LOGIC

In this module, we will be discussing logic in terms of mathematics. Logic is defined as

the study of how to captiously think about the statements that could only be either true or false. In
the world of mathematics, logic is very useful especially in dealing with the proving of theorems
and other mathematical facts. Formulas, such as the quadratic formula or the very known
Pythagorean Theorem, are derived by the use of logic. Those things that we’ve learned in
Mathematics are mostly based on the logical proofs.
In dealing logic with mathematics, we mix the specific language in logic together with the
specific symbols in math. Let me introduce to you this kind of specific things.

4.1 LOGIC STATEMENTS AND QUANTIFIERS

All languages contain different kinds of sentences, such as declarative, interrogative,
imperative, and exclamative. The specific language in logic that has been mentioned is the so
called, statement which is also known as the declarative sentence. A sentence is considered a
statement if it is either true or false, but not both true and false. It is not necessary to determine
whether that sentence is true or the sentence is false. As long as the possible answer is either true
or false but not both true and false, then that sentence can be considered as a statement. For
instance, given this sentence.
“Rebecca likes to wear gorgeous dresses.”
This sentence can only be considered as statement, if we can determine if this sentence is true or
this sentence is false and it can be determined base on Rebecca’s answer. But even if without
asking her, there will only be two possible answers that she could give. Either “Yes, she likes to
gorgeous dresses” or “No, she doesn’t like to wear gorgeous dresses”. If she answers “yes”, then
the sentence is a true statement and if she answers “no”, then the sentence is a false statement.
Since the sentence can be either true or false and NOT both true and false, then it can be considered
as a statement.
Example 4.1.1
Identify the following sentences if it is a statement or not.
a. Hooray!
b. 140 – 23 = 107.
c. How have you been?
d. Close the door.
e. A peacock has two legs.
Solution:
a. The sentence used an exclamation point. So, we can say that it is an exclamatory sentence
and not a declarative sentence. Thus, it is not a statement.
b. By applying the operation, which is subtraction, we get a result of 117 and not 107. So, it
made the sentence false and not true. Hence, it is a statement.
c. The given sentence falls under the interrogative sentence due to the question mark. Since
it is not a declarative sentence, we can conclude that it is not a statement.
d. The sentence asserts a command, which falls under imperative sentence and not a
declarative sentence. Thus, it is not a statement.
e. We can say that the sentence is true, since peacock really has two legs and it is a declarative
sentence. Hence, it is a statement.
 There are two different types of statements, the simple statements and the compound
statements. A simple statement conveys a single idea. On the other hand, compound statement
conveys two or more ideas. A compound statement is consisting of two or more simple statements
that are put together with the use of a connectives. These connectives are the words and phrases
such as and, or, if… then, and if and only if. Consider this example of compound statement, “I
will eat my snack if and only if I am hungry.” The two simple statements present in the example
are “I will eat my snack.” and “I am hungry.” On the other hand, the connective that is used in the
example is the “if and only if”.
In order to make it more understandable, George Boole used symbols as a representation
for the simple statements and the connectives. The letters p, q, r, and s are used to represent the
simple statements, and the symbols ~, ∧, ∨, →, and ↔ are used to represent the connectives. The
following representation are shown in the table below.
Statement Connective Symbolic Form Type of Statement
not p Not ~p Negation
p and q And p∧q Conjunction
p or q Or p∨q Disjunction
If p, then q. If …, then p→q Conditional
p if and only if q if and only if p↔q Biconditional

Negation
- The negation of a statement is the opposite meaning of the given statement. It is denoted
by the symbol, ~.
Example 4.1.2 Write the negation of the following statements.
a. The turtle can swim.
b. It will not rain on Tuesday.
c. The moon doesn’t look good tonight.
d. Layla vanished the enemy in one blow.
Solution:
a. The original statement or the given statement says that “The turtle can swim.” To
negate the statement, we will write its opposite statement which probably states that
“The turtle can’t swim.” Thus, the negation of the statement is “The turtle can’t
swim.”

b. Since the original statement says that “It will not rain on Tuesday.”, then the opposite
statement for this will be “It will rain on Tuesday.” Hence, the negation of the given
statement is “It will rain on Tuesday.”

c. The opposite statement for the given in letter c, would be “The moon looks good
tonight.” Thus, its negation would be “The moon looks good tonight.”

d. The negative side of the statement or let’s say its opposite statement is “Layla didn’t
vanish the enemy in one blow.” Hence, the negation of the given statement in letter d
will be the statement “Layla didn’t vanish the enemy in one blow.”

