Discrete Structures

Lec # 02

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 Propositional Logic: Review

• Propositional logic: a formal language for representing

knowledge and for making logical inferences
• A proposition is a statement that is either true or false.
• A compound proposition can be created from other
propositions using logical connectives
• The truth of a compound proposition is defined by truth
values of elementary propositions and the meaning of
connectives.
• The truth table for a compound proposition: table with
entries (rows) for all possible combinations of truth values of
elementary propositions.

Compound Propositions

• Let p: 2 is a prime ….. T

q: 6 is a prime ….. F
• Determine the truth value of the following statements:
¬ p: F
pq:F
p  ¬q: T
pq:T
p  q: T
p  q: F
q  p: T

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 Computer Representation of True and False
We need to encode two values True and False:
• Computers represents data and programs using 0s and 1s
• Logical truth values – True and False
• A bit is sufficient to represent two possible values:
– 0 (False) or 1(True)

• A variable that takes on values 0 or 1 is called a Boolean

variable.

• Definition: A bit string is a sequence of zero or more bits.

The length of this string is the number of bits in the string.

Bitwise Operations
• T and F replaced with 1 and 0
p q pq pq
1 1 1 1
1 0 1 0
0 1 1 0
0 0 0 0

p ¬p
1 0
0 1

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 Bitwise Operations
• Examples:

1011 0011 1011 0011 1011 0011

 0110 1010  0110 1010  0110 1010
1111 1011 0010 0010 1101 1001

Applications of Propositional Logic

• Translation of English sentences

• Inference and reasoning:
– new true propositions are inferred from existing ones
– Used in Artificial Intelligence:
• Rule based (expert) systems
• Automatic theorem provers
• Design of Logic Circuit

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 Translation
Assume a sentence:
If you are older than 13 or you are with your parents then you can
attend a PG-13 movie.

Parse:
• If ( you are older than 13 or you are with your parents ) then
( you can attend a PG-13 movie)

Atomic (elementary) propositions:

– A= you are older than 13
– B= you are with your parents
– C=you can attend a PG-13 movie

• Translation: A  B  C

Translation
• General rule for translation.
• Look for patterns corresponding to logical connectives in the
sentence and use them to define elementary propositions.

• Example:
You can have free coffee if you are senior citizen and it is a Tuesday

Step 1 find logical connectives

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 Translation
• General rule for translation.
• Look for patterns corresponding to logical connectives in the
sentence and use them to define elementary propositions.

• Example:
You can have free coffee if you are senior citizen and it is a Tuesday

Step 1 find logical connectives

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 Translation
• General rule for translation.
• Look for patterns corresponding to logical connectives in the
sentence and use them to define elementary propositions.

• Example:
You can have free coffee if you are senior citizen and it is a Tuesday

a b c

Step 2 break the sentence into elementary propositions

Translation
• General rule for translation .
• Look for patterns corresponding to logical connectives in the
sentence and use them to define elementary propositions.

• Example:
You can have free coffee if you are senior citizen and it is a Tuesday

a b c

Step 3 rewrite the sentence in propositional logic

bca

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 Translation
• Assume two elementary statements:
– p: you drive over 65 mph ; q: you get a speeding ticket
• Translate each of these sentences to logic
– you do not drive over 65 mph. (¬p)
– you drive over 65 mph, but you don't get a
speeding ticket. (p  ¬q)
– you will get a speeding ticket if you drive over 65 mph.
(p  q)
– if you do not drive over 65 mph then you will not get a
speeding ticket.(¬p  ¬q)
– driving over 65 mph is sufficient for getting a
speeding ticket. (p  q)
– you get a speeding ticket, but you do not drive over
65 mph. (q  ¬p)

Application: Inference
Assume we know the following sentences are true:
If you are older than 13 or you are with your parents then you
can attend a PG-13 movie. You are older than 13.
Translation:
• If ( you are older than 13 or you are with your parents ) then
( you can attend a PG-13 movie) . (You are older than 13).
– A= you are older than 13
– B= you are with your parents
– C=you can attend a PG-13 movie
• (A  B  C), A
• (A  B  C)  A is true
• With the help of the logic we can infer the following
statement (proposition):
– You can attend a PG-13 movie or C is True

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 Application: Inference
The field of Artificial Intelligence:
• Builds programs that act intelligently
• Programs often rely on symbolic manipulations

Expert systems:
• Encode knowledge about the world in logic
• Support inferences where new facts are inferred from existing
facts following the semantics of logic

Theorem provers:
• Encode existing knowledge (e.g. about math) using logic
• Show that some hypothesis is true

Example: MYCIN
• MYCIN: an expert system for diagnosis of bacterial infections
• It represents
– Facts about a specific patient case
– Rules describing relations between entities in the bacterial
infection domain
If 1. The stain of the organism is gram-positive, and
2. The morphology of the organism is coccus, and
3. The growth conformation of the organism is chains
Then the identity of the organism is streptococcus

• Inferences:
– manipulates the facts and known relations to answer
diagnostic queries (consistent with findings and rules)

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 Tautology and Contradiction
• Some propositions are interesting since their values in the truth
table are always the same
Definitions:
• A compound proposition that is always true for all possible
truth values of the propositions is called a tautology.
• A compound proposition that is always false is called a
contradiction.
• A proposition that is neither a tautology nor contradiction is
called a contingency.
• A statement that can be either true or false depending on
the truth values of its variables is called a contingency.

