Chapter , Part I: Propositional Logic

With Question/Answer Animations

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Chapter Summary
 Propositional Logic
 The Language of Propositions
 Applications
 Logical Equivalences
 Predicate Logic
 The Language of Quantifiers
 Logical Equivalences
 Nested Quantifiers
 Proofs
 Rules of Inference
 Proof Methods
 Proof Strategy
Section 1.1
Section Summary
 Propositions
 Connectives
 Negation
 Conjunction
 Disjunction
 Implication; contrapositive, inverse, converse
 Biconditional
 Truth Tables
Propositions
 A proposition is a declarative sentence that is either true or false.
 Examples of propositions:
a) The Moon is made of green cheese.
b) Trenton is the capital of New Jersey.
c) Toronto is the capital of Canada.
+ =
+ =
 Examples that are not propositions.
a) Sit down!
b) What time is it?
c) x+1=2
d) x + y = z
Propositional Logic
 Constructing Propositions
 Propositional Variables: p, q, r, s, …
 The proposition that is always true is denoted by T and
the proposition that is always false is denoted by F.
 Compound Propositions; constructed from logical
connectives and other propositions
 Negation
 Conjunction
 Disjunction
 Implication
 Biconditional
Compound Propositions: Negation
 The negation of a proposition is denoted by and
has this truth table:

T F
F T

 Example: If denotes “The earth is round.”, then

denotes “It is not the case that the earth is round,” or
more simply “The earth is not round.”
Conjunction
 The conjunction of propositions and is denoted
by and has this truth table:

T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

 Example: If denotes “I am at home.” and denotes

“It is raining.” then denotes “I am at home and it
is raining.”
Disjunction
 The disjunction of propositions and is denoted
by and has this truth table:

T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

 Example: If denotes “I am at home.” and denotes

“It is raining.” then denotes “I am at home or it is
raining.”
The Connective Or in English
 In English “or” has two distinct meanings.
 “Inclusive Or” - In the sentence “Students who have taken CS or
Math may take this class,” we assume that students need to have taken
one of the prerequisites, but may have taken both. This is the meaning of

 “Exclusive Or” - When reading the sentence “Soup or salad comes with this
entrée,” we do not expect to be able to get both soup and salad. This is the
meaning of Exclusive Or (Xor). In p one of p and q must be true

T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F
Implication
 If and are propositions, then is a conditional statement or
implication which is read as “if , then ” and has this truth table:

T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

 Example: If denotes “I am at home.” and denotes “It is

raining.” then denotes “If I am at home then it is raining.”
 In , is the hypothesis (antecedent or premise) and is
the conclusion (or consequence).
Understanding Implication
 In there does not need to be any connection
between the antecedent or the consequent
depends only on the truth values of
and .
 These implications are perfectly fine, but would not be
used in ordinary English.
 “If the moon is made of green cheese, then I have more
money than Bill Gates. ”
 “If the moon is made of green cheese then I’m on
welfare.”
 “If 1 + 1 = 3, then your grandma wears combat boots.”
Understanding Implication (cont)
 One way to view the logical conditional is to think of
an obligation or contract.
 “If I am elected, then I will lower taxes.”
 “If you get 100% on the final, then you will get an A.”
 If the politician is elected and does not lower taxes,
then the voters can say that he or she has broken the
campaign pledge. Something similar holds for the
professor. This corresponds to the case where is true
and is false.
Different Ways of Expressing
if , then implies
if , only if
unless when
if
whenever is sufficient for
follows from is necessary for

a necessary condition for is q

a sufficient condition for is
Converse, Contrapositive, and Inverse
 From we can form new conditional statements .
 is the converse of
 is the contrapositive of
 is the inverse of
Example: Find the converse, inverse, and contrapositive of
“It raining is a sufficient condition for my not going to
town.”
Solution:
converse: If I do not go to town, then it is raining.
inverse: If it is not raining, then I will go to town.
contrapositive: If I go to town, then it is not raining.
Biconditional
 If and are propositions, then we can form the biconditional
proposition , read as “ if and only if .” The biconditional
denotes the proposition with this truth table:

