Relation


Order Relation



Subjects to be Learned

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Shoppers in a grocery store are served at a cashier on the first-come-first-served basis. When there are many people at cashiers, lines are formed. People in these lines are ordered for service: Those at the head of a line are served sooner than those at the end. Cars waiting for the signal to change at an intersection are also ordered similarly. Natural numbers can also be ordered in the increasing order of their magnitude. Those are just a few examples of order we encounter in our daily lives. The order relations we are going to study here are an abstraction of those relations. The properties common to orders we see in our daily lives have been extracted and are used to characterize the concepts of order. Here we are going to learn three types of order: partial order, total order, and quasi order.

Definition(partial order): A binary relation R on a set A is a partial order if and only if it is
(1) reflexive,
(2) antisymmetric, and
(3) transitive.

The ordered pair <A, R> is called a poset (partially ordered set) when R is a partial order.

Example 1: The less-than-or-equal-to relation on the set of integers I is a partial order, and the set I with this relation is a poset.
Example 2: The subset relation on the power set of a set, say {1, 2} , is also a partial order, and the set {1, 2} with the subset relation is a poset.

Definition(total order): A binary relation R on a set A is a total order if and only if it is
(1) a partial order, and
(2) for any pair of elements  a and b of A,   < a, b > R or < b, a > R.
That is, every element is related with every element one way or the other.
A total order is also called a linear order.

Example 3: The less-than-or-equal-to relation on the set of integers I is a total order.

Definition(quasi order): A binary relation R on a set A is a quasi order if and only if it is
(1) irreflexive, and
(2) transitive.

A quasi order is necessarily antisymmetric as one can easily verify.

Example 4: The less-than relation on the set of integers I is a quasi order.
Example 5: The proper subset relation on the power set of a set, say {1, 2} , is also a quasi order.

The concept of least/greatest number in a set of integers can be generalized for a general poset. We start with the concepts of minimal/maximal elements.


For exercises go to the end of the next section


Next -- Order Relation (Minimal Element)

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Order Relation - continued



Subjects to be Learned

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Definition(minimal/maximal element): Let < A, > be a poset, where represents an arbitrary partial order. Then an element   b A is a minimal element of A if there is no element  a A that satisfies a b. Similarly an element b A is a maximal element of A if there is no element a A that satisfies b a.

Example 6: The set of {{1}, {2}, {1, 2}} with has two minimal elements {1} and {2}. Note that {1}, and {2} are not related to each other in . Hence we can not say which is "smaller than" which, that is, they are not comparable.

Definition(least/greatest element): Let < A, > be a poset. Then an element b A is the least element of A if for every element a A, b a.

Note that the least element of a poset is unique if one exists because of the antisymmetry of .

Example 7: The poset of the set of natural numbers with less-than relation has the least element 0.
Example 8: The poset of the powerset of {1, 2} with has the least element .

Definition(well order): A total order R on a set A is a
well order if every non-empty subset of A has the least element.

Example 9: The poset of the set of natural numbers with less-than relation is a well order, because every set of natural numbers has the least element.

A digraph of a binary relation on a set can be simplified if the relation is a partial order. Hasse diagrams defined as follows are such digraphs.

Definition(Hasse diagram): A Hasse diagram is a digraph for a poset which does not have loops and arcs implied by the transitivity.

Example 10: For the relation {< a, a >, < a, b >, < a, c >, < b, b >, < b, c >, < c, c >} on set {a, b,c}, the Hasse diagram has the arcs {< a, b >, < b, c >} as shown below.




Topological Sorting

The elements in a finite poset can be ordered linearly in a number of ways while preserving the partial order. For example {, {1}, {2}, {1, 2}} with the partial order , can be ordered linearly as , {1}, {2}, {1, 2}, or , {2}, {1}, {1, 2}. In these orders a set appears before (to the left of) another set if it is a subset of the other. In real life, tasks for manufacturing goods in general can be partially ordered based on the prerequisite relation, that is certain tasks must be completed before certain other tasks can be started. For example the arms of a chair must be carved before the chair is assembled. Scheduling those tasks is essentially the same as arranging them with a linear order (ignoring here some possible concurrent processing for simplicity's sake).

The topological sorting is a procedure to find from a partial order on a finite set a linear order that does not violate the partial order. It is based on the fact that a finite poset has at least one minimal element. The basic idea of the topological sorting is to first remove a minimal element from the given poset, and then repeat that for the resulting set until no more elements are left. The order of removal of the minimal elements gives a linear order. The following algorithm formally describes the topological sorting.

Algorithm Topological Sort

Input: A finite poset <A, R>.
Output: A sequence of the elements of A preserving the order R.

integer i;
i := 1;
while ( A ) {
    pick a minimal element b from A;
    A := A - {b};
    i := i + 1;
    output b
}

Example: Let A = {{1}, {2}, {3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}} with the partial order .
This given A has three minimal elements {1}, {2}, and {3}.
Select {2} and remove it from A. Let A denote the resultant set i.e. A := A - {2}. The new A has two minimal elements {1}, and {3}.
Select {1} and remove it from A. Denote by A the resultant set, that is A = {{3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}.
This new A has two minimal elements {3} and {1, 2}.
Select {1, 2} and remove it from A.
Proceeding in like manner, we can obtain the following linear order:
{{2}, {1}, {1, 2}, {3}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}.


Test Your Understanding of Order Relation

Indicate which of the following statements are correct and which are not.
Click Yes or No , then Submit. There are two sets of questions.




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