Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
For example, the union of three sets A, B, and C contains all elements of A, all elements of B, and all elements of C, and nothing else. Thus, x is an element of A ∪ B ∪ C if and only if x is in at least one of A, B, and C. A finite union is the union of a finite number of sets; the phrase does not imply that the union set is a finite set ...
In mathematics, the algebra of sets, not to be confused with the mathematical structure of an algebra of sets, defines 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 evaluating expressions ...
For example, "is a blood relative of" is a symmetric relation, because x is a blood relative of y if and only if y is a blood relative of x. Antisymmetric for all x, y ∈ X, if xRy and yRx then x = y. For example, ≥ is an antisymmetric relation; so is >, but vacuously (the condition in the definition is always false). [11] Asymmetric
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects.Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathematics – is mostly concerned with those that are relevant to mathematics as a whole.
In constructive mathematics, "not empty" and "inhabited" are not equivalent: every inhabited set is not empty but the converse is not always guaranteed; that is, in constructive mathematics, a set that is not empty (where by definition, "is empty" means that the statement () is true) might not have an inhabitant (which is an such that ).
Together with the axiom of choice (see below), these are the de facto standard axioms for contemporary mathematics or set theory. They can be easily adapted to analogous theories, such as mereology. Axiom of extensionality; Axiom of empty set; Axiom of pairing; Axiom of union; Axiom of infinity; Axiom schema of replacement; Axiom of power set ...
The axiom of replacement allows one to form many unions, such as the union of two sets. However, in its full generality, the axiom of union is independent from the rest of the ZFC-axioms: [citation needed] Replacement does not prove the existence of the union of a set of sets if the result contains an unbounded number of cardinalities.
Many, if not most, undecidable problems in mathematics can be posed as word problems: determining when two distinct strings of symbols (encoding some mathematical concept or object) represent the same object or not. For undecidability in axiomatic mathematics, see List of statements undecidable in ZFC.