T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

 If denotes “I am at home.” and denotes “It is raining.” then

denotes “I am at home if and only if it is raining.”
Expressing the Biconditional
 Some alternative ways “p if and only if q” is expressed
in English:

 p is necessary and sufficient for q

 if p then q , and conversely
 p iff q
Truth Tables For Compound
Propositions
 Construction of a truth table:
 Rows
 Need a row for every possible combination of values for
the atomic propositions.
 Columns
 Need a column for the compound proposition (usually
at far right)
 Need a column for the truth value of each expression
that occurs in the compound proposition as it is built
up.
 This includes the atomic propositions
Example Truth Table
 Construct a truth table for
p q r  p p 
T T T F T F
T T F T T T
T F T F T F
T F F T T T
F T T F T F
F T F T T T
F F T F F T
F F F T F T
Equivalent Propositions
 Two propositions are equivalent if they always have the
same truth value.
 Example: Show using a truth table that the
conditional is equivalent to the contrapositive.
Solution:

T T F F T T
T F F T F F
F T T F T T
F F T T T T
Using a Truth Table to Show Non-
Equivalence
Example: Show using truth tables that neither the
converse nor inverse of an implication are not
equivalent to the implication.
Solution:

T T F F T T T
T F F T F T T
F T T F T F F
F F T T T T T
Problem
 How many rows are there in a truth table with n
propositional variables?

Solution:

 Note that this means that with n propositional

variables, we can construct
Precedence of Logical Operators
Operator Precedence
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5

   is equivalent to   
If the intended meaning is   
then parentheses must be used.
Section 1.2
Applications of Propositional Logic:
Summary
 Translating English to Propositional Logic
 System Specifications
 Logic Circuits
Translating English Sentences
 Steps to convert an English sentence to a statement in
propositional logic
 Identify atomic propositions and represent using
propositional variables.
 Determine appropriate logical connectives
 “If I go to Harry’s or to the country, I will not go
shopping.”
 p: I go to Harry’s If p or q then not r.
 q: I go to the country.
 r: I will go shopping.
Example
Problem: Translate the following sentence into
propositional logic:
“You can access the Internet from campus only if you are
a computer science major or you are not a freshman.”
One Solution: Let , , and represent respectively
“You can access the internet from campus,” “You are a
computer science major,” and “You are a freshman.”
)
System Specifications
 System and Software engineers take requirements in
English and express them in a precise specification
language based on logic.
Example: Express in propositional logic:
“The automated reply cannot be sent when the file
system is full”
Solution: One possible solution: Let p denote “The
automated reply can be sent” and q denote “The file
system is full.”
Consistent System Specifications
Definition: A list of propositions is consistent if it is
possible to assign truth values to the proposition variables
so that each proposition is true.
Exercise: Are these specifications consistent?
 “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer or it is retransmitted.”
 “The diagnostic message is not stored in the buffer.”
 “If the diagnostic message is stored in the buffer, then it is retransmitted.”
Solution: Let p denote “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer.” Let
q denote “The diagnostic message is retransmitted” The specification can
be written as: . When p is false and q is true all three
statements are true. So the specification is consistent.
 What if “The diagnostic message is not retransmitted is added.”
Solution: Now we are adding and there is no satisfying assignment. So
the specification is not consistent.
Logic Circuits
(Studied in depth in Chapter 12)
 Electronic circuits; each input/output signal can be viewed as a 0 or 1.
 0 represents False
 1 represents True
 Complicated circuits are constructed from three basic circuits called gates.

