What do the brackets, { }, represent?
The brackets indicate a set. This is written in set notation.
What does | mean?
| is read as “such that” and indicates the properties of the elements of the set are described after it.
What does ∃ mean?
“there exists”
Similarly, ∀ means “for all”.
What does ∈ mean?
∈ means “is an element of”.
What does ℤ mean?
It is the set of integers.
What are main sets of numbers and what are their symbols?
| Set | Symbol |
| Natural numbers | ℕ |
| Integers | ℤ |
| Rational numbers | ℚ |
| Real numbers | ℝ |
| Complex numbers | ℂ |
How would you read this?
The set of all n such that there exists an integer k for which n equals 2k.
What set does this represent?
All of the even numbers.
How would the set of odd numbers be written?
The only thing that would need to change is n = 2k + 1
Goals of this image:
- Recognize individual mathematical symbols
- {}|∃∈ℤ
- Use your knowledge of individual symbols to interpret the notation
- Generalize your knowledge to apply to other situations
- odd numbers
- symbols for other sets
CoMo Science 
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