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Unit1 - Conditional Statements, Converse, Contrapositive Inverse

Conditional statements relate two propositions such that one proposition is claimed to be true given the truth of the other. The document defines conditional statements using the example "If it rains in Greater Noida, then the road there will be wet". It constructs a truth table to evaluate conditional statements and discusses different types of conditional statements like converse, inverse, and contrapositive statements. It also defines biconditional statements as those that are true if and only if both propositions are true or both are false.

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Dr. Sushant Shekhar
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406 views4 pages

Unit1 - Conditional Statements, Converse, Contrapositive Inverse

Conditional statements relate two propositions such that one proposition is claimed to be true given the truth of the other. The document defines conditional statements using the example "If it rains in Greater Noida, then the road there will be wet". It constructs a truth table to evaluate conditional statements and discusses different types of conditional statements like converse, inverse, and contrapositive statements. It also defines biconditional statements as those that are true if and only if both propositions are true or both are false.

Uploaded by

Dr. Sushant Shekhar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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https://sites.google.com/a/cs.christuniversity.

in/1425002-discrete-mathematical-structures/unit-i-
foundations/g-conditional-statements

Conditional Statements
In the last topic, we saw that the operators ∧ (AND), ∨ (OR), and ¬(NOT) allow us to create
complex statements. We also saw that some of these complex statements are logically
equivalent to each other, i.e. their truth tables have the same truth values. Similarly, there is one
more type of complex statement, called the if-then statements, or conditional statements.
For example,

 If it rains in Greater Noida, then the road there will be wet.

Like in other complex statements, there are at least two statements in this conditional statement
too.

 p - It is raining in Greater Noida.


 q - The road in Greater Noida is wet.

The whole statement can be denoted by p⇒q. Let us construct the truth table for such a
statement.

A simplistic explanation of the truth table is as follows -


 If it rains in Greater Noida, then the road there will be wet. - TRUE
 If it rains in Greater Noida, then the road there will not be wet. – FALSE

(It is a physical impossibility for a road to be dry when it is raining.)

 If it does not rain in Greater Noida, then the road there will be wet. – TRUE

(A road can be wet for many reasons beside rain, e.g. - Leaky water carrier, damaged
water supply pipes etc)

 If it does not rain in Greater Noida, then the road there will not be wet. – TRUE

(Since there is no other reason mentioned explicitly, the statement can be true).
NOTE:A more profound reason is that, conditional statements are all about cause and effect. Our main
concern is not the cause, but the effect in the statement.
A Conditional statements can be manipulated in some interesting ways to create a new conditional
statement. These derived statements are -
Converse Statements –
If the original statement is p⇒q, then the converse statement is given by q⇒p. However, it is worth noting
that in most cases, these statements are logically equivalent.
For example -

 Original statement - If a number is divisible by 10, then the number is divisible by 5.


 Converse statement - If a number is divisible by 5, then the number is divisible by 10.

Evidently, the converse statement in this case is false. But, in some cases they can also be true. For
example -

 Original statement - If a number is divisible by 2, then the number is even.


 Converse statement - If a number is even, then the number is divisible by 2.

In this case, both the statements are true, i.e. p⇒q is the same as q⇒p. Such statements are represented by
p⇔q, i.e. if and only if. The previous statement can be conveniently stated as -

 A number is even if and only if it is divisible by 2.

Inverse Statements –
If the original statement is p⇒q, then the inverse statement is given by ¬p⇒¬q. Once again, like converse
statements, they may or may not be logically equivalent.
For example -

 Original statement - If a number is divisible by 10, then the number is divisible by 5.


 Inverse statement - If a number is not divisible by 10, then the number is not divisible by 5.

The inverse statement in this case is false. But, in other cases they can be true. For example -

 Original statement - If a number is divisible by 2, then the number is even.


 Inverse statement - If a number is not divisible by 2, then the number is not even.

Contrapositive Statements –
If the original statement is p⇒q, then the contrapositive statement is given by ¬q⇒¬p. Contrapostive
statements are always logically equivalent to the original statement. -

 Original statement - If a number is divisible by 10, then the number is divisible by 5.


 Contrapostive statement - If a number is not divisible by 5, then the number is not divisible by
10.

Another example -

 Original statement - If a number is divisible by 2, then the number is even.


 Contrapostive statement - If a number is not even, then the number is not divisible by 2.
https://www.javatpoint.com/conditional-and-biconditional-statements

BiConditional Statement
Definition: A biconditional statement is defined to be true whenever both parts have the same
truth value. The biconditional operator is denoted by a double-headed arrow . The
biconditional p q represents "p if and only if q," where p is a hypothesis and q is a conclusion.
The following is a truth table for biconditional p q.

If p and q are two statements then "p if and only if q" is a compound statement, denoted as p ↔ q
and referred as a biconditional statement or an equivalence. The equivalence p ↔ q is true only
when both p and q are true or when both p and q are false.

For Example: (i) Two lines are parallel if and only if they have the same slope.
(ii) You will pass the exam if and only if you will work hard.

Example: Prove that p ↔ q is equivalent to (p →q) ∧(q→p).

Solution: Construct the truth table for both the propositions:


https://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol9/biconditional

Example

p: x + 7 = 11
Given:
q: x = 5
Problem: Is this sentence biconditional? "x + 7 = 11 iff x = 5."

Solution:

Let p q represent "If x + 7 = 11, then x = 5."


Let q p represent "If x = 5, then x + 7 = 11."

The statement p q is false by the definition of a conditional. The statement q p is also false
by the same definition. Therefore, the sentence "x + 7 = 11 iff x = 5" is not biconditional.

Example :

a: x + 2 = 7
Given:
b: x = 5
Write a b as a sentence. Then determine its truth values a
Problem:
b.
Solution: The biconditonal a b represents the sentence: "x + 2 = 7 if and only if x = 5." When
x = 5, both a and b are true. When x 5, both a and b are false. A biconditional statement is
defined to be true whenever both parts have the same truth value. Accordingly, the truth values
of a b are listed in the table below.

Truth Table

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