THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

MATH1001 Fundamental Concepts of Mathematics

Tutorial 1
1. (a)
p
T
T
F
F

q pq
T
F
F
F
T
F
F
T

(b) p q = (p q) = p q. [How to think? Note that (p q) is true whenever

one of them is true.]
(c) p = p p, p q = (p q) = (p q) (p q) and p q = p q = (p p) (q
q).
2. Note that the statement is false only if p is false and q is true, hence the negation of it is
p q. Therefore the statement is
( p q) = p q.
3. [Note: The statement indeed means There exists a person X and a person Y , Y 6= X
such that the number of friends of X equals to the number of friends of Y . The negation
is For any person X, for any person Y 6= X, the number of friends of X does not equal
the number of friends of Y .]
Assume the contrary, no two persons have the same number of friends. For each of the n
persons, there are exactly n possible numbers of friends, meaning he may have 0, 1, . . . n 1
friends. Hence there is a person with 0 friends and a person with n1 friends (i.e. everyone
is his friend), which is impossible.
4. Suppose that n2 + n c = 0 has an integer solution N , then c = N 2 + N = N (N + 1) is a
product of two consecutive integers and thus an even integer.
A possible direct proof is: Suppose that c is an odd integer. For any integer n, n2 + n + c =
n(n+1)+c is a sum of an even number and an odd number, hence is not even, and therefore
n2 + n + c 6= 0. Thus n2 + n + c = 0 has no integer solution.
The direct proof is indeed not so direct, indeed the proof by contrapositive seems
to be more natural in this case.

5. Assume that any even natural number greater than 2 is a sum of two primes. Let n be an
odd natural number greater than 5, then n 5 is an even natural number greater than 2
and hence a sum of two primes p and q, and there fore n = 5 + p + q.
We do not know whether the converse is true or false. It is the Goldbergs conjecture.

Tutorial 2
1. (a) A \ B = B \ A iff A = B.
Proof. If A \ B = B \ A then A = (A B) (A \ B) = (A B) (B \ A) = B. The
converse is easy.
(b) [How to think? From the Venn diagram, we see that the left side is the right side
minus the two regions (A B) \ C and (A C) \ B.]
A \ (B C) = (A \ B) (A \ C) iff A B = A C.
Proof. A \ (B C) = (A \ B) (A \ C) iff (A B) \ C = (A C) \ B = . As
A B = ((A B) \ C) (A B C) and A C = ((A C) \ B) (A B C), the
second statement holds iff A B = A B C = A C iff A B = A C.
(c) P (A B) = P (A) P (B) iff A B or B A.
Proof. The ifpart is easy. For the only if part, we suppose P (A B) = P (A)
P (B), then A B P (A B) = P (A) P (B) and thus A B P (A) and then
B A B A, or A B P (B) and then A A B A.
(d) It is always false.
2. For any a A, take b B, we have (a, b) (A B) (B A) C C, and hence a B.
Therefore A C.
Similarly, B C.
For any c C, we have (c, c) C C (A B) (B A) and hence (c, c) A B or
(c, c) B A, and in both case, we have c A and c B. Therefore C A and C B.
Thus A = B = C.
Note that X Y = iff either X = or Y = . Thus if A = , then the equality holds
iff C = but B can be any set. Similarly, if B = then the equality holds iff C = but
A can be any set. Finally, if C = then the equality holds if A = or B = .
3. R is reflexive. For all a A, we have aRa, and so aRa and aRa, and so aSa. Hence S is
reflexive.
R is symmetric. Let a, b A such that aSb. It means aRc and cRb for some c A, and by
the symmetric property of R, we have cRa and bRc, and so bRa. Hence R is symmetric.
R is transitive. Let a, b, c A such that aSb and bSc. It means aRx, xRb, bRy, yRc for
some x, y A, and by the transitivity of R, we have aRb and bRc, and so aSb. Hence S is
transitive.
Thus (a) follows and the answers to (b) and (c) are both true.

