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).H