Sets and Boolean Algebra
MATHEMATICAL THEORY FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS SETS AND SUBSETS Denitions (1) A set A in any collection of objects which have a common characteristic. If an object x has the characteristic, then we say that it is an element or a member of the set and we write x ∈ A.Ifxis not a member of the set A, then we write x/∈A. It may be possible to specify a set by writing down all of its elements. If x, y, z are the only elements of the set A, then the set can be written as (2) A = {x, y, z}. Similarly, if A is a nite set comprising n elements, then it can be denoted by (3) A = {x1,x2,...,xn}. The three dots, which stand for the phase “and so on”, are called an ellipsis. The subscripts which are applied to the x’s place them in a one-to-one cor- respondence with set of integers {1, 2,...,n} which constitutes the so-called index set. However, this indexing imposes no necessary order on the elements of the set; and its only pupose is to make it easier to reference the elements. Sometimes we write an expression in the form of (4) A = {x1,x2,...}. Here the implication is that the set A may have an innite number of elements; in which case a correspondence is indicated between the elements of the set and the set of natural numbers or positive integers which we shall denote by (5) Z = {1, 2,...}. (Here the letter Z, which denotes the set of natural numbers, derives from the German verb zahlen: to count) An alternative way of denoting a set is to specify the characteristic which is common to its elements.
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