Lecture 1

Discrete Structures
1.1 Propositional Logic
Introduction
The rules of logic give precise meaning to mathematical statements. These rules are used to
distinguish between valid and invalid mathematical arguments. Because a major goal of this
book is to teach the reader how to understand and how to construct correct mathematical
arguments, we begin our study of discrete mathematics with an introduction to logic. Besides the
importance of logic in understanding mathematical reasoning, logic has numerous applications to
computer science. These rules are used in the design of computer circuits, the construction of
computer programs, the verification of the correctness of programs, and in many other ways.
Furthermore, software systems have been developed for constructing some, but not all, types of
proofs automatically.

Propositions
Our discussion begins with an introduction to the basic building blocks of logic—propositions. A
proposition is a declarative sentence (that is, a sentence that declares a fact) that is either true or
false, but not both.
EXAMPLE 1 All the following declarative sentences are propositions.
1. Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States of America.
2. Toronto is the capital of Pakistan.
3. 1+1=2.
4. 2+2=3.
Propositions 1 and 3 are true, whereas 2 is false.
▲
Some sentences that are not propositions are given in Example 2.
EXAMPLE 2 Consider the following sentences.
1. What time is it?
2. Read this carefully.
3. x +1=2.
4. x +y = z.
Sentences 1 and 2 are not propositions because they are not declarative sentences. Sentences 3
and 4 are not propositions because they are neither true nor false. Note that each of sentences 3
and 4 can be turned into a proposition if we assign values to the variables.
We use letters to denote propositional variables (or statement variables), that is, variables that
represent propositions, just as letters are used to denote numerical variables. The conventional
letters used for propositional variables are p,q,r,s,... .The truth value of a proposition is true,
denoted by T, if it is a true proposition, and the truth value of a proposition is false, denoted by F,
if it is a false proposition. Therefore of logic that deals with propositions is called the
propositional calculus or propositional logic. It was first developed systematically by the Greek
philosopher Aristotle more than 2300 years ago. We now turn our attention to methods for
producing new propositions from those that we already have. These methods were discussed by
the English mathematician George Boole in 1854 in his book The Laws of Thought. Many
mathematical statements are constructed by combining one or more propositions. New
propositions, called compound propositions, are formed from existing propositions using logical
operators.
DEFINITION 1 Let p be a proposition. The negation of p, denoted by ¬p (also denoted by p),is
the statement
“It is not the case that p.” The proposition ¬p is read “not p. ”The truth value of the negation of
p, ¬p, is the opposite of the truth value of p.
EXAMPLE 3 Find the negation of the proposition
“Michael’s PC runs Linux”
and express this in simple English.
Solution: The negation is
“It is not the case that Michael’s PC runs Linux.”
This negation can be more simply expressed as
“Michael’s PC does not run Linux.”
▲
EXAMPLE 4 Find the negation of the proposition
“Vandana’s smartphone has at least 32GB of memory”
and express this in simple English.
Solution: The negation is
“It is not the case that Vandana’s smartphone has at least 32GB of memory.”
This negation can also be expressed as
“Vandana’s smartphone does not have at least 32GB of memory”
or even more simply as
“Vandana’s smartphone has less than 32GB of memory.”
TABLE 1
The TruthTable for the Negation of a Proposition. p ¬p T F F T

Table 1 displays the truth table for the negation of a proposition p. This table has a row for each
of the two possible truth values of a proposition p. Each row shows the truth value of ¬p
corresponding to the truth value of p for this row. The negation of a proposition can also be
considered the result of the operation of the negation operator on a proposition. The negation
operator constructs a new proposition from a single existing proposition.We will now introduce
the logical operators that are used to form new propositions from two or more existing
propositions These logical operators are also called connectives.
DEFINITION 2
Let p and q be propositions. The conjunction of p and q, denoted by p ∧ q ,is the proposition “p
and q.”The conjunction p ∧ q is true when both p and q are true and is false otherwise.
 Table 2 displays the truth table of p∧q. This table has a row for each of the four possible
combinations of truth values of p and q. The four rows correspond to the pairs of truth values TT,
TF, FT, and FF, where the first truth value in the pair is the truth value of p and the second truth
value is the truth value of q. Note that in logic the word “but” sometimes is used instead of “and”
in a conjunction. For example, the statement “The sun is shining, but it is raining” is another way
of saying “The sun is shining and it is raining.”(Innatural language, there is a subtle difference in
meaning between “and” and “but”; we will not be concerned with this nuance here.)
EXAMPLE 5
Find the conjunction of the propositions p and q where p is the proposition “Rebecca’s PC has
more than 16 GB free hard disk space” and q is the proposition “The processor in Rebecca’s PC
runs faster than 1 GHz.”
Solution:
The conjunction of these propositions, p∧q, is the proposition “Rebecca’s PC has more than 16
GB free hard disk space, and the processor in Rebecca’s PC runs faster than 1 GHz.” This
conjunction can be expressed more simply as “Rebecca’s PC has more than 16 GB free hard disk
space, and its processor runs faster than 1 GHz.” For this conjunction to be true, both conditions
given must be true. It is false, when one or both of these conditions are false. ▲
DEFINITION 3
Let p and q be propositions. The disjunction of p and q, denoted by p ∨ q ,is the proposition “p or
q.” The disjunction p ∨ q is false when both p and q are false and is true otherwise.
Table 3 displays the truth table for p ∨ q.
1.1 Propositional Logic 5
The use of the connective or in a disjunction corresponds to one of the two ways the word or is
used in English, namely, as an inclusive or.A disjunction is true when at least one of the two
propositions is true. For instance, the inclusive or is being used in the statement
“Students who have taken calculus or computer science can take this class.”
Here, we mean that students who have taken both calculus and computer science can take the
class, as well as the students who have taken only one of the two subjects. On the other hand, we
are using the exclusive or when we say
“Students who have taken calculus or computer science, but not both, can enroll in this class.”
Here,we mean that students who have taken both calculus and a computer science course cannot
take the class. Only those who have taken exactly one of the two courses can take the class.
Similarly, when a menu at a restaurant states, “Soup or salad comes with an entrée,” the
restaurant almost always means that customers can have either soup or salad, but not both.
Hence, this is an exclusive, rather than an inclusive, or.
EXAMPLE 6 What is the disjunction of the propositions p and q where p and q are the same
propositions as in Example 5? Solution: The disjunction of p and q, p∨q, is the proposition
“Rebecca’s PC has at least 16 GB free hard disk space, or the processor in Rebecca’s PC runs
faster than 1 GHz.”
This proposition is true when Rebecca’s PC has at least 16 GB free hard disk space, when the
PC’s processor runs faster than 1 GHz, and when both conditions are true. It is false when both
of these conditions are false, that is, when Rebecca’s PC has less than 16 GB free hard disk space
and the processor in her PC runs at 1 GHz or slower.
Definition 4:
Let p and q be propositions. The exclusive or of p and q denoted by p ⊕ q is the proposition that
is true when exactly one of p and q is true and is false otherwise.
The truth table for the exclusive or of two propositions is displayed in Table 4.