Math 166 Lecture Notes - S.

Nite 8/29/2012 Page 1 of 2

Section 1-2
1.2 The Number of Elements in a Set

Counting the Elements in a Set

If A is a set, then n(A) denotes the number of elements in the set.
If A and B are disjoint sets, then n(A B) = n(A) +n(B).

Example 1: If A = {a, c, d, g} and B = {b, e, f}, find n(A), n(B), n(A B), and
n(A B).









Example 2: For A = {a, b, c, d} and B = {b, d, f, h, e},
verify that n(A B) = n(A) + n(B) n(A B)








Example 3: In a survey of 100 students, it was found that 70 like football, 90
basketball, and 60 like both football and basketball. How many students like
football or basketball?




n(A B) = n(A) + n(B) n(A B)
Math 166 Lecture Notes - S. Nite 8/29/2012 Page 2 of 2
Section 1-2
Counting With Three Sets


Example 4: List all subsets of the set A = {a, b, c}.


Example 4: A survey of 100 college students who frequent the reading lounge of
a university revealed the following results:

40 read Time.
30 read Newsweek.
25 read U.S. News & World Report.
15 read Time and Newsweek.
12 read Time and U.S. News & World Report.
10 read Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.
4 read all three magazines.

Use a Venn diagram to illustrate the solutions to the following questions.

How many of the students surveyed read
a) At least one magazine?
b) Exactly one magazine?
c) Exactly two magazines?
d) None of these magazines?

n(A B C) = n(A) + n(B) + n(C) n(A B) n(A C) n(B C) + n(A B C)