Section 8.1: Introduction to Sets

Essential Ideas

• One of the most underlying and unifying ideas of mathematics is the notion of a set. This section introduces some of the terminology associated with sets. Some of the more common sets of numbers are:

  

• One-to-One Correspondence Two sets A and B are said to be in a one-to-one correspondence if we can find a pairing so that
  1. Each element of A is paired with precisely one element of B; and
  2. Each element of B is paired with precisely one element of A.