Chapter 1, Part I: Propositional Logic

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Section 1.1

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Propositions
⚫ A proposition is a declarative sentence that is either true or false.
⚫ Examples of propositions:
a) The Moon is made of green cheese.
b) Trenton is the capital of New Jersey.
c) Toronto is the capital of Canada.
d) 1 + 0 = 1
e) 0 + 0 = 2
⚫ Examples that are not propositions.
a) Sit down!
b) What time is it?
c) x + 1= 2
d) x + y = z

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Propositional Logic
⚫ Constructing Propositions
⚫ Propositional Variables: p, q, r, s, …
⚫ The proposition that is always true is denoted by T and
the proposition that is always false is denoted by F.
⚫ Compound Propositions; constructed from logical
connectives and other propositions
⚫ Negation ¬
⚫ Conjunction ∧
⚫ Disjunction ∨
⚫ Implication →
⚫ Biconditional ↔

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Compound Propositions:
Negation
⚫ The negation of a proposition p is denoted by ¬p
has this truth table:
and

p ¬p
T F
F T

⚫ Example: If p denotes “The earth is round.”, then ¬p

denotes “It is not the case that the earth is round,” or
more simply “The earth is not round.”

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Conjunction
⚫ The conjunction of propositions p and q is denoted
by p ∧ q and has this truth table:
p q p ∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

⚫ Example: If p denotes “I am at home.” and q denotes

“It is raining.” then p ∧q denotes “I am at home and it
is raining.”

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Disjunction
⚫ The disjunction of propositions p and q is denoted
by p ∨q and has this truth table:

p q p ∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

⚫ Example: If p denotes “I am at home.” and q denotes

“It is raining.” then p ∨q denotes “I am at home or it is
raining.”
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The Connective Or in
⚫ In English “or” has two distinct meanings.
English
⚫ “Inclusive Or” - In the sentence “Students who have taken CS202 or
Math120 may take this class,” we assume that students need to have taken
one of the prerequisites, but may have taken both. This is the meaning of
disjunction. For p ∨q to be true, either one or both of p and q must be true.
⚫ “Exclusive Or” - When reading the sentence “Soup or salad comes with this
entrée,” (more specifically, “either soup or salad comes with this entrée”) we
do not expect to be able to get both soup and salad. This is the meaning of
Exclusive Or (Xor). In p ⊕ q , one of p and q must be true, but not both.
⚫ The truth table for ⊕ is:
p q p ⊕q
T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F 8
Implication
⚫ If p and q are propositions, then p →q is a conditional statement or
implication which is read as “if p, then q ” and has this truth table:
p q p →q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

⚫ Example: If p denotes “I am at home.” and q denotes “It is

raining.” then p →q denotes “If I am at home then it is raining.”
⚫ In p →q , p is the hypothesis (antecedent or premise) and q is
the conclusion (or consequence).
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Understanding Implication
⚫ In p →q there does not need to be any connection
between the antecedent or the consequent. The
“meaning” of p →q depends only on the truth values of
p and q.
⚫ These implications are perfectly fine, but would not be
used in ordinary English.
⚫ “If the moon is made of green cheese, then I have more
money than Bill Gates. ”
⚫ “If the moon is made of green cheese then I’m on
welfare.”
⚫ “If 1+ 1= 3, then your grandma wears combat boots.”

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Understanding Implication
⚫ One way to view the logical conditional is to think of
(cont)
an obligation or contract.
⚫ “If I am elected, then I will lower taxes.”
⚫ “If you get >90% on the final, then you will get an A.”
⚫ If the politician is elected and does not lower taxes,
then the voters can say that he or she has broken the
campaign pledge. Something similar holds for the
professor. This corresponds to the case where p is true
and q is false.