 The inverter (NOT gate)takes an input bit and produces the negation of that bit.
 The OR gate takes two input bits and produces the value equivalent to the disjunction of the two
bits.
 The AND gate takes two input bits and produces the value equivalent to the conjunction of the
two bits.
 More complicated digital circuits can be constructed by combining these basic circuits to
produce the desired output given the input signals by building a circuit for each piece of
the output expression and then combining them. For example:
Section 1.3
Section Summary
 Tautologies, Contradictions, and Contingencies.
 Logical Equivalence
 Important Logical Equivalences
 Showing Logical Equivalence
 Normal Forms (optional, covered in exercises in text)
 Disjunctive Normal Form
 Conjunctive Normal Form
 Propositional Satisfiability
 Sudoku Example
Tautologies, Contradictions, and
Contingencies
 A tautology is a proposition which is always true.
 Example:
 A contradiction is a proposition which is always false.
 Example:
 A contingency is a proposition which is neither a
tautology nor a contradiction, such as p

T F T F
F T T F
Logically Equivalent
 Two compound propositions p and q are logically equivalent if
is a tautology.
 We write this as or as where and are compound
propositions.
 Two compound propositions and are equivalent if and only if the
columns in a truth table giving their truth values agree.
 This truth table shows that is equivalent to

T T F T T
T F F F F
F T T T T
F F T T T
 De Morgan’s Laws
Augustus De Morgan

1806-1871

This truth table shows that De Morgan’s Second Law holds.

(p q (p q p q
T T F F T F F
T F F T T F F
F T T F T F F
F F T T F T T
Key Logical Equivalences
 Identity Laws: ,

 Domination Laws: ,

 Idempotent laws: ,

 Double Negation Law:

 Negation Laws: ,
Key Logical Equivalences (cont)
 Commutative Laws: ,

 Associative Laws:

 Distributive Laws:

 Absorption Laws:
More Logical Equivalences
Constructing New Logical
Equivalences
 We can show that two expressions are logically equivalent
by developing a series of logically equivalent statements.
 To prove that we produce a series of equivalences
beginning with A and ending with B.

 Keep in mind that whenever a proposition (represented by

a propositional variable) occurs in the equivalences listed
earlier, it may be replaced by an arbitrarily complex
compound proposition.
Equivalence Proofs
Example: Show that
is logically equivalent to
Solution:
Equivalence Proofs
Example: Show that
is a tautology.
Solution:
Disjunctive Normal Form (optional)
 A propositional formula is in disjunctive normal form
if it consists of a disjunction of (1, … ,n) disjuncts
where each disjunct consists of a conjunction of (1, …,
m) atomic formulas or the negation of an atomic
formula.
 Yes

 No
 Disjunctive Normal Form is important for the circuit
design methods discussed in Chapter 12.
Disjunctive Normal Form (optional)
Example: Show that every compound proposition can be
put in disjunctive normal form.
Solution: Construct the truth table for the proposition.
Then an equivalent proposition is the disjunction with n
disjuncts (where n is the number of rows for which the
formula evaluates to T). Each disjunct has m conjuncts
where m is the number of distinct propositional variables.
Each conjunct includes the positive form of the
propositional variable if the variable is assigned T in that
row and the negated form if the variable is assigned F in
that row. This proposition is in disjunctive normal from.
Disjunctive Normal Form (optional)
Example: Find the Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) of
(p

Solution: This proposition is true when r is false or

when both p and q are false.
( p
Conjunctive Normal Form
(optional)
 A compound proposition is in Conjunctive Normal
Form (CNF) if it is a conjunction of disjunctions.
 Every proposition can be put in an equivalent CNF.
 Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF) can be obtained by
eliminating implications, moving negation inwards
and using the distributive and associative laws.
 Important in resolution theorem proving used in
artificial Intelligence (AI).
 A compound proposition can be put in conjunctive
normal form through repeated application of the
logical equivalences covered earlier.
Conjunctive Normal Form (optional)
Example: Put the following into CNF:

Solution:
1. Eliminate implication signs:

2. Move negation inwards; eliminate double negation:

3. Convert to CNF using associative/distributive laws

Propositional Satisfiability
 A compound proposition is satisfiable if there is an
assignment of truth values to its variables that make it
true. When no such assignments exist, the compound
proposition is unsatisfiable.
 A compound proposition is unsatisfiable if and only if
its negation is a tautology.
Questions on Propositional
Satisfiability
Example: Determine the satisfiability of the following
compound propositions:

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to and .

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to .

Solution: Not satisfiable. Check each possible assignment

of truth values to the propositional variables and none will
make the proposition true.
Notation

Needed for the next example.