Glam Prestige Journal

Bright entertainment trends with youth appeal.

$\begingroup$

Say I have a set, $\{a,mc,d\}$. Would $\{a,mc\}$, $\{a,d\}$, and $\{mc,d\}$ be pairwise disjoint? And what about $\{b,g\}$, is $\{b,b\}$, $\{g,g\}$ pairwise disjoint?

$\endgroup$ 3

1 Answer

$\begingroup$

Say we have some collection of sets $S_1, S_2, S_3, ..., S_n$. We say that these sets are $k$-wise disjoint if any $k$ of these sets have empty intersection, that is $S_{x_1} \cap S_{x_2} \cap \dots \cap S_{x_k} = \varnothing$ for any choice of $x$'s. Note that the smaller $k$ is, the stronger the statement.

Pairwise disjoint is another way of saying $2$-wise disjoint, that is if you pick any two of these sets then they have empty intersection.

A related term is mutually disjoint, which also means $n$-wise disjoint. This just means that there does not exist a single element found in all of these sets.

Example: Consider the sets $\{1, 2\}, \{2, 3\}, \{3, 4\},$ and $\{4, 1\}$. They are not pairwise disjoint. For example, $\{1, 2\}$ and $\{2, 3\}$ share an element. However, they are $3$-wise disjoint (check yourself) and therefore also $4$-wise disjoint.

$\endgroup$

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Sign up using Google Sign up using Facebook Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy