Math/CSE 1019C:

Discrete Mathematics for Computer

Science
Fall 2011
Suprakash Datta
[email protected]

Office: CSEB 3043

Phone: 416-736-2100 ext 77875

Course page: http://www.cse.yorku.ca/course/1019

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 Administrivia Textbook:

Lectures: Tu-Th 10:00-11:30 am (CLH E)

Exams: 3 tests (45%), final (40%)

Homework (15%): equally divided

between several assignments.

Slides: should be available after the class

Kenneth H. Rosen.
Office hours: Wed 3-5 pm or by Discrete Mathematics
and Its Applications,
appointment at CSEB 3043. 7th Edition. McGraw
Hill, 2012.

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 Administrivia – contd.
• Cheating will not be tolerated. Visit the
class webpage for more details on
policies.
• TA: Tutorials/office hours TBA.
• HW submitted late will not be graded.

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 Course objectives
We will focus on two major goals:
• Basic tools and techniques in discrete
mathematics
– Propositional logic
– Set Theory
– Simple algorithms
– Induction, recursion
– Counting techniques (Combinatorics)
• Precise and rigorous mathematical reasoning
– Writing proofs

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 To do well you should:
• Study with pen and paper
• Ask for help immediately
• Practice, practice, practice…
• Follow along in class rather than take notes
• Ask questions in class
• Keep up with the class
• Read the book, not just the slides

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 Reasoning about problems
• 0.999999999999999….=1?
• There exists integers a,b,c that satisfy
the equation a2+b2 = c2
• The program below that I wrote works
correctly for all possible inputs…..
• The program that I wrote never hangs
(i.e. always terminates)…

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 Tools for reasoning: Logic
Ch. 1: Introduction to Propositional Logic
• Truth values, truth tables

• Boolean logic:   
• Implications:  

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Why study propositional logic?
• A formal mathematical “language” for
precise reasoning.
• Start with propositions.
• Add other constructs like negation,
conjunction, disjunction, implication etc.
• All of these are based on ideas we use
daily to reason about things.

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 Propositions
• Declarative sentence
• Must be either True or False.

Propositions:
• York University is in Toronto
• York University is in downtown Toronto
• All students at York are Computer Sc. majors.

Not propositions:
• Do you like this class?
• There are x students in this class.
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 Propositions - 2
• Truth value: True or False
• Variables: p,q,r,s,…
• Negation:
 p (“not p”)
• Truth tables
p p
T F
F T
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Caveat: negating propositions
p: “it is not the case that p is true”

p: “it rained more than 20 inches in TO”

p: “John has many iPads”

Practice: Questions 1-7 page 12.

Q10 (a) p: “the election is decided”

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 Conjunction, Disjunction
• Conjunction: p  q [“and”]
• Disjunction: p  q [“or”]

p q p q pq
T T T T
T F F T
F T F T
F F F F
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 Examples
• Q11, page 13
p: It is below freezing
q: It is snowing

(a) It is below freezing and snowing

(b) It is below freezing but now snowing
(d) It is either snowing or below freezing
(or both)
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 Exclusive OR (XOR)
• p  q – T if p and q have different truth
values, F otherwise
• Colloquially, we often use OR
ambiguously – “an entrée comes with
soup or salad” implies XOR, but
“students can take MATH XXXX if they
have taken MATH 2320 or MATH 1019”
usually means the normal OR (so a
student who has taken both is still
eligible for MATH XXXX).
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 Conditional
• p  q [“if p then q”]
• p: hypothesis, q: conclusion
• E.g.: “If you turn in a homework late, it will not
be graded”; “If you get 100% in this course,
you will get an A+”.
• TRICKY: Is p  q TRUE if p is FALSE?
YES!!
• Think of “If you get 100% in this course, you
will get an A+” as a promise – is the promise
violated if someone gets 50% and does not
receive an A+?
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 Conditional - 2
• p  q [“if p then q”]
• Truth table:
p q p q pq
T T T T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T

Note the truth table of  p  q

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 Logical Equivalence
• p  q and  p  q are logically equivalent
• Truth tables are the simplest way to
prove such facts.
• We will learn other ways later.

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 Contrapositive
• Contrapositive of p  q is q  p
• Any conditional and its contrapositive
are logically equivalent (have the same
truth table) – Check by writing down the
truth table.
• E.g. The contrapositive of “If you get
100% in this course, you will get an A+”
is “If you do not get an A+ in this
course, you did not get 100%”.

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E.g.: Proof using contrapositive
Prove: If x2 is even, x is even
• Proof 1: x2 = 2a for some integer a.
Since 2 is prime, 2 must divide x.
• Proof 2: if x is not even, x is odd.
Therefore x2 is odd. This is the
contrapositive of the original assertion.

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 Converse
• Converse of p  q is q  p
• Not logically equivalent to conditional
• Ex 1: “If you get 100% in this course,
you will get an A+” and “If you get an A+
in this course, you scored 100%” are
not equivalent.
• Ex 2: If you won the lottery, you are rich.

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 Other conditionals
Inverse:
• inverse of p  q is p  q
• How is this related to the converse?
Biconditional:
• “If and only if”
• True if p,q have same truth values, false
otherwise. Q: How is this related to XOR?
• Can also be defined as (p  q)  (q  p)

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 Example
• Q16(c) 1+1=3 if and only if monkeys
can fly.

