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ECS20 Discussion 1 Week 1: October 6-10, 2014 Exercise 1: P Q) Q P Q) Q

This document contains an assignment with multiple logic exercises involving truth tables and statements about inhabitants on a fictional island. The first exercise asks students to analyze the truth tables for several logical statements and determine if "and" and "or" can always be interchanged. The second exercise asks students to use truth tables to prove or disprove several equivalence statements. The third exercise involves constructing truth tables for compound propositions. The last two exercises involve determining the identities of inhabitants on an island based on statements they make, where the inhabitants can be knights that always tell the truth, knaves that always lie, or spies that may tell the truth or lie.

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Winston JesseTyler
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43 views2 pages

ECS20 Discussion 1 Week 1: October 6-10, 2014 Exercise 1: P Q) Q P Q) Q

This document contains an assignment with multiple logic exercises involving truth tables and statements about inhabitants on a fictional island. The first exercise asks students to analyze the truth tables for several logical statements and determine if "and" and "or" can always be interchanged. The second exercise asks students to use truth tables to prove or disprove several equivalence statements. The third exercise involves constructing truth tables for compound propositions. The last two exercises involve determining the identities of inhabitants on an island based on statements they make, where the inhabitants can be knights that always tell the truth, knaves that always lie, or spies that may tell the truth or lie.

Uploaded by

Winston JesseTyler
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ECS20

Discussion 1
Week 1: October 6-10, 2014
Exercise 1
Let p and q be two statements.
a) Write down the truth tables for (p q) q and (p q) q. What do you
notice about the truth tables? Based on this result, a creative student concludes
that you can always interchange the symbol and and or without changing the
truth table. Is the student right?
b) Write down the truth tables for (p q) p and (p q) p. What do you
think of the rule formulated by the students in (a)?
Exercise 2
Let p, q, and r be three propositions. Prove or disprove the following statements using
truth tables:
a) pp q r is equivalent to q r
b) pp q r is equivalent to q r
Can you find a simpler way to prove the same properties?
Exercise 3
Construct a truth table for the compound propositions:
a) p q
b) p q
Exercise 4
This exercise relate to the inhabitants of the island of knights and knaves created by
Smullyan, where knights always tell the truth and knaves always lie. You encounter two
people, A and B. Determine, if possible, what A and B are if they address you in the way
described. If you cannot determine what these two people are, can you draw any
conclusions?
a) A says At least one of us is a knave and B says nothing.
b) A says We are both knaves and B says nothing.
Exercise 4
This exercise relates again to the inhabitants of the island created by Smullyan, except
that this time there are three types of inhabitants, knights that always tell the truth, knaves
that always lie, and spies that may tell the truth of lie. You encounter three people, A, B,
and C and you know that one is a knight, one is a knave, and one is a spy. Determine, if

possible, what A, B, and C are if they address you in the way described. If you cannot
determine what these three people are, can you draw any conclusions?
PA: A says ``C is a knave"
PB: B says ``A is the knight"
PC: C says ``I am the spy"

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