Language of Sets

2026-01-12

What is a set

An unordered collection of unique elements.

eg. \(\{ 1, 2, 3 \}\)

^ Set-Roster Notation

Notation

Let \(A\) be a set

Set-Builder Notation

Let \(P(x)\) be some property about \(x\) . The notation \(\{ x \in A \mid P(x) \}\) or \(\{ x \in A \colon P(x) \}\) means the set of all \(x\) in \(A\) such that \(P(x)\) is true.

Definitions

Cardinality

The cardinality of a set \(A\) , denoted as \(\lvert A \rvert\) (not absolute value) or \(N(A)\) , is the number of elements in \(A\) .

The Empty Set

\(\emptyset = \{ \}\)

The empty set is a subset of every set.

n-tuples

In sets, order/repeats dont matter. In n-tuples, both of these matter. n-tuples are denoted by parentheses. ordered pairs refer to 2-tuples, and ordered triples refer to 3-tuples.

Cartesian Products

For sets \(A\) and \(B\) , \(A \times B = \{(a,b) \mid a \in A \text{ and } b \in B \}\)

Strings

"The're just words"

Bit Strings

Strings consisting of 0's and 1's

made with \(\KaTeX\)