Math 215 Worksheet 1: Conditional statements
1. Determine which of the following sentences are statements. For each that is a statement,
• determine if it can be rephrased as a conditional statement or not; if so, identify the
hypothesis and the conclusion,
• circle or highlight the quantifiers,
• search for a counterexample,
• either establish its falsity, or conjecture its truth/falsity.
(a) The product of two consecutive positive integers is even.
Solution: This is a conditional statement because we can rephrase it as “if n and m
are consecutive positive integers, then nm is even.” Equivalently, “for all consecutive
positive integers n and m, nm is even,” which involves the universal quantifier “for
all.” The hypothesis is n and m being consecutive positive integers, and the conclusion
is nm being even.
Let’s try some examples:
1 · 2 = 2, 2 · 3 = 6, 3 · 4 = 12, 4 · 5 = 20, 5 · 6 = 30, ,...,
This statement appears to be true.
(b) The equation 3x + 8 = 0 has a solution.
Solution: This is not a statement, because “a solution” is ambiguous. If we replaced
this with “a rational solution” or ”a real solution” the statement would be true, but
if we used “a positive rational solution” or ”an integer solution” it would be false.
(c) The set of even numbers is closed under addition.
Solution: This is a statement; it can be rephrased to “if n and m are even numbers,
then n + m is even,” which is a conditional statement. The hypothesis is n and
m being even, and the conclusion is n + m being even. We could also rephrase it
as a conditional statement involving the universal quantifier “for all” as in part (a).
Moreover, since even/odd only makes sense for integers, it is implied that the numbers
involved are integers.
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This statement appears to be true; adding several combinations of small even numbers
gives
2 + 2 = 4, 2 + 4 = 6, 4 + 4 = 8, 2 + 6 = 8, 4 + 6 = 10, 6 + 6 = 12, ...,
which are all even.
(d) The set of odd numbers is closed under addition.
Solution: This is conditional statement as in part (c). The hypothesis is n and m
being odd, and the conclusion is n + m being odd.
This statement is false, since 1 + 1 = 2 forms a counterexample. In fact, every pair
of odd numbers appears to form a counterexample!
1 + 3 = 4, 3 + 3 = 6, 1 + 5 = 6, 3 + 5 = 8, 5 + 5 = 10, ...,
Based on this evidence, we can make an opposite conjecture: that the sum of any
two odd numbers is even.
(e) There exist positive integers x and y such that 2x + 3y = 16.
Solution: This is a statement involving the existential quantifier “there exists.” It
is not a conditional statement.
Let’s search for positive integer solutions:
2(1) + 3(1) = 5,
2(1) + 3(2) = 8,
2(1) + 3(3) = 10,
2(1) + 3(4) = 13,
2(1) + 3(5) = 17,
2(2) + 3(1) = 7,
2(2) + 3(2) = 10,
2(2) + 3(3) = 13,
2(2) + 3(4) = 16
and we’ve found a solution, x = 2, y = 4! Is this the only one (is the solution unique)?
Continuing the search yields x = 5, y = 2 as another solution. This appears to be all
of them...
(f) The sum of any three consecutive positive integers is divisible by 3.
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Solution: This is equivalent to the conditional statement “If a, b, and c are consec-
utive positive integers, then a + b + c is divisible by 3.” The hypothesis is the first
part, the conclusion is the second.
Let’s write down some cases:
1 + 2 + 3 = 6, 2 + 3 + 4 = 9, 3 + 4 + 5 = 12, 4 + 5 + 6 = 15, 5 + 6 + 7 = 18, ...,
We conjecture that the statement is true.
2. Consider the conditional statement
For all integers n ≥ 2, n2 + n − 1 is a prime number.
Identify the hypothesis and the conclusion.
(a) Notice that (1)2 + (1) − 1 = 1 is not prime; what does this say about the statement?
(b) Notice that (−2)2 + (−2) − 1 = 1 is not prime; what does this say about the statement?
(c) Notice that (−3)2 + (−3) − 1 = 5 is prime; what does this say about the statement?
(d) Notice that (2)2 + (2) − 1 = 5 is prime; what does this say about the statement?
(e) Replicate the truth table for the conditional statement P ⇒ Q from the textbook, and
explain your answers from (a) – (d) in its context.
(f) Search for counterexamples to this statement, and either establish its falsity, or
conjecture its truth/falsity.
Solution: The hypothesis is n being an integer ≥ 2, and the conclusion is that n2 + n − 1
is prime (is divisble by precisely 2 integers: 1 and itself).
(a) In this case, the hypothesis is false, and the conclusion is false; since the hypothesis
is false, the statement is vacuously true in this case.
(b) The hypothesis is again false, so again the statement is vacuously true. In this case
the conclusion is again false.
(c) The hypothesis is false (so the statement is vacuously true) and the conclusion is true.
(d) Here the hypothesis is true and the conclusion is true; the statement is non-vacuously
true in this particular case.
(e) The truth table for P ⇒ Q is
P Q P ⇒Q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
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Parts (a) and (b) fit in the last line of the truth table; the hypothesis and conclusion
are both false, and the statement is vacuously true. Part (c) fits with the third line;
the hypothesis is false and the conclusion is true, and again the statement is vacuously
true. Part (d) is an example of the first line; the hypothesis and conclusion are both
true in this case, which suggests that the statement may be true.
We don’t have any example of the second line; this would be a counterexample,
showing that the statement is false. That’s what we’ll look for in the last part.
(f) For convenience, let p(n) = n2 + n − 1. Listing the first five values of p(n) for integers
n = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 gives
{p(n) : 2 ≤ n ≤ 6} = {5, 11, 19, 29, 41}.
Since these are all prime numbers, the statement appears to be true. These are all
examples of the first line to the truth table; the hypothesis and conclusion for each
of these cases are true.
Now, notice that the next case is p(7) = 55 which is not prime, so in fact the statement
is false. Here we finally have an example of the second row of the truth table; to
disprove the statement we only need a single counterexample.
This is a good example showing that to make a plausible conjecture, a large data set
of examples is necessary.
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