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Suppose S is a finite set with 7 elements. How many elements are there in the largest equivalence relation on S?(a) 56(b) 78(c) 49(d) 100This question was addressed to me by my college professor while I was bunking the class.The query is from Number of Relations topic in portion Relations of Discrete Mathematics

Answer»

The correct choice is (c) 49

Easiest explanation: Let R is an equivalence relation on the set S and so it satisfies the reflexive, symmetric and TRANSITIVE property. The largest equivalence relation means it should CONTAIN the largest number of ORDERED pairs. Since we can have n^2 ordered pairs in R x R where n belongs to S and all these ordered pairs are PRESENT in this relation; its the largest equivalence relation.So there are n^2 ELEMENTS i.e 7^2 = 49 elements in the largest equivalence relation.



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