Let A = <mo fence="false" stretchy="false">{ 1 , 2 , . . . , n <mo fence=

Laylah Mora

Laylah Mora

Answered question

2022-05-27

Let A = { 1 , 2 , . . . , n }, and R be a relation on A (so R A × A)
i) What is the minimal possible number of elements in R?
I tried calculating this as just a normal cartesian product which would have n 2 within the set. So R would also need n2 number of elements to be a proper subset of A × A.
ii) What is the maximal possible number of elements in R?
I'm a bit more confused by this one, but I think it would have something to do with calculating it as 2 n 2 i.e., if n was 3 then it would be 2 9 or 512 as the maximum number of elements.

Answer & Explanation

Makai Blackwell

Makai Blackwell

Beginner2022-05-28Added 11 answers

Step 1
You are confusing things here. A relation is nothing but a subset of a Cartesian Product (in set theory at least). So a relation R on A means that R is a subset of A × A. You correctly pointed out that the size of a Cartesian product is equal to the product of the sizes (in the finite case at least). Like you wrote, A × A has n 2 elements.
Step 2
Now,for any 2 finite sets X and Y such that X Y it is always true that | X | | Y | . And since R and R A × A, what can you conclude about the size of R?
Jonathan Kent

Jonathan Kent

Beginner2022-05-29Added 2 answers

Step 1
I think you may be missing some details concerning the definition of a binary relation from a set to another. Let us recall its definition.
Let X be a set. A binary relation on X is a subset R of the Cartesian product X 2 , i.e. X × X.
Note that the any element from P ( X × X ) is a binary relation on X. In particular, is a legit binary relation on X. Since has no elements, there is not a minimal number of elements that a subset of X 2 must have in order to be a binary relation on X.
For the maximal number, the story is quite different. Taking X = { i N : i n }, where n N (as in your example), the largest set in P ( X 2 ) is X 2 itself. And note that X 2 has n 2 elements. No other element of P ( X 2 ) has this many objects (you can easily check this by yourself). So the maximal number of elements of a subset R of X 2 in order for R to a be a binary relation on X is n 2 .

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