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 Readings and notes
• Read pages 1-12.
• Think about the notion of truth
tables.
• Master the rationale behind the
definition of conditionals.
• Practice translating English
sentences to propositional logic
statements.

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 Next
Ch. 1.2, 1.3: Propositional Logic - contd
– Compound propositions, precedence rules
– Tautologies and logical equivalences
– Read only the first section called
“Translating English Sentences” in 1.2.

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 Compound Propositions
• Example: p  q  r : Could be
interpreted as (p  q)  r or p  (q  r)
• precedence order:      (IMP!)
(Overruled by brackets)
• We use this order to compute truth
values of compound propositions.

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 Tautology
• A compound proposition that is always
TRUE, e.g. q  q
• Logical equivalence redefined: p,q are
logical equivalences if p  q is a
tautology. Symbolically p  q.
• Intuition: p  q is true precisely when
p,q have the same truth values.

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 Manipulating Propositions
• Compound propositions can be
simplified by using simple rules.
• Read page 25 - 28.
• Some are obvious, e.g. Identity,
Domination, Idempotence, double
negation, commutativity, associativity
• Less obvious: Distributive, De Morgan’s
laws, Absorption

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 Distributive Laws
p  (q  r)  (p  q)  (p  r)
Intuition (not a proof!) – For the LHS to be true: p must
be true and q or r must be true. This is the same as
saying p and q must be true or p and r must be true.

p  (q  r)  (p  q)  (p  r)
Intuition (less obvious) – For the LHS to be true: p must
be true or both q and r must be true. This is the same
as saying p or q must be true and p or r must be true.

Proof: use truth tables.

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 De Morgan’s Laws
(q  r)  q  r
Intuition – For the LHS to be true: neither q nor r can be
true. This is the same as saying q and r must be false.

(q  r)  q  r
Intuition – For the LHS to be true: q  r must be false.
This is the same as saying q or r must be false.

Proof: use truth tables.

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 Using the laws
• Q: Is p  (p  q) a tautology?
• Can use truth tables
• Can write a compound proposition and
simplify

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Limitations of Propositional Logic
• What can we NOT express using
predicates?
Ex: How do you make a statement
about all even integers?
If x >2 then x2 >4

• A more general language: Predicate

logic (Sec 1.4)

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 Next: Predicate Logic
Ch 1.4
– Predicates and quantifiers
– Rules of Inference

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 Predicate Logic
• A predicate is a proposition that is a
function of one or more variables.
E.g.: P(x): x is an even number. So P(1)
is false, P(2) is true,….
• Examples of predicates:
– Domain ASCII characters - IsAlpha(x) :
TRUE iff x is an alphabetical character.
– Domain floating point numbers - IsInt(x):
TRUE iff x is an integer.
– Domain integers: Prime(x) - TRUE if x is
prime, FALSE otherwise.
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 Quantifiers
• describes the values of a variable that
make the predicate true. E.g. x P(x)
• Domain or universe: range of values of
a variable (sometimes implicit)

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 Two Popular Quantifiers
• Universal: x P(x) – “P(x) for all x in the
domain”
• Existential: x P(x) – “P(x) for some x in
the domain” or “there exists x such that P(x) is
TRUE”.
• Either is meaningless if the domain is not
known/specified.
• Examples (domain real numbers)
 x (x2 >= 0)
 x (x >1)
– (x>1) (x2 > x) – quantifier with restricted domain
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 Using Quantifiers
Domain integers:
• Using implications: The cube of all
negative integers is negative.
x (x < 0) (x3 < 0)
• Expressing sums :
n

n ( i = n(n+1)/2)
i=1

Aside: summation notation

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 Scope of Quantifiers
   have higher precedence than
operators from Propositional Logic; so x
P(x)  Q(x) is not logically equivalent to
x (P(x)  Q(x))
•  x (P(x)  Q(x))  x R(x)
Say P(x): x is odd, Q(x): x is divisible by 3, R(x): (x=0) (2x >x)

• Logical Equivalence: P  Q iff they have

same truth value no matter which domain
is used and no matter which predicates
are assigned to predicate variables.
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 Negation of Quantifiers
• “There is no student who can …”
• “Not all professors are bad….”
• “There is no Toronto Raptor that can
dunk like Vince …”
 x P(x)   x P(x) why?
  x P(x)   x P(x)
• Careful: The negation of “Every Canadian
loves Hockey” is NOT “No Canadian loves
Hockey”! Many, many students make this mistake!
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 Nested Quantifiers
• Allows simultaneous quantification of
many variables.
• E.g. – domain integers,
 x  y  z x2 + y2 = z2
 n  x  y  z xn + yn = zn (Fermat’s Last
Theorem)
• Domain real numbers:
x  y  z (x < z < y)  (y < z < x)
Is this true?
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 Nested Quantifiers - 2
x y (x + y = 0) is true over the integers
• Assume an arbitrary integer x.
• To show that there exists a y that satisfies
the requirement of the predicate, choose y
= -x. Clearly y is an integer, and thus is in
the domain.
• So x + y = x + (-x) = x – x = 0.
• Since we assumed nothing about x (other
than it is an integer), the argument holds
for any integer x.
• Therefore, the predicate is TRUE.
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 Nested Quantifiers - 3
• Caveat: In general, order matters!
Consider the following propositions over
the integer domain:
x y (x < y) and y x (x < y)
 x y (x < y) : “there is no maximum
integer”
 y x (x < y) : “there is a maximum
integer”
• Not the same meaning at all!!!
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