1.1.1) Sets of Numbers

While the authors would like nothing more than to delve quickly and deeply into the sheer excitement that is Precalculus, experience has taught us that a brief refresher on some basic notions is welcome, if not completely necessary, at this stage. To that end, we present a brief summary of `set theory' and some of the associated vocabulary and notations we use in the text. Like all good Math books, we begin with a definition.

Definition 1.1.  A set is a well-defined collection of objects which are called the `elements' of the set. Here, `well-defined' means that it is possible to determine if something belongs to the collection or not, without prejudice.

For example, the collection of letters that make up the word "smolko" is well-defined and is a set, but the collection of the worst math teachers in the world is not well-defined, and so is not a set. In general, there are three ways to describe sets. They are

Ways to Describe Sets

1. The Verbal Method: Use a sentence to define a set.
2. The Roster Method: Begin with a left brace '{', list each element of the set only once and then end with a right brace '}'.
3. The Set-Builder Method: A combination of the verbal and roster methods using a "dummy variable" such as x.

For example, let S be the set described verbally as the set of letters that make up the word "smolko". A roster description of S would be { s , m , o , l , k }. Note that we listed `o' only once, even though it appears twice in "smolko." Also, the order of the elements doesn't matter, so { k , l , o , m , s } is also a roster description of S. A set-builder description of S is:

{ x | x is a letter in the word "smolko".}

The way to read this is: 'The set of elements x such that x is a letter in the word "smolko".' In each of the above cases, we may use the familiar equals sign '=' and write S = { s , m , o , l , k } or S = { x | x is a letter in the word "smolko".}. Clearly m is in S and q is not in S. We express these sentiments mathematically by writing m ∈ S and q ∉ S. Throughout your mathematical upbringing, you have encountered several famous sets of numbers. They are listed below.

Sets of Numbers

1. The Empty Set: ∅ = { } = { x | x ≠ x }. This is the set with no elements. Like the number '0,' it plays a vital role in mathematics.
2. The Natural Numbers: N = { 1 , 2 , 3 , ... } The periods of ellipsis here indicate that the natural numbers contain 1, 2, 3, 'and so forth'.
3. The Whole Numbers: W = { 0 , 1 , 2 , ... }
4. The Integers: Z = { ... , -3 , -2 , -1, 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , ... }
5. The Rational Numbers: Q = { a/b | a ∈ Z and b ∈ Z }. Rational numbers are the ratios of integers (provided the denominator is not zero!) It turns out that another way to describe the rational numbers is:
   Q = { x | x possesses a repeating or terminating decimal representation.}
6. The Real Numbers: R = { x | x possesses a decimal representation.}
7. The Irrational Numbers: P = { x | x is a non-rational real number.} Said another way, an irrational number is a decimal which neither repeats nor terminates.
8. The Complex Numbers: C = { a + bi | a,b ∈ R and i =√-1 } Despite their importance, the complex numbers play only a minor role in the text.

It is important to note that every natural number is a whole number, which, in turn, is an integer. Each integer is a rational number (take b = 1 in the above definition for Q) and the rational numbers are all real numbers, since they possess decimal representations. If we take b = 0 in the above definition of C, we see that every real number is a complex number. In this sense, the sets N, W, Z, Q, R, and C are `nested' like Matryoshka dolls.

For the most part, this textbook focuses on sets whose elements come from the real numbers R. Recall that we may visualize R as a line. Segments of this line are called intervals of numbers. Below is a summary of the so-called interval notation associated with given sets of numbers. For intervals with nite endpoints, we list the left endpoint, then the right endpoint. We use square brackets, `[' or `]', if the endpoint is included in the interval and use a filled-in or `closed' dot to indicate membership in the interval. Otherwise, we use parentheses, `(' or `)' and an `open' circle to indicate that the endpoint is not part of the set. If the interval does not have nite endpoints, we use the symbols -∞ to indicate that the interval extends indefinitely to the left and ∞ to indicate that the interval extends indefinitely to the right. Since infinity is a concept, and not a number, we always use parentheses when using these symbols in interval notation, and use an appropriate arrow to indicate that the interval extends indefinitely in one (or both) directions.

Interval Notation

Let a and b be real numbers with a < b.

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For an example, consider the sets of real numbers described below.

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We will often have occasion to combine sets. There are two basic ways to combine sets: intersection and union. We define both of these concepts below.

Definition 1.2.  Suppose A and B are two sets.

• The intersection of A and B: A ∩ B = { x | x ∈ A and x ∈ B }
• The union of A and B: A ∪ B = { x | x ∈ A or x ∈ B (or both) }

Said differently, the intersection of two sets is the overlap of the two sets - the elements which the sets have in common. The union of two sets consists of the totality of the elements in each of the sets, collected together. For example, if A = { 1 , 2 , 3 } and B = { 2 , 4 , 6 }, then A ∩ B = { 2 } and A ∪ B = { 1 , 2, 3 , 4 , 6 }. If A = [-5,3) and B = (1,∞), then we can find A∩B and A∪B graphically. To find A∩B, we shade the overlap of the two and obtain A∩B = (1,3). To find A∪B, we shade each of A and B and describe the resulting shaded region to find A ∪ B = [-5,∞).

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While both intersection and union are important, we have more occasion to use union in this text than intersection, simply because most of the sets of real numbers we will be working with are either intervals or are unions of intervals, as the following example illustrates.

Example 1.1.1.  Express the following sets of numbers using interval notation.

1. { x | x ≤ -2 or x ≥ 2 }
2. { x | x ≠ 3 }
3. { x | x ≠ ±3 }
4. { x | -1 < x ≤ 3 or x = 5 }

Solution.

1. The best way to proceed here is to graph the set of numbers on the number line and glean the answer from it. The inequality x ≤ -2 corresponds to the interval (-∞,-2] and the inequality x ≥ 2 corresponds to the interval [2,∞). Since we are looking to describe the real numbers x in one of these or the other, we have { x | x ≤ -2 or x ≥ 2 } = (-∞,-2] ∪ [2,∞).
       (image)
2. For the set { x | x ≠ 3 }, we shade the entire real number line except x = 3, where we leave an open circle. This divides the real number line into two intervals, (-∞,3) and (3,∞). Since the values of x could be in either one of these intervals or the other, we have that { x | x ≠ 3 } = (-∞,3) ∪ (3,∞)
       (image)
   
3. For the set { x | x ≠ ±3 }, we proceed as before and exclude both x = 3 and x = -3 from our set. This breaks the number line into three intervals, (-∞,3), (-3,3) and (3,∞). Since the set describes real numbers which come from the first, second or third interval, we have { x | x ≠ ±3 } = (-∞,3) ∪ (-3,3) ∪ (3,∞).
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4. Graphing the set { x | -1 < x ≤ 3 or x = 5 }, we get one interval, (-1,3] along with a single number, or point, {5}. While we could express the latter as [5,5] (Can you see why?), we choose to write our answer as { x | -1 < x ≤ 3 or x = 5 } = (-1,3] ∪ {5}.
       (image)

1.1.2) The Cartesian Coordinate Plane

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1.1.3) Introduction to Functions

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1.2.1) Graphs of Equations

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1.1.4) Exercises

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1.1.5) Answers

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1.2.2) Exercises

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1.2.3) Answers

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1.3.1) Exercises

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1.3.2) Answers

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1.4.1) Modeling with Functions

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1.4.2) Exercises

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1.4.3) Answers

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1.5.1) Exercises

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1.5.2) Answers

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1.6.1) General Function Behavior

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1.6.2) Exercises

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1.6.3) Answers

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1.7.1) Exercises

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1.7.2) Answers

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