Transitive closure clarification

discrete mathematicsrelations

I know what it means by the term. However, if I have a relation R = {(1,2),(4,5),(2,3)} on a set A = {1,2,3,4,5}.

I know that straight away by drawing that (1,3) is a transitive edge. But with (4,5) to make the whole relation transitive can we draw an edge (3,5). i.e.

(1,2) and (2,3) -> (1,3)
(3,4) and (4,5) -> (3,5)
(2,3) and (3,4) -> (2,4)
(2,4) and (4,5) -> (2,5)
(1,3) and (3,4) -> (1,4)
(1,4) and (4,5) -> (1,5)

This would mean R' = {(1,2),(1,3),(1,4),(1,5),(2,3),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5),(4,5)}

or is the best way without drawing an extra edge:

R'={(1,2),(1,3),(2,3),(4,5)}

Thanks.

Best Answer

The correct answer is $\{(1,2), (1,3), (2,3), (4,5)\}.$

I can't say I understand your motivation for adding more edges than that. You seem to say the presence of $(3,4)$ and $(4,5)$ implies that $(3,5)$ needs to be there, but that's wrong since $(3,4)$ isn't present. It wasn't there in the first place and you didn't need to add it in the previous step where you (correctly) added $(1,3)$. So you don't need to add $(3,5).$

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