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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".
Algebra of sets – Identities and relationships involving sets; Class (set theory) – Collection of sets in mathematics that can be defined based on a property of its members; Combinatorial design – Symmetric arrangement of finite sets; δ-ring – Ring closed under countable intersections
A class that is not a set (informally in Zermelo–Fraenkel) is called a proper class, and a class that is a set is sometimes called a small class. For instance, the class of all ordinal numbers , and the class of all sets, are proper classes in many formal systems.
In mathematics, a field of sets is a mathematical structure consisting of a pair (,) consisting of a set and a family of subsets of called an algebra over that contains the empty set as an element, and is closed under the operations of taking complements in , finite unions, and finite intersections.
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.
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.
One way to do this is to say that two sets "have the same number of elements", if and only if all the elements of one set can be paired with the elements of the other, in such a way that each element is paired with exactly one element. Accordingly, one can define two sets to "have the same number of elements"—if there is a bijection between them.
If X is any set, then the power set of X (the family of all subsets of X) forms a ring of sets in either sense.. If (X, ≤) is a partially ordered set, then its upper sets (the subsets of X with the additional property that if x belongs to an upper set U and x ≤ y, then y must also belong to U) are closed under both intersections and unions.