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Symmetric and antisymmetric relations. By definition, a nonempty relation cannot be both symmetric and asymmetric (where if a is related to b, then b cannot be related to a (in the same way)). However, a relation can be neither symmetric nor asymmetric, which is the case for "is less than or equal to" and "preys on").
In measure theory, a nonempty family of sets is called a ring (of sets) if it is closed under union and relative complement (set-theoretic difference). [2] That is, the following two statements are true for all sets A {\displaystyle A} and B {\displaystyle B} ,
Relations that satisfy certain combinations of the above properties are particularly useful, and thus have received names by their own. Equivalence relation A relation that is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. It is also a relation that is symmetric, transitive, and serial, since these properties imply reflexivity. Orderings: Partial order
This article lists mathematical properties and laws of sets, involving 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, and performing calculations, involving these operations and relations.
A reflexive and symmetric relation is a dependency relation (if finite), and a tolerance relation if infinite. A preorder is reflexive and transitive. A congruence relation is an equivalence relation whose domain X {\displaystyle X} is also the underlying set for an algebraic structure , and which respects the additional structure.
Symmetric relations contrast with non-symmetric relations, for which this pair-like behavior is not always observed. An example is the love-relation: if Dave loves Sara then it is possible but not necessary that Sara loves Dave. A special case of non-symmetric relations is asymmetric relations, which only go one way.
A relation R is said to be reflexive if a R a holds for every a in the domain of the relation. Every reflexive relation on a nonempty domain has infinite descending chains, because any constant sequence is a descending chain. For example, in the natural numbers with their usual order ≤, we have 1 ≥ 1 ≥ 1 ≥ ....
The most general notion is the intersection of an arbitrary nonempty collection of sets. If M {\displaystyle M} is a nonempty set whose elements are themselves sets, then x {\displaystyle x} is an element of the intersection of M {\displaystyle M} if and only if for every element A {\displaystyle A} of M , {\displaystyle M,} x {\displaystyle x ...