DISCRETE STRUCTURE DS-CS(2620)

Proposition
A Proposition or a statement or logical sentence is a declarative sentence which is either true or
false.

Example1: The following statements are all propositions:

o It rained Yesterday.
o If x is an integer, then x2 is a +ve integer.
o “Morre has an Apple laptop.”
o “chris is a professor.”
o “3 = 2 + 1”
o “3 = 2 + 2”

Example2: The following statements are not propositions:

o Please report at 11 a.m. sharp

o What is your name?
o x2=13

LOGICAL OPERATOR:
A “not” operation switches (negates) the truth value

^ Symbol:  or ~
p p
^ p = “Today is not Friday”

T F

F T
Compound Statements

Statements or propositional variables can be combined by means of logical connectives

(operators) to form a single statement called compound statements.

The five logical connectives are:

Symbol Connective Name

~ Not Negation

∧ And Conjunction

∨ Or Disjunction

⟶ Implies or if...then Implication or conditional

⟷ If and only if Equivalence or biconditional

Conjunction: It means Anding of two statements. If p, q are two statements, then "p and q" is a
compound statement, denoted by p ∧ q and referred as the conjunction of p and q. The
conjunction of p and q is true only when both p and q are true. Otherwise, it is false.

p Q p∧q

T T T

T F F

F T F

F F F
Disjunction: It means Oring of two statements. If p, q are two statements, then "p or q" is a
compound statement, denoted by p ∨ q and referred to as the disjunction of p and q. The
disjunction of p and q is true whenever at least one of the two statements is true, and it is false
only when both p and q are false.

p q p∨q

T T T

T F T

F T T

F F F

Implication / if-then (⟶): An implication p⟶q is the proposition "if p, then q." It is false if p is
true and q is false. The rest cases are true.

p q p⟶q

T T T

T F F

F T T

F F T

If and Only If (↔): p ↔ q is bi-conditional logical connective which is true when p and q are
same, i.e., both are false or both are true.

p q p↔q

T T T

T F F

F T F

F F T
DERIVED CONNECTORS:

NAND: It means negation after ANDing of two statements. Assume p and q be two
propositions. Nanding of pand q to be a proposition which is false when both p and q are true,
otherwise true. It is denoted by p ↑ q.

p q p↑q

T T F

T F T

F T T

F F T

NOR or Joint Denial: It means negation after ORing of two statements. Assume p and q be two
propositions. NORing of p and q to be a proposition which is true when both p and q are false,
otherwise false. It is denoted by p ↓ q.

P q p↓q

T T F

T F F

F T F

F F T

XOR: Assume p and q be two propositions. XORing of p and q is true if p is true or q is true but
not both and vice-versa. It is denoted by p ⨁ q.

p q p⨁q

T T F

T F T

F T T

F F F
PROVE:

Example1: Prove that X ⨁ Y ≅ (X ∧∼Y)∨(∼X∧Y).

Solution: Construct the truth table for both the propositions.

X Y X⨁Y ∼Y ∼X X ∧∼Y ∼X∧Y (X ∧∼Y)∨(∼X∧Y)

T T F F F F F F

T F T T F T F T

F T T F T F T T

F F F T T F F F

As the truth table for both the proposition is the same.

X ⨁ Y ≅ (X ∧∼Y)∨(∼X∧Y). Hence Proved.

Example2: Show that (p ⨁q) ∨(p↓q) is equivalent to p ↑ q.

Solution: Construct the truth table for both the propositions.

p q p⨁q (p↓q) (p⨁q)∨ (p↓q) p↑q

T T F F F F

T F T F T T

F T T F T T

F F F T T T
Conditional and Bi-Conditional Statements

Conditional Statement

Let p and q are two statements then "if p then q" is a compound statement, denoted by p→ q
and referred as a conditional statement, or implication. The implication p→ q is false only when
p is true, and q is false; otherwise, it is always true. In this implication, p is called the hypothesis
(or antecedent) and q is called the conclusion (or consequent).

p q p→q

T T T

T F F

F T T

F F T

For Example: The followings are conditional statements.

1. If a = b and b = c, then a = c.

Variations in Conditional Statement

Contrapositive: The proposition ~q→~p is called contrapositive of p →q.

Converse: The proposition q→p is called the converse of p →q.

Inverse: The proposition ~p→~q is called the inverse of p →q.

Example1: Show that p →q and its contrapositive are logically equivalent.

