19: Partially ordered sets
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- 19.1: Motivation
- In many of the sets we encounter, there is some notion of elements being “less than or equal to” other elements in the set.
- 19.2: Definition and properties
- Notice that in each of the examples in Section 19.1, the notion of “is smaller than” is defined via a relation.
- 19.3: Graph for a partial order
- Hasse diagram: a diagram for the graph for a partial order on a finite set A, omitting reflexive loops and transitive “composite” edges, and placing “smaller” elements lower on the diagram instead of using arrows
- 19.4: Total Orders
- Comparable Elements: elements a,b in a partially ordered set such that either a⪯b or b⪯a
- 19.5: Maximal/minimal Elements
- Each of the following definitions are for a subset B of a partially ordered set A.
- 19.6: Topological Sorting
- Sometimes we want to turn a partial order into a total order. What makes an order partial instead of total is the presence of pairs of incomparable elements.