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Homework 02

This document contains the instructions for homework 2 of a computer science course. It includes 5 problems related to formal logic and string theory. Problem 1 asks students to prove that a string is "good" based on inductive rules and characterize the property of all good strings. Problem 2 asks students to prove that logical implication distributes over conjunction and vice versa. Problem 3 asks students to prove the validity of logical formulas. Problem 4 asks students to write logical formulas representing properties of strings like being even, a substring, or a power of 2. Problem 5 (bonus) asks students to prove that repeated applications of a tree modification rule can turn any rooted tree into a single vertex tree.

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Abrar Tasneem Abir
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65 views3 pages

Homework 02

This document contains the instructions for homework 2 of a computer science course. It includes 5 problems related to formal logic and string theory. Problem 1 asks students to prove that a string is "good" based on inductive rules and characterize the property of all good strings. Problem 2 asks students to prove that logical implication distributes over conjunction and vice versa. Problem 3 asks students to prove the validity of logical formulas. Problem 4 asks students to write logical formulas representing properties of strings like being even, a substring, or a power of 2. Problem 5 (bonus) asks students to prove that repeated applications of a tree modification rule can turn any rooted tree into a single vertex tree.

Uploaded by

Abrar Tasneem Abir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Computer Science Problem Sets

15-251: Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science January 17


Spring 2022/Christos A. Kapoutsis 22.01.17 17:07:46

Homework 02
due: January 23

Problem 1. Consider the following inductively defined set of “good” strings of a’s and b’s:
• Seed: The empty string  is good.
• Rule 1: If s is good, then a s b is good.
• Rule 2: If s is good, then b s a is good.
• Rule 3: If s1 , s2 are good, then s1 s2 is good.

(a) Prove that abaababbba is good.

(b) Give a characterization of the good strings: i.e., a property P such that a string s is good if
and only if s has property P .
(Your characterization should be non-trivial; e.g., P cannot be “all good strings”.)

(c) Prove that every good string satisfies your P . (Soundness.)

(d) Prove that every string that satisfies your P is good. (Completeness.)

(e) Prove that abababbba is not good.

Problem 2. (a) Prove that → distributes over ∧, i.e., that the following formula is a tautology:
 
p → (q ∧ r) ↔ (p → q) ∧ (p → r) .

(b) Prove that part (a) is not true if we swap → with ∧, namely the formula
 
p ∧ (q → r) ↔ (p ∧ q) → (p ∧ r) .

is not a tautology, and thus ∧ does not distribute over →.


Problem Sets: Homework 02 2

Problem 3. For each of the following formulas, prove that the formula is valid or give an inter-
pretation to show that it is not valid.

 
(a) ∀u P (u) → R(u) → ∀uP (u) → ∀uR(u) .
 
(b) ∀uP (u) → ∀uR(u) → ∀u P (u) → R(u) .

Problem 4. Consider a first-order logic with the following symbols:


• relational : just equality ( · = · );
• functional : cat( · , · );
• constant: 0, 1, and e.
For this logic, consider the interpretation where
• the universe is the set of all finite binary strings;
• = maps to the relation which it true iff its two arguments are identical;
• cat maps to the function which returns the concatenation xy of its arguments x and y.
• 0 maps to the the single-symbol string 0;
• 1 maps to the the single-symbol string 1; and
• e maps to the the empty string .
We can use this logic to write formulas which represent complex properties of strings. For example,
consider the formula
isOdd(x) := (∃y)(x=cat(y, 1))
represents the property that “the binary number represented by the string x is odd”.
In each part below, write a formula which represents the given relation. If you wish, you may use
a relation that you have already defined in a previous part.

(a) isEven(x), for “the binary number represented by x is even”.

(b) isSubstring(x, y), for “x is a substring of y”.

(c) isPowerOf2(x), for “the binary number represented by x is a power of 2”.

(d) isEqual(x, y), for “the binary numbers represented by x and y are equal”.

Problem 5 (BONUS). Let T be any rooted tree. Let v by any node of T . The subtree of T rooted
at v is the set of all nodes x for which every path from the root of T to x goes through v. To attach
to v another rooted tree T 0 is simply to draw an edge from v to the root of T 0 . (Note that a rooted
tree need not be binary —each node may have any number of children.)
Now consider the following rule for modifying a rooted tree T :
Problem Sets: Homework 02 3

1. Pick any leaf u and remove it from T .


2. If the parent v of u was the root of T , then do nothing.
3. Otherwise, take 251 copies of the subtree rooted at v (after the removal of u), and attach
them to the parent of v.
Prove that, for every rooted tree T , repeated applications of this rule can eventually turn T into
the single-vertex tree which consists of only the root.

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