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Operations on Sets

Recall that a set is a collection of elements.

Given sets A and B , we can define the following operations:

Operation
Notation
Meaning
Intersection
A B
all elements which are in both A and B
Union
A B
all elements which are in either A or B (or both)
Difference
A B
all elements which are in A but not in B
Complement
A ¯ (or A C )
all elements which are not in A

 

Example 1:

Let A = { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 } and let B = { 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 } .

Then:

A B = { 3 , 4 }

A B = { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 }

A B = { 1 , 2 }

A C = { all real numbers except  1 , 2 , 3  and  4 }

Example 2:

Let A = { y , z } and let B = { x , y , z } .

Then:

A B = { y , z } A B = { x , y , z } A B = A C = { everything except  y  and  z }