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Chapter 3

The Symmetric Dierence is


Associative
Let X be a set.
Definition 4 If A X then the complement Ac = X A.
Proposition 5 Acc = A
A Ac = X
A Ac =
c
(A B) = Ac B c
c
(A B) = Ac B c
A B = A Bc
Definition 6 The symmetric dierence of two sets is AB = (A B)(B A) = (A B c )(B Ac ).
Proposition 7 AB = (A B) (Ac B c )
Proof.
AB

=
=
=
=

(A B c ) (B Ac )
(A B) (A Ac ) (B c B) (B c Ac )
(A B) X X (B c Ac )
(A B) (B c Ac )

Proposition 8 (AB)c = (Ac B) (A B c )


Proof.
(AB)c

= [(A B c ) (B Ac )]c
= (A B c )c (Ac B)c
= (Ac B) (A B c ) .

Proposition 9 (AB) C = (A B C) (A B c C c ) (Ac B C c ) (Ac B c C)


Proof.
(AB) C

= {(AB) C} {(AB)c C c }
= {[(A B) (Ac B c )] C} {[(Ac B) (A B c )] C c }
= {(A B C) (Ac B c C)} {(Ac B C c ) (A B c C c )}

Theorem 10 The symmetric dierence operator is associative.


Proof.
(AB) C

=
=
=
=

(A B C) (A B c C c ) (Ac B C c ) (Ac B c C)
(B C A) (B C c Ac ) (B c C c Ac ) (B c C c A)
(BC) A
A (BC)

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