BE-STEM 11 IS – BLOCK—B

General Mathematics

TRUTH TABLE
Gen Math | MODULE 7
 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

Truth tables, Truth Value, Tautologies and Contradiction

Objectives:
At the end of this module, the students will be able to;

1. determine truth values of compound propositions;

2. validate arguments;
3. construct truth tables; and
4. identify tautologies and contradiction using truth tables.

KEY CONCEPT: Here is the summary of logical operators that is very essential for this
module:

Connective Symbol Type of Syntax (p and q are

Statement propositions)
And (but, while) ^ Conjunction p^q
Or V Disjunction pvq
Not ~ Negation ~p
If… then (provided, in the → conditional p→q
condition, only if, implies)
If and only if (iff) ↔ biconditional p↔q

LESSON PROPER:

TRUTH TABLE

A truth table is a mathematical table used to determine if a compound statement is true or false.
The truth value of a statement is the classification as true or false which denoted by T or F.

A truth table is a listing of all possible combinations of the individual statements as true or false,
along with the resulting truth value of the compound statements. Truth tables are an aide in
distinguishing valid and invalid arguments.

In this lesson, we will learn the basic rules needed to construct a truth table and look at some
examples of truth tables. Each logical operators has its own truth table.

1. NEGATION: Truth Table for ~p

• Recall that the negation of a statement is the denial of the statement.
• If the statement p is true, the negation of p, i.e. ~p is false.
• If the statement p is false, then ~p is true.
• Note that since the statement p could be true or false, we have 2 rows in the truth table.

p ~p
T F
F T

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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

2. CONJUNCTION : Truth Table for p ^ q

• Recall that the conjunction is the joining of two statements with the word and.
• For p ^ q to be true, then both statements p and q must be true.
• If either statement or if both statements are false, then the conjunction is false.
• NOTE: Only true when both statements are true.

p^q
p q p^q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

3. DISJUNCTION: Truth Table for p v q

• Recall that a disjunction is the joining of two statements with the word or.
• For a disjunction to be true, at least one of the statements must be true.
• A disjunction is only false, if both statements are false.

pvq
p q p^q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

4. CONDITIONAL: Truth table for p → q

• Recall that conditional is a compound statement of the form “if p then q”.
• Think of a conditional as a promise.
o If I don’t keep my promise, in other words q is false, then the conditional is false if
the premise is true.
o If I keep my promise, that is q is true, and the premise is true, then the conditional
is true.
o When the premise is false (i.e. p is false), then there was no promise. Hence by
default the conditional is true.
p q p→q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

5. BI-CONDITIONAL: Truth table for p ↔ q

• Biconditional statement p ↔ q is true if both p and q are true.
• If it is false, one of the premises is false.
• If both statements are false, then it is TRUE.

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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

p q p↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
You should remember --- or be able to construct --- the truth tables for the logical connectives. You'll
use these tables to construct tables for more complicated sentences. It's easier to demonstrate what
to do than to describe it in words, so you'll see the procedure worked out in the examples.

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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

CONSTRUCTING TRUTH TABLE

STEPS:

1. When you're constructing a truth table, you have to consider all possible assignments of True (T)
and False (F) to the component statements. For example, suppose the component statements
are P, Q, and R. Each of these statements can be either true or false, so there are 23 =
8 possibilities.
2. There are different ways of setting up truth tables. You can, for instance, write the truth values
"under" the logical connectives of the compound statement, gradually building up to the
column for the "primary" connective.

Example 1: Construct a truth table for

Steps:
a. Construct a table for the premises p and q by listing all the alternatives for p and q (there
are only two premises thus there will be 4 rows)

p q
T T
T F
F T
F F

b. In the third column, list all the possible values of (based on the truth table of conjuction)

p q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

c. Get the negation the third column.

p q ~(p^q)
T T T F
T F F T
F T F T
F F F T

Example 2: Construct the truth table for ~p ^ (p →q)

a. Construct a table for the premises p and q by listing all the alternatives for p and q

p q
T T
T F
F T
F F

Page 1 of 6
 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

b. In the third column, list all the possible values of ~p

p q ~p
T T F
T F F
F T T
F F T

c. In the fourth column, list all possible values of p →q (based on the truth table of conditional)

p q ~p p →q
T T F T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T

d. In the last column, list the conjunction of ~p and p →q

p q ~p p →q ~p ^ (p →q)
T T F T F
T F F F F
F T T T T
F F T T T

Example 3: Construct the truth table of (p v r) ↔ (q).