NOTE: The statement undergoes a negation once the original statement or the given
statement is change. If there are no changes on the statement then the negation did not
occur. You must always pay attention to the original statement or the given statement, for
it will be your guide.
 After learning the negation, let’s try to convert the compound statements into its symbolic
form or the vice versa. Our guide in doing this, will be the table that is shown above. In this part,
you really need to pay attention to every given statement because the note above is very useful.

Example 4.1.3 Write the English Sentence into a Symbolic Form

Consider the following simple statements.
p: Today is Friday.
q: It is raining.
r: I am going to a movie.
s: I am not going to the basketball game.
Write the following compound statements in symbolic form.
a. Today is not Friday and I am going to a movie.
b. I am going to the basketball game or I am going to a movie.
c. If it is raining, then I am not going to a movie.
d. I am going to a movie if and only if today is Friday.
Solution:
a. In the given “Today is not Friday and I am going to a movie.”, we have the statements p
and r. But, did you notice that the original statement for p is “Today is Friday.” and in the
given it was change to “Today is not Friday” which means it is the negation of p, (~p). So,
we now have the format of the compound statement as “~p and r”. Now, to fully covert it
to a symbolic form, we need to use the symbol for the connective “and” which is this
symbol “∧” as shown from the table. Thus, the symbolic form for the given is “~p ∧ r”.

b. The given was “I am going to the basketball game or I am going to a movie.”, we have the
statements s and r. We can see that the original statement for statement s was change, so it
means that the given for letter b would be the negation of s, (~s). Now, we have the format
“~s or r”. Next, we will change the connective “or” to its symbolic form which looks like
this “∨” as shown in the table. Hence, the symbolic form for the compound statement is
“~s ∨ r”.

(Try to translate the English sentence of c and d into a symbolic form.)

Example 4.1.4 Translate Symbolic Form into an English Sentence
Consider the following simple statements.
e: All men are created equal.
t: I am trading places.
a: I get Abe’s place.
g: I get George’s place.
Translate the following symbolic form into a compound statement.
a. e ∧ ~t b. t ↔ g c. a ∨ ~t d. e → t
Solution:
a. The statements are e: “All men are created equal” and ~t: “I am not trading places”. Since
statement t was negated, then there will be changes from its original statement. The symbol
used as the connective is “∧”, which is the symbol for “and”. Thus, the compound statement
for this symbolic for is “All men are created equal and I am not trading places.”

b. The symbols used for the statement was t and g, while for the connective it is ↔ which is
the symbol for “if and only if”. To write it in a compound statement, we will follow how
the symbols are arrange which was guided from the table. Hence, the compound statement
for the given symbolic form is “I am trading places if and only if I get George’s place.”

(Try to translate the Symbolic Form of c and d into an English Sentence.)

COMPOUND STATEMENTS AND GROUPING SYMBOLS
Symbolic Form The Parenthesis indicates that:
p ˄ (q ˅ ~r) q and ~r are grouped together
(p ˄ q) ˅ r p and q are grouped together
p and ~q are grouped together
(p ˄ ~q) → (r ˅ s)
r and s are also grouped together
Statements on the same side of the comma are grouped together.
English Sentence The comma indicates that:
q and ~r are grouped together because they are both on the same
p, and q or not r.
side of the comma
p and q are grouped together because they are both on the same side
p and q, or r.
of the comma
p and ~q are grouped together because they are both on the left side
If p and not q, then r or of the comma
s. r and s are grouped together because they are both on the right side
of the comma

TRANSLATE COMPOUND STATEMENT

Let p, q, and r represent the following.
p: You get a promotion.
q: You complete the training.
r: You will receive a bonus.
a. Write (p ˄ q) → r as an English sentence.
- “If you get a promotion and you complete the training, then you will receive a
bonus.”
b. Write “If you do not complete the training, then you will not get a promotion and you will
not receive a bonus.” in symbolic form.
- ~q → (~p ˄ ~r)
4.2 TRUTH VALUE AND TRUTH TABLE
The truth value of the simple statements is either true (T) or false (F). On the other hand,
the truth value for the compound statement depends on the truth value of its two compound
statements and its connectives. In order to know the truth value of the compound statement, we
will use the truth table to represent its value.
Here are the truth tables for the following types of statements, the negation, conjunction,
disjunction, conditional, and biconditional.
Truth Value of Negation
Suppose we have a statement p with a truth value of either true (T) or false (F) as shown
in the table 4.2.1.

p ~p
T
F
Table 4.2.1
To recall, the negation of a statement is defined as the opposite meaning of the original
statement. Thus, we can say that if the statement p is true then its negation (~p) is false and
if the statement p is false its negation (~p) is true. As shown in the table 4.2.2.

