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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.
As an example, "is less than" is a relation on the set of natural numbers; it holds, for instance, between the values 1 and 3 (denoted as 1 < 3), and likewise between 3 and 4 (denoted as 3 < 4), but not between the values 3 and 1 nor between 4 and 4, that is, 3 < 1 and 4 < 4 both evaluate to false.
More complicated relations can exist; for example, the set {1} is both a member and a proper subset of the set {1, {1}}. Just as arithmetic features binary operations on numbers, set theory features binary operations on sets. [9] The following is a partial list of them:
The examples "is greater than", "is at least as great as", and "is equal to" are transitive relations on various sets. As are the set of real numbers or the set of natural numbers: whenever x > y and y > z, then also x > z whenever x ≥ y and y ≥ z, then also x ≥ z whenever x = y and y = z, then also x = z. More examples of transitive ...
The examples use the poset (({,,}),) consisting of the set of all subsets of a three-element set {,,}, ordered by set inclusion (see Fig. 1). a is related to b when a ≤ b . This does not imply that b is also related to a , because the relation need not be symmetric .
It encodes the common concept of relation: an element is related to an element , if and only if the pair (,) belongs to the set of ordered pairs that defines the binary relation. An example of a binary relation is the "divides" relation over the set of prime numbers and the set of integers, in which each prime is related to each integer that is ...
It is the algebra of the set-theoretic operations of union, intersection and complementation, and the relations of equality and inclusion. For a basic introduction to sets see the article on sets, for a fuller account see naive set theory, and for a full rigorous axiomatic treatment see axiomatic set theory.
A set of polygons in an Euler diagram This set equals the one depicted above since both have the very same elements.. In mathematics, a set is a collection of different [1] things; [2] [3] [4] these things are called elements or members of the set and are typically mathematical objects of any kind: numbers, symbols, points in space, lines, other geometrical shapes, variables, or even other ...