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2:1: The Logic of Compound Statements

This document discusses the logic of compound statements. It defines important logical symbols such as "not" (~), "and" (^), and "or" and explains their truth values. It also covers logical equivalence, De Morgan's laws, tautologies, contradictions, and provides a summary of logical equivalences. Logical statements can be represented using symbols to make reasoning easier. Important concepts include negation reversing truth values, "and" being true only if all statements are true, and "or" being true if either or both statements are true.

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72 views2 pages

2:1: The Logic of Compound Statements

This document discusses the logic of compound statements. It defines important logical symbols such as "not" (~), "and" (^), and "or" and explains their truth values. It also covers logical equivalence, De Morgan's laws, tautologies, contradictions, and provides a summary of logical equivalences. Logical statements can be represented using symbols to make reasoning easier. Important concepts include negation reversing truth values, "and" being true only if all statements are true, and "or" being true if either or both statements are true.

Uploaded by

NicholasLaffey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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2:1: The Logic of Compound Statements

Logical Form and Logical Equivalence


Sentences are often represented in logical symbols to aid reasoning.
For example, you may say if a program includes division by zero then an error
message will occur, and if an error message does not occur then division by zero
didn't occur. This can be represented much easier by saying, if p or q, then r.
Therefore, if not r, then not p and not q.
Statement ( Proposition) - Sentence that is unambiguously true or false but not
both.
Important Symbols
~ denotes not. For example ~p means not P or it is not the case that P. This
is called the negation of P.
^ denotes and. For example, p ^ q means p and q. This is called a conjunction.
Downwards carrot denotes or. For example, p downwards carrot q mean p or
q. This is called the disjunction of p and q.
Order of operations: The negation is performed first; however, parentheses
can change this. ~(p ^ q) means that p and q happens before the negation.
The up and down carrots are said to be co-equal in order of operations, so
statements like a ^ b downward carrot c are considered ambiguous.
p but q is equivalent to p and q
neither p nor q means ~p and ~q
Truth Values
p ^ q has a true truth value only if both statements are true. If one or both is
false, then it is false.
p or q has a truth value of true if EITHER both are true OR just one is true.
Negations simply reverse the truth value, so ~(p^q) would have the opposite
value of the first example.
Statement forms - an expression made of sever variables (p,q,r) and logical
connectives (aforementioned symbols) that becomes a statement when actual
statements are substituted for the component variables.
Exclusive or - sometimes or might mean P or Q but not both. This exclusive or is
denoted by p XOR q or by a circle with a cross in it.
Two statement forms can be said to be logically equivalent if they have identical
truth values for all combinations.
Two statements are called logically equivalent if and only if they have logically
equivalent forms when identical component statement variables are used.
De Morgan's Laws
The negation of an and statement is logically equivalent to the or statement in
which each component is negated.
The negation of an or statement is logically equivalent to the and statement in
which each component is negatored.
Tautologies and Contradictions

A tautology is a statement is always true regardless of the truth values of its


individual components.
A contradiction is a statement form that is always false regardless of the truth
values of its components.
Summary of Logical Equivalences
See chart on page 35

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