p ~p
T F
F T
Table 4.2.2

Truth Table
Truth table is used to know the truth value of the compound statements, since compound
statements is composed of two or more statements. Suppose we have two simple statements
p and q. Each of these two statements have a truth value of either true (T) or false (F). With
these two values, we will look for all the possible pair of values by pairing the values of
the statement p to the values of the statement q. See the illustration 4.2.3.

p q
T T
F F
Illustration 4.2.3
By this illustration, we can say that the possible pairing of the two statements are TT, TF,
FT, and FF. This pairs are shown in the table 4.2.4.
p q
T T
T F
F T
F F
Table 4.2.4
The most important part of constructing a truth table is this kind of format. This serves as
your base before you can proceed to the next step. You must strictly follow this kind of
format. In order to identify the number of possibilities the statements would have, is to use
the formula 2n, where n is the number of statements in the given. For instance, (p ∧ r) ↔ q.
Since there are 3 statements, p, q, and r, we have n = 3.
2n = 23 = 8 rows

Now that we have 8 rows, the next step is to have the combinations of the truth value.

p q r
T T T
F F F
Illustration 4.2.5
From the illustration, the first and second row is represented by the yellow arrow. The 3 rd
and 4th row is the brown arrow. The 5th and 6th row is the green arrow. And lastly, the 7th
and 8th row is the red arrow. Thus, the possible combinations of the three statements are
TTT, TTF, TFT, TFF, FTT, FTF, FFT, and FFF. To make it more understandable, see the
table 4.2.6 below.
p q r
T T T
T T F
T F T
T F F
F T T
F T F
F F T
F F F
Table 4.2.6

Now, since we already have our foundation or the base of our truth table for the
compound statement, let’s proceed with the truth value for the conjunction and the
remaining types of statement.

Truth Value of Conjunction (and)

The truth value of a conjunction is true if and only if both statements are true.
Otherwise, it is false. As shown in the table 4.2.7.

p q p∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
Table 4.2.7
From the table, we can see that the only row that would satisfy the condition that its
conjunction would be true if both statements are true is found in the first row. The
remaining rows are false (F) since values for the two statements are not both true.

Truth Value of Disjunction (or)

The truth value of disjunction is true if and only if both statements are true or at
least one of the statements is true. In other words, the result can be false if both statements
are false. Otherwise, the result is true. Table 4.2.8 shows the truth value of disjunction.
p q p∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F
Table 4.2.8
In row 1, both statements are true so the disjunction of the two statements is true. While in
row 2 and 3, there is at least one statement that is true so the result is also true. On the other
hand, in row 4 both statements are false so the result for the disjunction of the two
statements is false. The truth value of disjunction is somewhat like the opposite condition
for the truth value of conjunction.

Truth Value of Conditional (If …, then)

The truth value of conditional can result to a false statement if the first statement
is true and the second statement is false. Otherwise, the statement is true. The statement/s
from the left side of the arrow is considered as the first statement and the statement at the
right side of the arrow is considered as the second statement. For instance, consider the
given (p ∧ ~q) → q. The left side of the arrow is (p ∧ ~q), so this is your first statement and
your second statement, which is found in the right side of the arrow is q. The truth table of
values for conditional is shown in Table 4.2.9.

p q p→q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
Table 4.2.9
In this position, statement p is our first statement and statement q is the second statement.
The only row that could make the conditional statement false, is in row 2 because p which
the first statement is true and q which is the second statement is false. The remaining rows
for the table are true (T). If we have q → p, the table below shows its truth value.

p q q→p
T T T
T F T
F T F
F F T
The table shows that if our first statement is q and the second statement is p, the result will
be false in the 3rd row.

Truth Value of Biconditional (if and only if)

The truth value of a biconditional statement is true if both statements have the
same truth value and it is false if the have different truth value. Table 4.2.10, shows the
truth value for the biconditional statement.

p q p↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
Table 4.2.10
Since the first row have the same truth value that is true and the last row also have the same
truth value that is false, then its result is true(T). While in the second and third row, both
statements have different truth value so their result is false(F).
 REFERENCES

Aufmann, R., Lockwood, J., Nation, R., Clegg, D., Epp, S. S. (2018). Logic: Logic

Statement and Quantifiers (pp. 163 – 171). Mathematics in the Modern World.

Aufmann, R., Lockwood, J., Nation, R., Clegg, D., Epp, S. S. (2018). Logic: Truth

Tables, Equivalent Statements, and Tautologies (pp. 175 – 179, 184 – 187).

Mathematics in the Modern World.

Aufmann, R., Lockwood, J., Nation, R., Clegg, D., Epp, S. S. (2018). Logic: The

Conditional and Related Statements (pp. 193 – 196). Mathematics in the

Modern World.