*The language of set theory is based on a single fundamental relation, called membership. We say that A is a member of B (in symbols A ∈ B), or that the set B contains A as its element.<ref>The mathematician Giuseppe Peano created the symbol ∈ in 1889 to mean "is an element of," from the Greek epsilon that is the first letter of εἰμί, which means "I am."</ref> The understanding is that a set is determined by its elements; in other words, two sets are deemed equal if they have exactly the same elements. <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/</ref> | *The language of set theory is based on a single fundamental relation, called membership. We say that A is a member of B (in symbols A ∈ B), or that the set B contains A as its element.<ref>The mathematician Giuseppe Peano created the symbol ∈ in 1889 to mean "is an element of," from the Greek epsilon that is the first letter of εἰμί, which means "I am."</ref> The understanding is that a set is determined by its elements; in other words, two sets are deemed equal if they have exactly the same elements. <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/</ref> |