a. Construct a table for the premises p and q by listing all the alternatives for p , q and r. (For
this case, there are 8 possible alternatives (23 = 8).
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

b. In the third column, write all the truth values for (p v r)

p q r (p v r)
T T T T
T T F T
T F T T
T F F T
F T T T
F T F F
F F T T
F F F F
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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

c. In the fourth column, write all the truth values of ~q.

p q r (p v r) q
T T T T F
T T F T F
T F T T T
T F F T T
F T T T F
F T F F F
F F T T T
F F F F T

d. In the last column, write all the truth values for the biconditional.
p q r (p v r) q (p v r) ↔ (q)
T T T T F F
T T F T F F
T F T T T T
T F F T T T
F T T T F F
F T F F F T
F F T T T T
F F F F T F

NOTE:

A TAUTOLOGY is a formula which is "always true" --- that is, it is true for every assignment of truth
values to its simple components. You can think of a tautology as a rule of logic.

The opposite of a tautology is a CONTRADICTION, a formula which is "always false". In other words, a
contradiction is false for every assignment of truth values to its simple components.

If two or more compound proposition has the same truth table, then they are LOGICALLY
EQUIVALENT. Two statements X and Y are logically equivalent if X ↔ Y is a tautology.

Another way to say this is: For each assignment of truth values to the simple statements which make
up X and Y, the statements X and Y have identical truth values.

Example 4: Show that (p→q) v (q→p) is a tautology.

a. Construct a table for the premises p and q by listing all the alternatives for p and q

p q
T T
T F
F T
F F

b. Write the truth values for (p→q) and (q→p) in the third and fourth column, respectively.

p q (p→q) (q→p)
T T T T

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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

T F F T
F T T F
F F T T
c. In the last column, list all the truth values for (p→q) v (q→p).

p q p→q q→p (p→q) v (q→p).

T T T T T
T F F T T
F T T F T
F F T T T

The last column contains only T's. Therefore, the formula is a tautology.

Example 5: Show that p→q and ~p v q are logically equivalent.

p q p→q ~p ~p v q
T T T F T
T F F F F
F T T T T
F F T T T

Since the columns for p→q and ~p v q are identical, the two statements are logically equivalent. This
tautology is called Conditional Disjunction. You can use this equivalence to replace a conditional by
a disjunction. This can also be written as (p→q) ↔ (~p v q).

Example 6. Show that the inverse and the converse of a conditional are logically equivalent.

Let p→q be the conditional statement, ~p → ~q be the inverse and q → p be the converse.

By constructing a truth table:

p q ~p ~q ~p → ~q q→p
T T F F T T
T F F T T T
F T T F F F
F F T T T T

Since the columns for ~p → ~q and q → p are identical, the two statements are logically equivalent.
This can also be written as (~p → ~q) ↔ (q → p).

TRUTH VALUES

You can see that constructing truth tables for statements with lots of connectives or lots of simple
statements is pretty tedious and error-prone. While there might be some applications of this (e.g. to
digital circuits), at some point the best thing would be to write a program to construct truth tables (and
this has surely been done).

The point here is to understand how the truth value of a complex statement depends on the
truth values of its simple statements and its logical connectives. In most work, mathematicians don't
normally use statements which are very complicated from a logical point of view.

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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

Example:

Let p and q represent the following simple statements:

p : 15 > 10 (True)

q : 5 < 7 (True)

Determine the truth value for each statement

1. p ^ q
TRUE
T T

Explanation:
This is a conjunction, let us refer to the truth table for conjunctions

p q p^q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
Since both propositions are true, the statement is true (row 1 of truth table for
conjunctions).

2.
FALSE
F T

Explanation:
This is a combination of conjunction and negation.

p q p^q
T T F F

Propositions p and q are true; however, the statement involves a negated p in

conjunction with q. Therefore, we are finding the truth value of a T and F which results to
F.

3. p v q
TRUE
T F

Explanation:
This is a combination of disjunction and negation.

p q pvq
T T F T

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 General Mathematics 1st Trimester, S.Y. 2022-2023
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Grade Level/Section: Grade 11
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

MODULE 7 – Gen Math Subject Teacher:

Propositions p and q are true; however, the statement involves a negated q which makes
the proposition ( false. Therefore, we are finding the truth value of a T or F which results to
T. A disjunction (or) is true as long as one proposition is true.

4. Find the truth value of q→ (p v q) if p and q are both true

p q q pvq q → (p v q)
T T F T T

5. Find the truth value of q ↔ (p v q) if p and q are both False.

p q q p v q q ↔ (p v q)
F F T T T

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