COS2661/201/1/2020

Tutorial letter 201/1/2020

Formal Logic 2
COS2661

Semester 1

School of Computing

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

This tutorial letter contains the solution to Assignment 01 for semester 2

Page

1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 3
2 SOLUTION TO ASSIGNMENT 01: SEMESTER 1 ....................................................................... 4

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1 INTRODUCTION

Dear student,

This tutorial letter contains the solutions to Assignment 1. Correct options and explanations are given in
this tutorial letter.

TUTORIAL MATTER
You should already have received the material listed below. If any of it is missing, please contact the
Department of Despatch. You may also download it from the Internet – see tutorial letter
COSALLF/301/4/2020.

Tutorial letters:
COSALLF/301/4/2020
General information concerning the School of Computing and study at Unisa
Lecturers’ names and contact information
COS2661/101/3/2020
Information about COS2661 and the assignments
COS2661/102/3/2020
Tutorial letter serving as Study Guide
COS2661/103/3/2020
Mathematics that may be needed
COS2661/201/1/2020
This letter, Solutions to Assignment 1 of First Semester of 2020

The COS2661 Team

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2 SOLUTION TO ASSIGNMENT 01: SEMESTER 1
Question Correct
Number Option
1. 4
2. 3/4
3. 2
4. 1
5. 4
6. 4
7. 2
8. 3
9. 1
10. 4
11. 3
12. 1
13. 2
14. 3
15. 4
16. 4
17. 2
18. 1
19. 3
20. 1

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back

a: C, S

left right

d: T, S

e: C, S b: D, L c: T, M

front

QUESTION 1 Option 4
Sentence 1: Between(d, a, e)  Between(c, b, e) F
Sentence 2: Cube(a)  SameSize(a, d) T
Sentence 3: SameCol(a, b)  Larger(c, a) F
Sentence 4: BackOf(e, d)  FrontOf(e, d) T
Sentence 5: Tet(b)  ( Cube(d)   Cube(b)) F
Sentence 6:  (Smaller(b, d)  Smaller(d, a))  Smaller(e, c) T
Sentence 7:  Adjoins(a, e) T

Sentences 1, 3 and 5 are false in the given Tarski world.

Sentence 1: False because of the conjunction. It is True that block d is between a and e but block c is
not between b and e. (See chapter 3 Boolean Connectives).
Sentence 2: True because block a is a cube and blocks a and d are the same size.
Sentence 3: False because block a is not in the same column as block b. However, block c larger than
block a, but the rule for conjunctions is that both conjuncts must be true.
Sentence 4: True because even though block e is not at the back of block d, block e is in front of block d
as the connective is a disjunction.
Sentence 5: False because block b is not a tetrahedron though the other side of the other side of the
conjunction is true.
Sentence 6: True because block d is smaller than block b and block d is smaller than a is false, the
negation makes it true. (The sentence is a disjunction so if one disjunct is true then the sentence is true.)
Sentence 7: True because block a is indeed not adjacent to e.

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QUESTION 2 Options 3 and 4
Option 1 is incorrect because it is true that block e is small and block c is not small, but the negation
makes it false.
Option 2 is incorrect because it is true that block e is small, but it is false that block c is small, and the
negation makes it false.
Option 3 is correct because blocks e is small and block c is not small.
Option 4 is also correct because it is false that block e is not small and true that block c is not small. The
disjunction makes it true.

The assignment dept was requested to mark both options.

QUESTION 3 Option 2
Option 1 is incorrect because sentence 1 is false in the given world.
Option 2 is correct because all seven sentences are true in the given world.
Option 3 is incorrect because sentences 1, 4 are false in the given world.
Option 4 is incorrect because sentence 1 is false in the given world.
Option 5 is incorrect because some of the sentences are true.

QUESTION 4 Option 1
Hopefully this is quite clear.

QUESTION 5 Option 4
This is clear, see chapter 1.

QUESTION 6 Option 4
Again, this is hopefully quite clear. See chapter 1.

QUESTION 7 Option 2
See chapter 1 of your textbook.

