Exercise 3.1.7

Let A, B, C be sets. Show that A B A and A B B. Furthermore, show that C A and C B if and only if C A B. In a similar spirit, show that A A B and B A B, and furthermore that A C and B C if and only if A B C.

Answers

Proof.

1.
(A B A) Let x A B be arbitrary. By Definition 3.1.23, we have x A and x B. In particular, x A, as desired. We prove that A B B similarly.
2.
(C AandC BC A B) It suffices to show that C AandC BC A B and vice versa.
  • (C AandC BC A B) Suppose that C is such that C A and C B simultaneously. Let x C be arbitrary. By Definition 3.1.15, since C is a subset of A, we have x A, and since C is a subset of B, we have x B. By Definition 3.1.23, we have x A B (because x A and x B).
  • (C A BC AandC B) Suppose that C is such that C A B. Let x C be arbitrary. Since C A B, we have x A B by Definition 3.1.15, which by Definition 3.1.23 means that x A and x B. Since by assumption x C, by Definition 3.1.15 we have C A (because x A) and C B (because x B).
3.
(A A B and B A B) Let x A be arbitrary. Since x A, by Axiom 3.4 we can conclude that x A B. We prove that B A B similarly.
4.
(A CandB CA B C) It suffices to show that A BandB CA B C and vice versa. To prove that A CandB CA B C we suppose that A C and B C. Let x A B be arbitrary. By Axiom 3.4 this means that x A or x B. In the case when x A we have x C since A C by assumption. In the case when x B we have x C since B C by assumption. As you can see, in both cases we have x C. Since our choice of x was arbitrary, this follows for all x A B. The other part A B CA CandB C follows similarly.
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2022-08-27 09:10
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