBER |
k(A) or card(A) |
A cardinal number is one way to
measure the size of a set.
|
| CARDINALITY |
|
The cardinal (or cardinality) of x,
denoted k(x), is:
-
the least ordinal a equinumerous to x, if x is
well-orderable, and
-
the set of all sets y of least rank
which are equinumerous to x, otherwise.
|
| CARDINALLY EQUIVALENT
|
 |
Two sets A and B are said
to be cardinally equivalent, if and only if there exists a bijection
between them. |
| CARTESIAN COORDINATE |
|
A pair of numbers, (x, y),
defining the position of a point in a two-dimensional space by its
perpendicular projection onto two axes which are at right angles to
each other. x and y are also known as the abscissa and ordinate. |
| CARTESIAN PRODUCT |
|
The Cartesian product of two sets A and
B is the set A x B =
{(a, b) | a in A, b in B}. I.e. the
product set contains all possible combinations of one element from
each set. |
|
COMPLEMENT |
AC |
AC ={x | x U and x A}. |
| COMPOSITION |
g ° f |
If f:
X Y and
g: Y
Z, then you can get from X to Z by
combining f and g into a single function
g ° f. g ° f
is defined to be x |
g(f(x)). |
|
CONSTANT
FUNCTION |
|
A function with no arguments, or,
one which always gives the same value. |
|
CO-DOMAIN |
|
The set of values containing all
possible results of a function. The codomain of a function f of type
D -> C is C. A function's image is a subset of its codomain.
|
|
DENUMERABLE SETS |
|
A set A
which is cardinally equivalent to the set of natural numbers is
called denumerable or countably infinite.
|
|
DIFFERENCE |
|
The difference or relative comlement of
A: B-A or B\A={x | x B and x A}. |
| DISJOINT SETS |
|
A set whose members do
not overlap, are not duplicated, etc. |
|
DOMAIN |
|
The set of argument values for
which a function is
defined. |
| EACH |
 |
|
| ELEMENT |
 |
Whatever belongs to a set are its
elements.
|
| NOT ELEMENT |
 |
|
|
EQUALITY OF SETS |
A=B |
Set A is equal to set B if they both have the same members.
|
| NOT EQUAL |
 |
|
|
EQUIVALENCE
RELATION |
~ |
If a relation is reflexive, symmetric,
and transitive, it is called an equivalence relation on the set
A. |
| EXIST |
 |
|
|
FINITE SET |
|
A set A is finite if and only if
either A is empty or, for some n N , the set {1, 2, 3, …
n}~A. |
|
FUNCTION |
f :X Y |
If X and Y
are sets, then f is a function from X to
Y whenever f assigns a unique element of
Y to each element of X. X is the
domain of f, and Y is the
co-domain.f(x) is assigned to x,
while x is mapped to f(x).
|
|
IDENTITY
FUNCTION |
1E |
A function from a set onto itself,
which leaves every element of the set
unchanged.
|
| IMPLIES |
 |
|
|
INFINITE SET |
|
A set with an infinite number of
elements. There are several possible definitions, e.g.
-
A set X is infinite if there
exists a bijection
(one-to-one mapping) between X and some proper subset of X.
-
A set X is infinite if there
exists an injection from the set of natural numbers N to X. |
|
INJECTION |
|
A function, f : A
B, is injective or one-one, or is an injection, if and only if for
all a,b in A, f(a) = f(b) =
> a = b. < /STRONG >
|
|
INTERSECTION |

|
The intersection of A and B
: A B={x | x A or x B}.
|
|
INVERSE |
f-1 |
Let f : D C, a function g : C D is called a left inverse for f if for all d in
D, g (f d) = d and a right inverse if, for all c in C, f (g c) = c
and an inverse if both conditions hold. Only an injection has a left inverse,
only a surjection
has a right inverse and only a bijection has inverses. The
inverse of f is often written as f with a -1 superscript.
|
|
INVERSE OF A RELATION
|
R-1 |
R-1={(x,y) | (y,x) R |
| NULL SET |
 |
|
|
ORDERED PAIR |
(x,y) |
Set of two numbers in which the order
has an agreed-upon meaning, such as the Cartesian coordinates (x,
y), where the first coordinate represents the horizontal position,
and the second coordinate represents the vertical
position.
|
|
ORDERED SET |
|
A set A is called ordered if it is
partially ordered and every pair of elements x and y from
the set A can be compared with each other via the partial
ordering relation.
|
|
PARTITION |
P |
A division of a set into nonempty
disjoint sets which completely cover the set |
|
POWER SET |
2A |
The set of all possible subsets of a
given set A is called the power set of A.
|
|
RELATIONS |
|
A set of ordered pairs is called
a relation. |
|
SET |
|
A set is a collection of things of any
kind. If B is a set we call the "things" in B the
elements or members of B. In symbols b B means that b is an
element of B. Similarly, for a set B the statement
b B means that
the object b is not in B. Sets themselves are often symbolized by
enclosing their elements within "curly brackets" {}.
Sets can also be described by a
rule members must satisfy. If P(x) is the rule
"x is beautiful Blondie", then the set listed above could be
symbolized as {x | P(x) }. We say
that "the set of all x such that P(x)".
The "|" stands for the expression "such that". The use of curly
brackets and a rule to specify sets is called set-builder notation
and is used throughout mathematics |
| SUBSET |
 |
Subset is a set which is part of
another set. If X and Y are sets, then
Y is a subset of X if and only if, for all
possible elements x, x is an element of
X whenever x is an element of
Y. |
| PROPER SUBSET |
 |
|
| SUPERSET |
 |
|
| NOT SUBSET |
 |
|
|
SURJECTION |
|
A function f : A B is surjective or onto or a surjection
if f (A )= B. I.e. f can return any value in B. This means that its
image is its co-domain. < /FONT>
<
/STRONG>
|
|
UNION |

|
The union of A and B
: A B={x | x A and x B}. |
|
UNIVERSE |
U |
We consider that all sets are subsets of
some finite universe U.
|
|
Venn diagram |
|
The rectangle
represents universe U and any subset of U
is drawn as a closed figure within this rectangle.
|
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References
Books:
1. Kurepa, Svetozar. Uvod u matematiku. Zagreb,
1975.
2. Blanusa, Danilo.
Matematika I. Zagreb, 1980. 3. Devide, Vladimir.
Zadaci iz apstraktne algebre. Zagreb,
1981.
4.
Lipschutz, Seymour. Set Theory and Related Topics (Schaum's Outline
Series). New York,
1964.
5. Sporer, Zlatko. Repetitorij matematike za
osnovnu skolu. Zagreb, 1992.
Electronic
sources:
1. An elementary Introduction to Logic and Set
Theory, http://www.madison.tec.wi.us/alehnen/weblogic/logset.htm,
Last visited: August, 2001
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