Q.Determine which of the following are empty sets, giving a reason in each case:
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🔒 Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Concept understanding — Types of Sets
Types of Sets — From Intuition to Precision
Think of a set as a collection of distinct objects — your school bag contains a set of books, the students in your class form a set, the vowels of the English alphabet make a set. That much is simple.
But not all collections are the same. Some are huge, some are tiny, some have nothing in them at all. The way we classify sets depends on how many elements they contain, and how those elements relate to a bigger "universe" we care about.
Let's build this from the ground up.
1. The Empty Set (Null Set)
Imagine a set of all living dinosaurs on Earth today. How many elements does it have? Zero. That's a perfectly valid set — it just happens to contain nothing.
The empty set (or null set) is the set with no elements. It is denoted by {} or ϕ (the Greek letter phi).
Key exam point: ϕ is not the same as {0} (which contains the number zero) or {ϕ} (which contains the empty set itself as an element). The empty set has zero elements; the other two have one element each.
2. Finite and Infinite Sets
Count the number of students in your class. You can — it's a finite number. Now try counting the number of natural numbers: 1,2,3,4,… You never finish. That's an infinite set.
A set is finite if its number of elements is a natural number (including zero). Otherwise, it is infinite.
Examples:
- A={2,4,6,8} is finite (4 elements).
- B={x:x is a prime number} is infinite (there are infinitely many primes).
A common mistake: "The set of all points on a line" is infinite, but "the set of all letters in the word 'MATHEMATICS'" is finite (only 8 distinct letters: M, A, T, H, E, I, C, S). Always check for distinctness.
3. Equal Sets
Two sets are equal if they contain exactly the same elements. Order doesn't matter, and repetition doesn't matter.
Sets A and B are equal (A=B) if every element of A is in B and every element of B is in A.
Example:
- {1,2,3}={3,1,2} — same elements, different order.
- {1,2,2,3}={1,2,3} — repetition is ignored in set notation.
4. Subsets and Supersets
This is where the real structure begins. A set A is a subset of B if every element of A is also an element of B. Think of it as A being "inside" B.
A⊆B means: for all x, if x∈A, then x∈B.
Examples:
- {2,4}⊆{1,2,3,4,5} — true.
- {2,6}⊆{1,2,3,4,5} — false (6 is not in the second set).
If A⊆B but A=B, we call A a proper subset, written A⊂B.
- Every set is a subset of itself: A⊆A.
- The empty set is a subset of every set: ϕ⊆A for any set A.
5. Universal Set
In most problems, we work within a fixed "universe" of elements — say, all natural numbers, or all students in your school. That big set is called the universal set, usually denoted by U.
The universal set is the set of all elements under consideration in a given context. It is not "everything in existence" — just everything relevant to the problem.
Example: If you're studying sets of numbers from 1 to 10, then U={1,2,3,…,10}.
6. Power Set …
[!TLDR] Check whether each condition can be satisfied by any element of its domain. [!ANSWER] All …
(i) 2x+1=0⇒x=−21, which is not a natural number, so no x∈N satisfies it — the set is ∅. (ii) The only even prime number is 2 itself; requiring it to also be "greater than 2" is impossible, so no number satisfies both conditions — the set is ∅. (iii) x2+1=0⇒x2=−1, which has no real solution (a real square is nev …
For each rule, try to solve the defining equation/condition within the stated domain, …
A common mistake on (iii) is forgetting the domain is R and instead trying to solve over the complex numbers, where x2+1=0 does …
- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.A collection of novels written by writer Munshi Prem Chand is:(a) an empty set(b) a finite set(c) an infinite set(d) Not a well defined collection.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The novels written by Munshi Prem Chand form a finite set, since he wrote a definite, countable number of novels during his lifetime.
A set is a well-defined collection of objects. 'Novels written by Munshi Prem Chand' is well-defined because for any given novel, we can definitely say whether it was written by him or not. Since Prem Chand wrote his novels over a finite lifetime, the total …
- CBSE 2024Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.When no element of set A is in set B and no element of set B is in set A, the set A and set B are called :(a) Empty sets(b) Disjoint sets(c) Equal sets(d) Equivalent sets
›Reveal solutionSolution
Sets with no element in common are disjoint sets, A∩B=∅.
When no element of A belongs to B and no element of B belongs to A, the two sets share nothing, so their intersection is empty: A∩B=∅. Such sets are disjoint.
- Empty set — a set with no elements (not about two sets).
- Equal sets — exactly the same elements. …
- CBSE 2024Set ANNUAL1 markQ.Express each of the following in one word / term : A set which contains no elements.
›Reveal solutionSolution
One-word term: Empty set (null set), ∅.
A set having no elements at all is the empty set, written ∅ or {}. It is also called the null set or void set, and it …
- CBSE 2023Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Number of proper subsets of a set having 5 elements are :(a) 16(b) 30(c) 31(d) 32
›Reveal solutionSolution
Total subsets =25=32; removing the set itself leaves 31 proper subsets.
Step 1 — a set with n elements has 2n subsets. Here n=5:
25=32
…
- CBSE 2023Set ANNUAL1 markQ.Express each of the following in one word / term : The set of all elements under study is known as
›Reveal solutionSolution
The set of all elements under study is the universal set.
In set theory, the universal set (denoted U or ξ) is the set that contains all the elements under consideration for a particular discussion; every other set in that context is a subse …
- CBSE 2022Set ANNUAL1 markQ.A = {x : x is an integer, -1/2 ≤ x ≤ 1/2}. Set A is ............ set. (Null, Infinite, Singleton)
›Reveal solutionSolution
Only the integer 0 lies in [−1/2,1/2], so A has exactly one element.
We need integers x satisfying −21≤x≤21.
The only integer in this range is x=0 (since −1/2=−0.5 and 1/2=0.5, and there is no other integer strictly between them or equal to them).
…
- CBSE 2022Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.From the following the one which is a null set, is :(a) {0}(b) { }(c) {1}(d) {1,2,3}
›Reveal solutionSolution
Empty set ={ }=∅, with n(∅)=0.
A null (empty) set is the set containing no elements, written { } or ∅.
- {0} has one element (the number 0), so it is not empty. …
- CBSE 2022Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.The maximum number of subsets that can be formed out of the set {2,3,4,5,6} is :(a) 32(b) 8(c) 64(d) 16
›Reveal solutionSolution
2n subsets with n=5 gives 32.
For a set with n elements, each element may independently be in or out of a subset, giving
2n subsets.
…
- CBSE 2021Set ANNUAL1 markQ.A = {x : x is a prime number}, Set A is ............. set.
›Reveal solutionSolution
A = {x : x is a prime number} has no last element, so it is infinite.
A set is finite if counting its elements terminates at a definite number; otherwise it is infinite.
…
- CBSE 2019Set ANNUAL1 markQ.Express each of the following in one word/term each:(vi) A set which does not contain any element.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The term is the Empty set (null set), denoted ∅ or {}.
A set that contains no elements is called the empty set, null set or void set, and is written as ∅ or {}. Its cardinality is n(∅)=0, e.g. the set of natural numbers between 2 and 3 is empty. Note …
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