4. (a) For any f (x) R[x], f (x) f (x) = 0(x3 + x + 1) and hence f (x) f (x). is
reflexive.
For any f (x), g(x) R[x], f (x) g(x), i.e. f (x) g(x) = h(x)(x3 + x + 1) implies
g(x) f (x) = (h(x))(x3 + x + 1), i.e. g(x) f (x). is symmetric.
For any f (x), g(x), h(x) R[x], f (x) g(x) and g(x) h(x) implies f (x) g(x) =
r(x)(x3 + x + 1) and g(x) h(x) = s(x)(x3 + x + 1), and hence f (x) h(x) =
(r(x) + s(x))(x3 + x + 1), i.e. f (x) h(x). is transitive.
Therefore is an equivalence relation.
(b) x/ = {x + h(x)(x3 + x + 1) : h(x) R[x]},
x3 / = {x3 +h(x)(x3 +x+1) : h(x) R[x]} = {x+1+h(x)(x3 +x+1) : h(x) R[x]}.
(c) R[x]/ = {ax2 + bx + c/ : a, b, c R}.
5. m n if n is a multiple of m, i.e. n = km for some natural number k.
(a) Please refer to the solution to test 2.
(b)

i. {2, 3} has no least element.

ii. {2, 3} has no greatest element.
iii. The element of A which is the smallest in the usual sense, is a minimal element.
iv. {2k : k = 1, 2, . . .} has no maximal element.
v. gcd(A) is the greatest lower bound of A.
vi. Any unbound set has no least upper bound.

(c) If the set A is finite, then only (b)(iv) and (b)(vi) changes. The element of A which
is the largest in the usual sense, is a maximal element, and that lcd(A) is the least
upper bound of A.

Tutorial 3
1. (a) Since each of the n elements of X can be assigned to anyone of the m elements of Y ,
thus there are totally mn possible functions, i.e. the number of elements of Y X is mn .
(b)

i. Define a function F : P (X) 2X by


F (A)(x) =

1 xX
.
0 x
/X

Consider a function G : 2X P (X) by

G(f ) = f 1 ({1}).
Then F G(f ) = f and G F (A) = A are two identity maps, hence G = F 1
and so F is a bijection.
ii. Define a function F : X X X 2 by

F (x, y)(n) =

x n=0
.
y n=1

F (x, y) = F (u, v) implies

(x, y) = (F (x, y)(0), F (x, y), 1) = (F (u, v)(0), F (u, v)(1)) = (u, v),
hence F is injective. For any f X 2 , F (f (0), f (1)) = f , hence F is surjective.
iii. Define a function F : (Z Y )X Z Y X by
F (f )(y, x) = f (x)(y) for any x X, y Y.
F (f ) = F (g) implies f (x)(y) = g(x)(y) for any x X, y X, and so f (x) = g(x)
for any x X, hence f = g. Therefore F is injective. For any g Z Y X ,
take h (Z Y )X defined by h(x)(y) = g(y, x), and so g = F (h). Therefore F is
surjective.
iv. Define a function F : (Y Z)X Y X Z X by
F (g) = (g1 , g2 ), where (g1 (x), g2 (x)) = g(x, y).
Conversely, consider the function G : Y X Z X (Y Z)X defined by
G(g1 , g2 )(x) = (g1 (x), g2 (x)) for any x X.
It is not hard to show that G = F 1 .

(c) Note that formally a relation is an ordered triple (A, B, G), where G A B. If one
of A and B is an empty set, then A B = and the only relation is (A, B, ).
If A = , then every element of A is assigned to a unique element of B is true.
Hence (, X, ) and (, , ) are the unique elements of X and respectively.
If A = X 6= and B = , then every element of A is assigned to a unique element
of B is false. Hence there is no functions from X to . Therefore X = .
2. (a) f (n) = n, g

2
(b) f (n) = 1

= f and (f + g)(n) = 2n are injective.


n=1
3 n = 1, 2
is not.
n = 2 and g(n) = n are injective, but (f + g)(n) =
2n n > 3
n>3


1 n = 1
1 n = 1, 2
(c) f (n) =
and g(n) = 3 n = 2, 3 are not injective, but (f + g)(n) = 2n

n n>3
n n>3
is.

