Question

How do I find the complement?

Answer 1

Let A be some subset of a universal set U. The "complement of A" is the set of elements in U that do not belong to A.

For example, if U is the set of all integers {..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ...} and A is the set of all positive integers {1, 2, 3, ...}, then the complement of A is the set {..., -2, -1, 0}.

Notice that the union of A and its complement make up the universal set U.

In this case,

U = {1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17}

The set {3, 10, 16} is a subset of U, since all three of its elements belong to U.

Then the complement of this set is all the elements of U that aren't in this set:

{1, 2, 6, 13, 14, 17}