Tautology and Contradiction

Example: p  ¬p is a Tautology.

p ¬p p  ¬p
T F T
F T T
Example: p  ¬p is a Contradiction.

p ¬p p  ¬p
T F F
F T F

Example: (p → q)⟶ (p  q ) is a Contingency.

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 Equivalence
• We have seen that some of the propositions are equivalent.
Their truth values in the truth table are the same.
• Example: p  q is equivalent to ¬q  ¬p (contrapositive)

p q pq ¬q  ¬p
T T T T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T

• Equivalent statements are important for logical reasoning

since they can be substituted and can help us to:
(1) make a logical argument and (2) infer new propositions

Logical Equivalence
Definition: The propositions p and q are called logically
equivalent if p  q is a tautology (alternately, if they have the
same truth table). The notation p <=> q denotes p and q are
logically equivalent.

Example of important equivalences

• DeMorgan's Laws:
• 1) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
• 2) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

Example: Negate "The summer in Mexico is cold and sunny"

with DeMorgan's Laws
Solution: ?

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 Logical Equivalence

Example of important equivalences

• DeMorgan's Laws:
• 1) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
• 2) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

Example: Negate "The summer in Mexico is cold and sunny"

with DeMorgan's Laws
Solution: "The summer in Mexico is not cold or not sunny."

Logical Equivalence
Example of important equivalences
• DeMorgan's Laws:
• 1) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
• 2) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

To convince us that two propositions are logically equivalent

use the truth table
p q ¬p ¬q ¬(p  q) ¬p  ¬q
T T F F
T F F T
F T T F
F F T T

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 Logical Equivalence
Example of important equivalences
• DeMorgan's Laws:
• 1) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
• 2) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

To convince us that two propositions are logically equivalent

use the truth table
p q ¬p ¬q ¬(p  q) ¬p  ¬q
T T F F F
T F F T F
F T T F F
F F T T T

Logical Equivalence
Example of important equivalences
• DeMorgan's Laws:
• 1) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
• 2) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

To convince us that two propositions are logically equivalent

use the truth table
p q ¬p ¬q ¬(p  q) ¬p  ¬q
T T F F F F
T F F T F F
F T T F F F
F F T T T T

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 Logical Equivalence
Example of important equivalences
• DeMorgan's Laws:
• 1) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
• 2) ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

To convince us that two propositions are logically equivalent

use the truth table
p q ¬p ¬q ¬(p  q) ¬p  ¬q
T T F F F F
T F F T F F
F T T F F F
F F T T T T

Important Logical Equivalences

• Identity
– p  T <=> p
– p  F <=> p

• Domination
– p  T <=> T
– p  F <=> F

• Idempotent
– p  p <=> p
– p  p <=> p

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 Important Logical Equivalences
• Double negation
– ¬(¬p) <=> p

• Commutative
– p  q <=> q  p
– p  q <=> q  p

• Associative
– (p  q)  r <=> p  (q  r)
– (p  q)  r <=> p  (q  r)

Important Logical Equivalences

• Distributive
– p  (q  r) <=> (p  q)  (p  r)
– p  (q  r) <=> (p  q)  (p  r)

• De Morgan
– ¬( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q
–¬ ( p  q ) <=> ¬p  ¬q

• Other Useful Equivalences

– p  ¬p <=> T
– p  ¬p <=> F
– p  q <=> (¬p  q)

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 Using Logical Equivalences
• Equivalences can be used in proofs. A proposition or its part
can be transformed using equivalences and some conclusion
can be reached.

• Example: Show (p  q)  p is a tautology.

• Proof: (we must show (p  q)  p <=> T)
(p  q)  p <=> ¬(p  q)  p Useful
• <=> [¬p  ¬q]  p DeMorgan
• <=> [¬q  ¬p]  p Commutative
• <=> ¬q  [ ¬p  p ] Associative
• <=> ¬q  [ T ] Useful
• <=> T Domination

Using Truth Table

• Example: Show (p  q)  p is a tautology.

• Alternate proof:

p q pq (p  q)p
T T T T
T F F T
F T F T
F F F T

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 Using Logical Equivalences
• Equivalences can be used in proofs. A proposition or its part
can be transformed using equivalences and some conclusion
can be reached.

• Example 2: Show (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)

Proof:
• (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)
• <=> ?

Using logical equivalences

• Equivalences can be used in proofs. A proposition or its part
can be transformed using equivalences and some conclusion
can be reached.

• Example 2: Show (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)

Proof:
• (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)
• <=> ¬(¬q)  (¬p) Useful
• <=> ?

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 Using logical equivalences
• Equivalences can be used in proofs. A proposition or its part
can be transformed using equivalences and some conclusion
can be reached.

• Example 2: Show (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)

Proof:
• (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)
• <=> ¬(¬q)  (¬p) Useful
• <=> q  (¬p) Double negation
• <=> ?

Using logical equivalences

• Equivalences can be used in proofs. A proposition or its part
can be transformed using equivalences and some conclusion
can be reached.

• Example 2: Show (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)

Proof:
• (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)
• <=> ¬(¬q)  (¬p) Useful
• <=> q  (¬p) Double negation
• <=> ¬p  q Commutative
• <=> ?

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 Using logical equivalences
• Equivalences can be used in proofs. A proposition or its part
can be transformed using equivalences and some conclusion
can be reached.

• Example 2: Show (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)

Proof:
• (p  q) <=> (¬q  ¬p)
• <=> ¬(¬q)  (¬p) Useful
• <=> q  (¬p) Double negation
• <=> ¬p  q Commutative
• <=> p  q Useful
End of proof

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