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Different Ways of Expressing p
→ifif q
p, then q
p, q
p implies/only if q
p only if q
q unless ¬p q when p
q if p
q whenever p p is sufficient for q
q follows from p q is necessary for p

a necessary condition for p is q

a sufficient condition for q is p
“p only if q” says that p cannot be true when q is not true. That
is, the statement is false if p is true, but q is false.
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Converse, Contrapositive, and
⚫ From p →q we can form new conditional statements .
Inverse
⚫ q →p is the converse of p →q
⚫ ¬q → ¬ p is the contrapositive of p
⚫ ¬ p → ¬ q →q
Example: Findisthe theconverse, p →q and contrapositive of
inverse ofinverse,
“It raining is a sufficient condition for my not going to
town.”
Solution:
converse: If I do not go to town, then it is raining.
inverse: If it is not raining, then I will go to town.
contrapositive: If I go to town, then it is not raining.

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Biconditional
⚫ If p and q are propositions, then we can form the biconditional
proposition p ↔ q , read as “p if and only if q .” The biconditional
p ↔ q denotes the proposition with this truth table:

p q p ↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

⚫ If p denotes “I am at home.” and q denotes “It is raining.” then

p ↔ q denotes “I am at home if and only if it is raining.”

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 Expressing the Biconditional
⚫ Some alternative ways “p if and only if q” is expressed in
English:
⚫ p is necessary and sufficient for q
⚫ if p then q , and conversely
⚫ p iff q
⚫ E.g. “You can take the flight if and only if you buy a ticket.”
⚫ Your taking flight is necessary and sufficient for your buying
ticket
⚫ If you can take flight then you have bought a ticket and
conversely
⚫ You can take flight iff you have bought a ticket
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Truth Tables For Compound
Propositions
⚫ Construction of a truth table:
⚫ Rows
⚫ Need a row for every possible combination of values for
the atomic propositions.
⚫ Columns
⚫ Need a column for the compound proposition (usually
at far right)
⚫ Need a column for the truth value of each expression
that occurs in the compound proposition as it is built
up.
⚫ This includes the atomic propositions

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Example Truth
⚫ Construct a truth table for
Table
p q r ¬r p ∨q p ∨q → ¬r
T T T F T F
T T F T T T
T F T F T F
T F F T T T
F T T F T F
F T F T T T
F F T F F T
F F F T F T

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Equivalent Propositions
⚫ Two propositions are equivalent if they always have the
same truth value.
⚫ Example: Show using a truth table that the
conditional is equivalent to the contrapositive.
Solution:
p q ¬p ¬q p →q ¬q → ¬ p
T T F F T T
T F F T F F
F T T F T T
F F T T T T

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Using a Truth Table to Show
Non
- Example:
Equivalence
Show using truth tables that neither the
converse nor inverse of an implication are not
equivalent to the implication.
Solution:
p q ¬p ¬q p →q ¬ p →¬ q q→ p
T T F F T T T
T F F T F T T
F T T F T F F
F F T T T T T

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Proble
⚫ How many rows are there in a truth table with n
m propositional variables?

Solution: 2n We will see how to do this in Chapter 6.

⚫ Note that this means that with n propositional

variables, we can construct 2n distinct (i.e., not
equivalent) propositions.

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Precedence of Logical
Operators Operator Precedence
¬ 1
∧ 2
∨ 3
→ 4
 5

p ∨q→ ¬r is equivalent to (p ∨q) → ¬r

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Section 1.2

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Translating English
⚫ Steps to convert an English sentence to a statement in
Sentences
propositional logic
⚫ Identify atomic propositions and represent using
propositional variables.
⚫ Determine appropriate logical connectives
⚫ “If I go to Harry’s or to the country, I will not go
shopping.”
⚫ p: I go to Harry’s If p or q then not r.
⚫ q: I go to the country.
⚫ r: I will go shopping.
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Example
Problem: Translate the following sentence into
propositional logic:
“You can access the Internet from campus only if you are
a computer science major or you are not a freshman.”
One Solution: Let a, c, and f represent respectively
“You can access the internet from campus,” “You are a
computer science major,” and “You are a freshman.”
a→ (c ∨ ¬ f )

