Set Theory Ordered Pairs and Cartesian Product with R

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Part 5 of 5 in the series Set Theory
Ordered and Unordered Pairs

A pair set is a set with two members, for example, {2,3}, which can also be thought of as an unordered pair, in that {2,3}={3,2}. However, we seek a more a strict and rich object that tells us more about two sets and how their elements are ordered. Call this object 2,3, which specifies that 2 is the first component and 3 is the second component. We also make the requirement that 2,33,2. We can also represent this object, generalized as x,y, as:
x,y=u,v

Therefore x=u and y=v. This property is useful in the formal definition of an ordered pair, which is stated here but not explored in-depth. The currently accepted definition of an ordered pair was given by Kuratowski in 1921 (Enderton, 1977, pp. 36), though there exist several other definitions.

x,y={{x},{x,y}}

The pair x,y can be represented as a point on a Cartesian coordinate plane.

Cartesian Product

The Cartesian product A×B of two sets A and B is the collection of all ordered pairs x,y with xA and yB. Therefore, the Cartesian product of two sets is a set itself consisting of ordered pair members. A set of ordered pairs is defined as a ‘relation.’

For example, consider the sets A={1,2,3} and B={2,4,6}. The Cartesian product A×B is then:

A×B={{1,2},{1,4},{1,6},{2,2},{2,4},{2,6},{3,2},{3,4},{3,6}}

Whereas the Cartesian product B×A is:

B×A={{2,1},{2,2},{2,3},{4,1},{4,2},{4,3},{6,1},{6,2},{6,3}}

The following function implements computing the Cartesian product of two sets A and B.

cartesian <- function(a, b) {
  axb <- list()
  k <- 1
  for (i in a) {
    for (j in b) {
      axb[[k]] <- c(i,j)
      k <- k + 1
    }
  }
  return(axb)
}

Let’s use the function to calculate the Cartesian product A×B and B×A to see if it aligns with our results above.

a <- c(1,2,3)
b <- c(2,4,6)

as.data.frame(cartesian(a, b))
##   c.1..2. c.1..4. c.1..6. c.2..2. c.2..4. c.2..6. c.3..2. c.3..4. c.3..6.
## 1       1       1       1       2       2       2       3       3       3
## 2       2       4       6       2       4       6       2       4       6


as.data.frame(cartesian(b, a))
##   c.2..1. c.2..2. c.2..3. c.4..1. c.4..2. c.4..3. c.6..1. c.6..2. c.6..3.
## 1       2       2       2       4       4       4       6       6       6
## 2       1       2       3       1       2       3       1       2       3

Both outputs agree to our previous results.

Some Cartesian Product Theorems

We can state some theorems related to the Cartesian product of two sets. The first theorem states:

If A is a set, then A×= and ×A=.

We can demonstrate this theorem with our cartesian() function.

cartesian(a, c()) # c() represents the empty set.
## list()


cartesian(c(), a)
## list()

The outputs are an empty list which is equivalent to the empty set for our purposes of demonstration.

The next theorem involves three sets A,B,C.

  • A×(BC)=(A×B)(A×C)
  • A×(BC)=(A×B)(A×C)
  • (AB)×C=(A×C)(B×C)
  • (AB)×C=(A×C)(B×C)

We can demonstrate each in turn with a combination of our cartesian() from above, and the set.union() and set.intersection() functions from a previous post on set unions and intersections. The base R functions union() and intersect() can be used instead of the functions we defined previously.

a <- c(1,2,3)
b <- c(2,4,6)
c <- c(1,4,7)

The first identity A×(BC)=(A×B)(A×C).

ident1.rhs <- cartesian(a, set.intersection(b, c)) # Right-hand Side
ident1.lhs <- set.intersection(cartesian(a, b), cartesian(a, c)) # Left-hand Side

isequalset(ident1.rhs, ident1.lhs)
## [1] TRUE


as.data.frame(ident1.rhs)
##   c.1..4. c.2..4. c.3..4.
## 1       1       2       3
## 2       4       4       4


as.data.frame(ident1.lhs)
##   c.1..4. c.2..4. c.3..4.
## 1       1       2       3
## 2       4       4       4

The second identity A×(BC)=(A×B)(A×C).

ident2.rhs <- cartesian(a, set.union(b, c))
ident2.lhs <- set.union(cartesian(a, b), cartesian(a, c))

isequalset(ident2.rhs, ident2.lhs)
## [1] TRUE


as.data.frame(ident2.rhs)
##   c.1..2. c.1..4. c.1..6. c.1..1. c.1..7. c.2..2. c.2..4. c.2..6. c.2..1.
## 1       1       1       1       1       1       2       2       2       2
## 2       2       4       6       1       7       2       4       6       1
##   c.2..7. c.3..2. c.3..4. c.3..6. c.3..1. c.3..7.
## 1       2       3       3       3       3       3
## 2       7       2       4       6       1       7


as.data.frame(ident2.lhs)
##   c.1..2. c.1..4. c.1..6. c.2..2. c.2..4. c.2..6. c.3..2. c.3..4. c.3..6.
## 1       1       1       1       2       2       2       3       3       3
## 2       2       4       6       2       4       6       2       4       6
##   c.1..1. c.1..7. c.2..1. c.2..7. c.3..1. c.3..7.
## 1       1       1       2       2       3       3
## 2       1       7       1       7       1       7

The third identity (AB)×C=(A×C)(B×C).

ident3.rhs <- cartesian(set.intersection(a, b), c)
ident3.lhs <- set.intersection(cartesian(a, c), cartesian(b, c))

isequalset(ident3.rhs, ident3.lhs)
## [1] TRUE


as.data.frame(ident3.rhs)
##   c.2..1. c.2..4. c.2..7.
## 1       2       2       2
## 2       1       4       7


as.data.frame(ident3.lhs)
##   c.2..1. c.2..4. c.2..7.
## 1       2       2       2
## 2       1       4       7

We finish the post with the fourth identity (AB)×C=(A×C)(B×C).

ident4.rhs <- cartesian(set.union(a,b), c)
ident4.lhs <- set.union(cartesian(a,c), cartesian(b,c))

isequalset(ident4.rhs, ident4.lhs)
## [1] TRUE


as.data.frame(ident4.rhs)
##   c.1..1. c.1..4. c.1..7. c.2..1. c.2..4. c.2..7. c.3..1. c.3..4. c.3..7.
## 1       1       1       1       2       2       2       3       3       3
## 2       1       4       7       1       4       7       1       4       7
##   c.4..1. c.4..4. c.4..7. c.6..1. c.6..4. c.6..7.
## 1       4       4       4       6       6       6
## 2       1       4       7       1       4       7


as.data.frame(ident4.lhs)
##   c.1..1. c.1..4. c.1..7. c.2..1. c.2..4. c.2..7. c.3..1. c.3..4. c.3..7.
## 1       1       1       1       2       2       2       3       3       3
## 2       1       4       7       1       4       7       1       4       7
##   c.4..1. c.4..4. c.4..7. c.6..1. c.6..4. c.6..7.
## 1       4       4       4       6       6       6
## 2       1       4       7       1       4       7
References

Enderton, H. (1977). Elements of set theory (1st ed.). New York: Academic Press.

MacGillivray, G. Cartesian Products and Relations. Victoria, BC. Retrieved from http://www.math.uvic.ca/faculty/gmacgill/guide/RF.pdf

Stacho, Juraj (n.d.). Cartesian Product [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~stacho/macm101.pdf

The post Set Theory Ordered Pairs and Cartesian Product with R appeared first on Aaron Schlegel.

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