Solution: Construct the truth table for both the propositions:

p q ~p ~q p →q ~q→~p

T T F F T T

T F F T F F

F T T F T T

F F T T T T

As, the values in both cases are same, hence both propositions are equivalent.

Example2: Show that proposition q→p, and ~p→~q is not equivalent to p →q.
Solution: Construct the truth table for all the above propositions:

p q ~p ~q p →q q→p ~p→~q

T T F F T T T

T F F T F T T

F T T F T F F

F F T T T T T

As, the values of p →q in a table is not equal to q→p and ~p→~q as in fig. So both of them are
not equal to p →q, but they are themselves logically equivalent.

BiConditional Statement

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.

p q p↔q

T T T

T F F

F T F

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

Solution: Construct the truth table for both the propositions:

p q p →q q→p (p →q)∧(q→p)

T T T T T

T F F T F

F T T F F

F F T T T

Since, the truth tables are the same, hence they are logically equivalent. Hence Proved.

Principle of Duality

Two formulas A1 and A2 are said to be duals of each other if either one can be obtained from
the other by replacing ∧ (AND) by ∨ (OR) by ∧ (AND). Also if the formula contains T (True) or F
(False), then we replace T by F and F by T to obtain the dual.

The two connectives ∧ and ∨ are called dual of each other.

2. Like AND and OR, ↑ (NAND) and ↓ (NOR) are dual of each other.
3. If any formula of the proposition is valid, then it's dual of each other.
Equivalence of Propositions

Two propositions are said to be logically equivalent if they have exactly the same truth values
under all circumstances.

The table1 contains the fundamental logical equivalent expressions:

Idempotent laws (i) p ∨ p≅p (ii) p ∧ p≅p

Associative laws (i) (p ∨ q) ∨ r ≅ p∨ (q ∨ r) (ii) (p ∧ q) ∧ r ≅ p ∧ (q ∧ r)

Commutative laws (i) p ∨ q ≅ q ∨ p (ii) p ∧ q ≅ q ∧ p

Distributive laws (i) p ∨ (q ∧ r) ≅ (p ∨ q) ∧ (p ∨ r) (ii) p ∧ (q ∨ r) ≅ (p ∧ q) ∨ (p ∧ r)

Identity laws (i)p ∨ F ≅ p (ii) p ∧ T≅ p

(iv) p ∧ F≅F (iii) p ∨ T ≅ T

Involution laws (i) ¬¬p ≅ p

Complement laws (i) p ∨ ¬p ≅ T (ii) p ∧ ¬p ≅ T

DeMorgan's laws: (i) ¬(p ∨ q) ≅ ¬p ∧ ¬q (ii) ¬(p ∧ q) ≅¬p ∨ ¬q

Example: Consider the following propositions

1. ~p∨∼q and ∼(p∧q). Are they equivalent?

Solution: Construct the truth table for both

p q ~p ~q ~p∨∼q p∧q ~(p∧q)

T T F F F T F

T F F T T F T

F T T F T F T

F F T T T F T

Tautologies and Contradiction

Tautologies

A proposition P is a tautology if it is true under all circumstances. It means it contains the only T
in the final column of its truth table.

Example: Prove that the statement (p⟶q) ↔(∼q⟶∼p) is a tautology.

Solution: Make the truth table of the above statement:

p q p→q ~q ~p ~q⟶∼p (p→q)⟷( ~q⟶~p)

T T T F F T T

T F F T F F T

F T T F T T T

F F T T T T T

As the final column contains all T's, so it is a tautology.

Contradiction:

A statement that is always false is known as a contradiction.

Example: Show that the statement p ∧∼p is a contradiction.

Solution:

p ∼p p ∧∼p

T F F

F T F

Since, the last column contains all F's, so it's a contradiction.

Contingency:

A statement that can be either true or false depending on the truth values of its variables is
called a contingency.

p q p →q p∧q (p →q)⟶ (p∧q )

T T T T T

T F F F T

F T T F F

F F T F F

Predicate Logic

Predicate Logic deals with predicates, which are propositions, consist of variables.

Predicate Logic - Definition

A predicate is an expression of one or more variables determined on some specific domain. A

predicate with variables can be made a proposition by either authorizing a value to the variable
or by quantifying the variable

o Consider E(x, y) denote "x = y"

o Consider X(a, b, c) denote "a + b + c = 0"

Quantifier:

The variable of predicates is quantified by quantifiers. There are two types of quantifier in
predicate logic - Existential Quantifier and Universal Quantifier.