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If A is a set, then the absolute complement of A (or simply the complement of A) is the set of elements not in A (within a larger set that is implicitly defined). In other words, let U be a set that contains all the elements under study; if there is no need to mention U, either because it has been previously specified, or it is obvious and unique, then the absolute complement of A is the ...
In set theory, a universal set is a set which contains all objects, including itself. [1] In set theory as usually formulated, it can be proven in multiple ways that a universal set does not exist. However, some non-standard variants of set theory include a universal set.
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 ...
A true universal set is not included in standard set theory (see Paradoxes below), but is included in some non-standard set theories. Given a universal set U and a subset A of U, the complement of A (in U) is defined as A C := {x ∈ U | x ∉ A}. In other words, A C ("A-complement"; sometimes simply A', "A-prime" ) is the set of all members of ...
The algebra of sets is the set-theoretic analogue of the algebra of numbers. Just as arithmetic addition and multiplication are associative and commutative, so are set union and intersection; just as the arithmetic relation "less than or equal" is reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive, so is the set relation of "subset".
The power set of the set of natural numbers can be put in a one-to-one correspondence with the set of real numbers (see Cardinality of the continuum). The power set of a set S, together with the operations of union, intersection and complement, is a Σ-algebra over S and can be viewed as the prototypical example of a Boolean algebra.
For any non-empty set X, P = { X} is a partition of X, called the trivial partition. Particularly, every singleton set {x} has exactly one partition, namely { {x} }. For any non-empty proper subset A of a set U, the set A together with its complement form a partition of U, namely, { A, U ∖ A}.
When A is a subset of U, the set difference U \ A is also called the complement of A in U. In this case, if the choice of U is clear from the context, the notation A c is sometimes used instead of U \ A, particularly if U is a universal set as in the study of Venn diagrams.