Equivalence Relation & corresponding equivalence Classes From my basic understanding, $R$ is an equivalence relation on the set $A$, which is 
a relation between elements of a set that is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. 
I am not sure how to find the distinct equivalence classes of $R$ in the following relation:

$$A = \{-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5\}$$  $$\text{For all}\;x, y \in A,\;x\,R\,y \iff 3 \mid (x-y)$$ 

 A: You are correct that the relation defined is an equivalence relation on A is an equivalence relation, essentially $$\forall x \in A, xRy \iff 3\mid (x - y) \iff x\equiv y \pmod 3$$
The relation $R$, i.e., defines congruence modulo $3$. So your task boils down to finding the congruence classes, $\pmod 3$.
Do you know how to find the equivalence classes of your set, $\pmod 3$?


*

*Class one: Which elements have are divisible by $3$? $\quad A_0 = \{-3, 0, 3\}$

*Class two: Which elements leave a remainder of $1$ when divided by $3$? $\quad A_1 =\{-2, 1, 4\}$

*Class three: Which elements leave a remainder of $2$ when divided by $3$? $\quad A_2 = \{-4, -1, 2, 5\}$


You're done: three equivalence classes.
$$A = A_0 \cup A_1 \cup A_2 = \{-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5\},$$ $$ \quad A_i \cap A_j = \varnothing, \;\text{when}\;\;i\neq j, \text{ for}\;\; i, j \in \{0, 1, 2\}$$
A: Hint: When you need to list all equivalence classes, you should start with one element, and find it's equivalence class. For example, take $0$. Find $[0]_R=\{a\in A|aR0\}$. Then find the 'first' element which is not in $[0]_R$, call it $b$. Now find $[b]_R$. Continue untill you have listed all the elements of $A$.
A: Take an element (say, -4) and find all elements equivalent to it w. r. t. your relation (i. e. calculate the differences and find out if 3 divides them).  Thus you'll have one equivalence class.  Proceed in the same fashion until you classify all the elements.
A: xample:
if we have 12 polygons numbered 0 through 11
0  4, 3  1, 6  10, 8  9, 7  4, 6  8, 3  5, 2  11, 11  0
we can partition the twelve polygons into the following equivalence classes:
{0, 2, 4, 7, 11};{1, 3, 5};{6, 8, 9,10}
Two phases to determine equivalence
First phase: the equivalence pairs (i, j) are read in and stored.
Second phase:
we begin at 0 and find all pairs of the form (0, j). 
Continue until the entire equivalence class containing 0 has been found, marked, and printed.
Next find another object not yet output, and repeat the above process.
