Dr.

Kholoud Nairoukh
Department of Computer Science
German-Jordanian University
Lecture 2
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

• Note that English “or” can be ambiguous

regarding the “both” case!

“Pat is a singer or p q p "or" q

Pat is a writer.” –  F F F
F T T
“Pat is a man or T F T
Pat is a woman.” –  T T ?

• Need context to disambiguate the meaning!

For this class, assume “or” means inclusive.
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 2
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

antecedent consequent

• The implication p → q states that p implies q.

i.e., If p is true, then q is true; but if p is not
true, then q could be either true or false.

• Example, let
p =“You study hard.”
q = “You will get a good grade.”
p → q = “If you study hard, then you will get
a good grade.” (else, it could go either way)
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 3
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

o p → q is false only when

p is true but q is not true. p q p→q
F F T
The
F T T
o p → q does not say T F F
only
that p causes q! T T T
False
case!

o p → q does not require

that p or q are ever true!

o Example “(1=0) → cat can fly” is True

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 4
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

True or False:
➢ “If this lecture ever ends, then the sun will rise
tomorrow.”

➢ “If Tuesday is a day of the week, then I am a lion.”

➢ “If 1+1=10, then a bird can fly.”

➢ “If the cake is made of stone, then a baby is taller

than 3 meters.”

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 5

• Consider a sentence like,
“If I wear a red shirt tomorrow, then it will
rain!”
• In logic, we consider the sentence True so
long as either I don’t wear a red shirt, or it
rains.
• But, in normal English conversation, if I were
to make this claim, you would think that I was
lying.
Why this discrepancy between logic &
language?
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 6
• In English, a sentence “if p then q” usually really implicitly
means something like,
– “In all possible situations, if p then q.”
✓That is, “For p to be true and q false is impossible.”
✓Or, “I guarantee that no matter what, if p, then q.”

• This can be expressed in predicate logic as:

– “For all situations s, if p is true in situation s, then q is
also true in situation s”
➢ Formally, we could write: s, P(s) → Q(s)

• That sentence is logically False in our example, because

for me to wear a red shirt and for the sky to rain is a
possible (even if not actual) situation.
– Natural language and logic then agree with each other.
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 7
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

✓ “p implies q” ✓ “p only if q”
✓ “if p, then q” ✓ “p is sufficient for
q”
✓ “if p, q” ✓ “q is necessary for
✓ “when p, q” p”
✓ “whenever p, q” ✓ “q follows from p”
✓ “q if p” ✓ “q is implied by p”
We will see some
✓ “q when p” equivalent logic
✓ “q whenever p” expressions later.

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 8

 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Some terminology, for an implication p → q:

▪ Its converse is: q → p.

▪ Its inverse is: ¬p → ¬q.

▪ Its contrapositive: ¬q → ¬ p.

▪ Which one of these three has the same

meaning (same truth table) as p → q ?
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 9
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

• Converses: p → q and q → p
⚫ Example “If it is noon, then I am hungry.”
“If I am hungry, then it is noon.”

• Inverses: p → q and p → q
⚫ Example “If it is noon, then I am hungry.”
“If it is not noon, then I am not hungry.”

• Contrapositives: p → q and q → p
⚫ Example “If it is noon, then I am hungry.”
“If I am not hungry, then it is not noon.”
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 10
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

• Proving the equivalence of p → q and its

contrapositive using truth tables:

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 11

 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

• The bi-conditional p  q states that p is true

if and only if (IFF) q is true.

• Example:

p = “You can take the flight.”

q = “You buy a ticket”
p  q = “You can take the flight if and only if
you buy a ticket”

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 12

 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

• p  q means that p and q

have the same truth value. p q pq
F F T
• Note this truth table is the F T F
exact opposite of ’s! T F F
Thus, p  q means ¬(p  q) T T T

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 13

 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

• We have seen 1 unary operator and 5

binary operators. Their truth tables are
below.

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 14

 Topic #2 – Bits

• A bit is a binary (base 2) digit: 0 or 1.

• Bits may be used to represent truth values.

• By convention:
0 represents “false”; 1 represents “true”.

• Boolean algebra is like ordinary algebra

except that variables stand for bits, + means
“or”, and multiplication means “and”.

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 16

 Topic #2 – Bits

❖ A Bit string of length n is an ordered sequence

(series, tuple) of n0 bits.

❖ By convention, bit strings are (sometimes) written

left to right:
Example: the “first” bit of the bit string
“1001101010” is 1.
Another common convention is that the rightmost
bit is bit #0, the 2nd-rightmost is bit #1, etc.

❖ When a bit string represents a base-2 number, by

convention, the first (leftmost) bit is the most
significant bit.
Example: 11012=8+4+1=13.
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 17
 Topic #2 – Bits

o You can count up to 1,023 just using two hands:

Count in binary! each finger represents 1 bit.(102 =
1024)

o To increment: Flip the rightmost (low-order) bit.

If it changes 1→0, then also flip the next bit to the
left,
o If that bit changes 1→0, then flip the next
one, etc.

o 0000000000, 0000000001, 0000000010, …

…, 1111111101, 1111111110, 1111111111
Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 18
 Topic #2 – Bits

❖Boolean operations can be extended to

operate on bit strings as well as single bits.

❖Example:
01 1011 0110
11 0001 1101
11
11 1011 1111
1011 1111 Bit-wise OR
010001
01 00010100
0100 Bit-wise AND
10 1010
10 10101011
1011 Bit-wise XOR

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 19

 Topic #1.1 – Propositional Logic: Equivalences

Two syntactically (i.e., textually) different

compound propositions may be semantically
identical (i.e., have the same meaning). We
call them equivalent.

➢ Various equivalence rules or laws.

➢ How to prove equivalences using symbolic

derivations.

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 20

 Topic #1.1 – Propositional Logic: Equivalences

• A tautology is a compound proposition that is

true no matter what the truth values of its
atomic propositions are!
Example: p  p

• A contradiction is a compound proposition

that is false no matter what values of its
atomic propositions are! Example: p  p

• Other compound props. are contingencies.

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 21

 Topic #1.1 – Propositional Logic: Equivalences

• Compound proposition p is logically equivalent

to compound proposition q, written pq, IFF
the compound proposition pq is a tautology.

• Compound propositions p and q are logically

equivalent to each other IFF p and q contain
the same truth values as each other in all
rows of their truth tables.

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 22

 Topic #1.1 – Propositional Logic: Equivalences

Example: Prove that pq  (p  q)

Dr. Kholoud Nairoukh 23