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Mathematics · Ch 14 — Sets and Relations

Complement of a Set

14.1.5.1

Complement of a Set

The COMPLEMENT of a set A, denoted A′A' or AcA^c, is defined as A′={x/x∈U,x∉A}A' = \{x/x\in U, x\notin A\} — that is, the set of all elements of the universal set U that are NOT in A. For example, let X={0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}X=\{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8\} be the universal set and A={2,4,6,8}A=\{2,4,6,8\}; then the complement of A is A′={0,1,3,5,7}A'=\{0,1,3,5,7\} — every element of X that isn't in A. …

Figure 1Fig. 5.2 — complement of a set

What this figure shows. A Venn diagram showing the universal set X as an outer rectangle containing a circle labelled A inside it; the shaded region is everything inside the rectangle but outside the circle, visually depicting the complement A' as 'all of the universal set except A' — used alongside the worked example X={0,...,8}, A={2,4,6,8} …