QUESTION 8 Option 3
Informal proofs are those presented in natural language, often with more relaxed notational and
structural conventions compared to formal proofs. Formal proofs, by contrast, use FOL and a set of fixed
rules that we will soon illustrate.

QUESTION 9 Option 1
Substitution says that, if x is identical to y and, further, x has the property P, then y must also have the
property P.

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QUESTION 10 Option 4
Recall that Identity Elimination is a formalization of indiscernability of identicals.

QUESTION 11 Option 3
The logic of Boolean Logic, Chapter 4
A B C ⌐C A  ⌐C B  C A  ⌐C  BC
T T T F F T F T T
T T F T T T T T T
T F T F F T F T T
T F F T T F T T F
F T T F F T F T T
F T F T F T F T T
F F T F F T F T T
F F F T F F F F F


QUESTION 12 Option 1
This follows directly from the definition of a tautology – the sentence has to be true in all situations. See
pages 100-103 of your textbook.

QUESTION 13 Option 2
This follows directly from the definition of TT-possible – the sentence has to be true in at least one
situation. See the bottom of page 103 of your textbook.

QUESTION 14 Option 3
Tautological consequence is explained on page 110 of your textbook. Note that the meaning of the
sentences does not play any role here.

The new sentence will be a tautological consequence of the two sentences RightOf(a, b) and  Cube(a)
if it is true whenever both sentences RightOf(a, b) and  Cube(a) are true. Only in lines 2 and 6 both
these sentences are true.

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QUESTION 15 Option 4
Sentence 1: Remember we said that Q is logical consequence of a set of sentences P just in case Q
can't possibly be false if P is true. It's entirely possible that the other sentences are all true,
but it's false that John ate at least three plates of pasta today.
Sentence 2: Remember we said that Q is logical consequence of a set of sentences P just in case Q
can't possibly be false if P is true. It's entirely possible for all the other sentences to be true,
while it is false that John will do logic tomorrow.
Sentence 3: Remember we said that Q is logical consequence of a set of sentences P just in case Q
can't possibly be false if P is true. This one was a bit tricky but suppose John has been
training for a pasta-eating competition and so three plates of it are no problem for him!
Hence this sentence would be false. But that situation is still entirely consistent with the
other sentences being true.
Sentence 4: Remember we said that Q is logical consequence of a set of sentences P just in case Q
can't possibly be false if P is true. In this case, we know from the first sentence that John
must have eaten three plates of pasta today and so, by the third sentence, he must be
stuffed. But it follows then from the final sentence that Dave will hike tomorrow!
Sentence 5: Remember we said that Q is logical consequence of a set of sentences P just in case Q
can't possibly be false if P is true. It's entirely possible that John is stuffed, for instance, but
he still toughs it out and goes hiking. So, this situation is not inconsistent with all of the other
sentences being true.

See page 106 of your textbook.

QUESTION 16 Option 4
This option describes a situation in which the premises are all True but the conclusion is False. That's
indeed a counterexample to the validity of the argument!

QUESTION 17 Option 2
Remember that, in a valid argument, it's impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false.
In this case, our premises are (1) No knights are knaves, (2) Either John or Dave isn't a knave, and (3)
Dave is a knight. The conclusion is the sentence, (4) John is a knight. Since Dave isn't a knave, the
second premise tells us nothing about John. It would be perfectly possible for him to be a knave (as
shocking as that might seem!).

QUESTION 18 Option 1
Remember that, in a valid argument, it's impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false.

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QUESTION 19 Option 3
1 SameSize(c, c)
2 f=c
3 f=f = Intro (Reflexivity of Identity Rule)
4 c=f = Elim 3, 2 (Indiscernibility of Identicals Rule)
5 SameSize(f, c) = Elim 1, 4 (Indiscernibility of Identicals Rule)

See page 57 of your textbook.

QUESTION 20 Option 1
A correct CNF of the sentence is
 (A   B)   (A  B)
≡ ( A  B)  (A  B)) Double negation
≡ ( A   B)  (A  B)) Double negation
≡ (A   B)  (A  B)) NNF (page 122)

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UNISA 2020