RELATION

Arelationis any association or link

between elements of one set, called
thedomainor theset of inputs, and
another set, called therangeorset
of outputs.

Example:

Say that a relation is asubset of

ordered pairsdrawn from theset of all
possible ordered pairs(of elements of
two other sets, which we normally refer
to as theCartesian productof those
sets). Formally, R is a relation if.
R X Y = {(x, y) | x X, y Y}

 For
the
domain
X
and
codomain(range)
Y.
Theinverse
relationof R, which is written as R-1,
is what we get when we interchange
the X and Y values:
R-1= {(y, x) | (x, y) R}

Two real world examples

of Relation
1. One person has one passport.
2. A car model is made by one company.
.The two examples have a related values
to themselves.

Properties
When we are looking at relations, we can observe some
special properties different relations can have.

Reflexive
A relation isreflexiveif, we observe that for all values a:
aRa
In other words, all values are related to themselves.
The relation of equality, "=" is reflexive. Observe that
for, say, all numbers a (the domain isR):
a=a so "=" is reflexive.
In a reflexive relation, we have arrows for all values in
the domain pointing back to themselves:
Note that is also reflexive (a a for any a inR). On
the other hand, the relation < is not (a < a is false for
any a inR).

Symmetric
A relation issymmetricif, we observe that for all values of
a and b:
aRb
ImpliesbRa The relation of equality again is symmetric.
Ifx=y, we can also write thaty=xalso.
In a symmetric relation, for each arrow we have also an
opposite arrow, i.e. there is either no arrow
betweenxandy, or an arrow points fromxtoyand an
arrow back fromyto x:

Neither nor < is symmetric (2 3 and 2 < 3 but neither

3 2 nor 3 < 2 is true).

Transitive
A relation istransitiveif for all valuesa,b,c:
aRbandbRcimpliesaRc
The relationgreater-than">" is transitive. Ifx>y, andy>z,
then it is true thatx>z. This becomes clearer when we write
down what is happening into words.xis greater
thanyandyis greater thanz. Soxis greater than
bothyandz.
The relationis-not-equal"" is not transitive.
Ifxyandyzthen we might havex=zorxz(for
example 1 2 and 2 3 and 1 3 but 0 1 and 1 0 and
0 = 0).
In the arrow diagram, every arrow between two
valuesaandb, andbandc, has an arrow going straight
fromatoc.

Antisymmetric
A relation isantisymmetricif we observe
that for all valuesaandb:
aRbandbRaimplies thata=b
Notice that antisymmetric is not the same
as "not symmetric."
Take the relationgreater than or equal to,
"" Ifxy, andy x, thenymust be
equal tox. a relation is anti-symmetric if
and only if aA, (a,a)R

Trichotomy
A relation satisfiestrichotomyif we
observe that for all valuesaandbit holds
true that:aRborbRa
The relationis-greater-or-equalsatisfies
since, given 2 real numbersaandb, it is
true that whetheraborba(both
ifa=b).