Q.The maximum number of equivalence relations on the set $A=\{1,2,3\}$ is ____.

Bell Numbers: Counting Ways to Group Things

Take three distinct friends A, B, C. In how many ways can you split them into non-empty groups (called blocks), where the order of groups doesn't matter and each person lands in exactly one group?

• One block: $\{A,B,C\}$
• Two blocks: $\{A\},\{B,C\}$ ; $\{B\},\{A,C\}$ ; $\{C\},\{A,B\}$
• Three blocks: $\{A\},\{B\},\{C\}$

That is $1+3+1=5$ ways. This count is the Bell number $B_3=5$.

The Intuition

Bell numbers answer: "In how many ways can I break $n$ distinct items into unlabeled piles?" The piles have no order — $\{A,B\}$ with $\{C\}$ is the same partition as $\{C\}$ with $\{A,B\}$; only the grouping counts. The sequence grows quickly:

where $B_0=1$ counts the single empty partition.

The Recurrence

There is no simple closed formula, but Bell numbers satisfy a neat recurrence:

Why it works: to partition $\{1,2,\dots,n+1\}$, look at the block containing the element $n+1$. If that block holds $n-k$ of the other elements, they can be chosen in $\binom{n}{\,n-k\,}=\binom{n}{k}$ ways, and the remaining $k$ elements form any partition — $B_k$ of them. Summing over all sizes gives the formula.

For example, $B_4 = \binom{3}{0}B_0+\binom{3}{1}B_1+\binom{3}{2}B_2+\binom{3}{3}B_3 = 1+3+6+5 = 15.$

Link to Stirling Numbers

A Stirling number of the second kind $S(n,k)$ counts partitions into exactly $k$ blocks. Bell numbers are their total:

For $n=3$: $S(3,1)=1,\; S(3,2)=3,\; S(3,3)=1$, so $B_3 = 1+3+1 = 5$, matching our count. …