For surjectivity, only (b) is possible, an example is f = g = iN . It is because there does

not exists m, n N such that m + n = 1. If we consider N0 instead, then we have



0
n = 2k
k
n = 2k
k
n = 2k
(a) f (n) =
and g(n) =
and (f + g)(n) =
k n = 2k + 1
0 n = 2k + 1
k n = 2k + 1
are all surjecive;


0 n is even
n n is even
(c) f (n) =
and g(n) =
are not surjective, but (f + g)(n) = n
n n is odd
0 n is odd
is.
3. For each real number , fix a decimal expansion = 0.1 2 . . .. For example, 0.4=0.3999...
are two decimal expanisions of two-fifth, so we just choose one of them. Define a function
: R R R by (0.1 2 . . . , 0.1 2 . . .) = 0.1 1 2 2 . . . . It is not hard to see that is
injective, but it is not surjective. For instance, if we choose 0.400... instead of 0.3999, then
0.430909...
/ Im.
4. If f is injective, then so is f |Y .
Proof. f |Y (y1 ) = f |Y (y2 ) implies f (y1 ) = f (y2 ) implies y1 = y2 .
The converse is not true. For example f : Z N defined by f (n) = n2 is not injective buy
f |N is.
If f |Y is surjective, then so is f .
Proof. Take b B, then there exists a Y A such that f (a) = f |Y (a) = b.

The converse is not ture. For example f : Z Z defined by f (n) = n is surjective buy f |N
is not.
5. (a) is routine (but you have to do it!) (b) First, we need to show that F is well-defined (i.e.
the value of F (x) is independent of the choice of representative of x): Suppose a/ = b/ ,
then a b, i.e. f (a) = f (b) and hence F (a/ ) = F (b/ ). Therefore F is well-defined.
Next, we need to show that F is bijective, again it is routine.

Tutorial 4
1. (a) A necessary and sufficient condition for every choice function to be injective is that
Ai Aj = for any i 6= j.
Proof. Suppose that every choice function is injective. If Ai Aj =
6 for some
i 6= j, then take x Ai Aj and define a choice function f such that f (Ai ) = x and
f (Aj ) = x, which is not injective, a contradiction. Hence Ai Aj = for any i 6= j.
On the converse, suppose that Ai Aj = for all i, j. Consider a choice function
f , suppose that f (Ar ) = f (As ) then f (Ar ) Ar As , and thus Ar As 6= and
therefore Ar = As . Hence f is injective.
(b) A neccessary and sufficient condition for every choice function to be bijective is that
B is a partition of A and that each Aj is a singleton.
Proof. Note that there is a bijection between A and B if and only if A have exactly
10 elements, if and only if B is a partition of A and each Aj is a singleton. The result
follows immediately.
2. We need to show that S is infinite and countable.
If S is finite, the AS A is a finite union of finite set, contradiction (ii). Therefore S is
infinite.
To show that S is countable, there are many ways. Below are two of them:
(1) Let Sk be the set of subsets of N with k elements, then card(Sk ) card(N) and so Sk
is countable. S k Sk is a countable union of countable set, and thus S is countable.
(2) Without loss of generality, we can assume
/ S. Define F : S N by F (S) = kS pk ,
where pk denotes the k-th prime. It is easy to see that F is injective.
3. [How to think? There are many ways, but here I will try to use the antisymmetric property
of cardinals.]

card(Z Z) card((Z Z) \ (N {0})) card((Z \ N) (Z \ N)) = card(Z Z).

The first two inequalities are
 just set inclusions. For the final equalities, it follows that
k
n = 2k
there is a bijection f (n) =
and hence card(Z \ N) = card(Z).
k n = 1 2k
Therefore card(Z Z) = card((Z Z) \ (N {0})).


aj+1 j < n
4. Suppose A is finite, say A = {a1 , . . . , an }. Define f : A A by f (aj ) =
.
a1 j = n
Then for any nonempty subset B with f (B) B, then B = A (as aj B implies aj+1 B
for j < n and an B implies a1 B). Hence there exists a function f such that no proper
subset B of A satisfying f (B) B.
Suppose A is infinite. Take a function f : A A. Choose a A, and define B = {f j (a) :
j = 1, 2, . . .}, where f 1 (a) = a and f k (a) = f k1 (a). Then f (B) B. We have either
a B or a
/ B. If a B then f j (a) = a and then B is finite. Hence in both case, B is a
proper subset of A satisfying f (B) B.
Tutorial 5
See the assignment solutions.