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System Specifications
⚫ System and Software engineers take requirements in
English and express them in a precise specification
language based on logic.
Example: Express in propositional logic:
“The automated reply cannot be sent when the file
system is full”
Solution: One possible solution: Let p denote “The
automated reply can be sent” and q denote “The file
system is full.”
q→ ¬ p
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Consistent System
Specifications
Definition: A list of propositions is consistent if it is
possible to assign truth values to the proposition
variables so that each proposition is true.
Exercise: Are these specifications consistent?
⚫ “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer or it is retransmitted.”
⚫ “The diagnostic message is not stored in the buffer.”
⚫ “If the diagnostic message is stored in the buffer, then it is
retransmitted.”
Solution: Let p denote “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer.”
Let q denote “The diagnostic message is retransmitted” The specification
can be written as: p ∨ q, ¬p, p → q. When p is false and q is true all
three statements are true. So the specification is consistent.
⚫ What if “The diagnostic message is not retransmitted is added.”
Solution: Now we are adding ¬q and there is no satisfying
assignment. So the specification is not consistent. 26
Section 1.3

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Tautologies, Contradictions, and
Contingencies
⚫ A tautology is a proposition which is always true.
⚫ Example: p ∨¬p
⚫ A contradiction is a proposition which is always false.
⚫ Example: p ∧¬p
⚫ A contingency is a proposition which is neither a
tautology nor a contradiction, such as p

P ¬p p ∨¬p p ∧¬p
T F T F
F T T F

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Logically Equivalent
⚫ Two compound propositions p and q are logically equivalent if
p↔
q
is a tautology.
⚫ We write this as p⇔q or as p≡q where p and q are compound
propositions.
⚫ Two compound propositions p and q are equivalent if and only if
the columns in a truth table giving their truth values agree.
⚫ Thisptruth table
q
shows¬pthat ¬p ∨ q¬pis∨qequivalentp→
toqp → q.
T T F T T
T F F F F
F T T T T
F F T T T
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 De Morgan’s Laws
Augustus De Morgan
1806-1871

This truth table shows that De Morgan’s Second Law holds.

p q ¬p ¬q (p∨q) ¬(p∨q) ¬p∧¬q

T T F F T F F
T F F T T F F
F T T F T F F
F F T T F T T
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Key Logical Equivalences
⚫ Identity Laws: ,

⚫ Domination Laws: ,

⚫ Idempotent laws: ,

⚫ Double Negation Law:

⚫ Negation Laws: ,
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Key Logical Equivalences
⚫ Commutative Laws:
(cont) ,

⚫ Associative Laws:

⚫ Distributive Laws:

⚫ Absorption Laws:

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More Logical Equivalences

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Constructing New Logical
Equivalences
⚫ We can show that two expressions are logically equivalent
by developing a series of logically equivalent statements.
⚫ To prove that we produce a series of equivalences
beginning with A and ending with B.

⚫ Keep in mind that whenever a proposition (represented by

a propositional variable) occurs in the equivalences listed
earlier, it may be replaced by an arbitrarily complex
compound proposition.

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Equivalence
Proofs
Example: Show that
is logically equivalent to
Solution:

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Equivalence Proofs
Example: Show that
is a tautology.
Solution:

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Propositional Satisfiability
⚫ A compound proposition is satisfiable if there is an
assignment of truth values to its variables that make it
true. When no such assignments exist, the compound
proposition is unsatisfiable.
⚫ A compound proposition is unsatisfiable if and only if
its negation is a tautology.

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Questions on Propositional
Satisfiability
Example: Determine the satisfiability of the following
compound propositions:

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to p, q, and r.

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to p and F to q.

Solution: Not satisfiable. Check each possible assignment

of truth values to the propositional variables and none will
make the proposition true.
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