离散数学课件5.5 Equivalence Relations.pptVIP

Section 5.5 Equivalence Relations Equivalence Relations等价关系 Definition: A relation R on a set A is an equivalence relation iff R is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. Two elements that are related by an equivalence relation are called equivalent等价. Example 1 Suppose that R is the relation on the set of strings of English letters such that aRb iff l(a)=l(b), where l(x) is the length of the string x. Is R an equivalence relation? Solution Since l(a)=l(a), it follows that aRa whenever a is a string, so that R is reflexive. Suppose that aRb, so that l(a)=l(b).Then bRa, then l(b)=l(a).Hence, R is symmetric. Suppose that aRb and bRc, then l(a)=l(b) and l(b)=l(c), so that aRc.Hence, R is transitive. Consequently, R is an equivalent relation. Definition If a and b are integers and m is a positive integer,then a is congruent(一致，全等）to b modulo m if m divides a-b. We use the notation a≡b(mod m) to indicate that a is congruent to b modulo m. Applications of congruence : assign memory locations to computer files, generate pseudorandom numbers伪随机数, and ……. Example 4 Congruence Modulo m Let m be a positive integer greater than 1.Show that the relation R={(a,b)|a≡b(mod m)} is an equivalence relation on the set of integers. Solution a-a=0 is divisible by m, hence, a≡a(mod m), so that congruence modulo m is reflexive. Suppose that a≡b(mod m).Then a-b is divisible by m, so that a-b=km, where k is an integer. It follows that b-a=(-k)m, so that b≡a(mod m).Hence,congruence modulo m is symmetric. Suppose that a≡b(mod m) and b≡c(mod m) .Then there are integers k and l with a-b=km and b-c=lm. Adding these two equations show that a-c=km+lm =(k+l)m. Thus a≡c(mod m).Therefore, congruence modulo m is transitive. It follows that congruence modulo m is an equivalence relation. Equivalence classes等价类 * Definition Let R be an equivalence relation on a set A.The set of all elements that are related to an element a of A is called the equivalence class of a（a的等价类）.The equivalen