[Math] Identifying maximal, greatest elements on a Hasse/lattice diagram

elementary-set-theoryorder-theory

So, while I understand the difference between maximal elements and greatest elements, I'm having trouble understanding how to identify them on a lattice diagram (just as an example, the lattice diagram of the power set of A = {1,2,3}).

From what I understand (and this could be wrong), the element {1,2,3} of the power set would be both the greatest element (since {1,2,3} is drawn at least as high as every other element in the diagram) and maximal element (since nothing is drawn higher than {1,2,3}).

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Best Answer

Your example is correct.

To see when these two notions might be different, consider your Hasse diagram, but with the greatest element, $\{1,2,3\}$ , removed.

This diagram has no greatest element, since there is no single element above all other elements in the diagram.

The diagram has three maximal elements, namely $\{1,2\}$ , $\{1,3\}$ , and $\{2,3\}$ . Each of these is maximal because there is no element above them.

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