The Foundations: Logic

and Proofs
Chapter 1, Part I: Propositional Logic

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Propositional Logic
Section 1.1
Section 1.1
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.
d) 1+0=1
e) 0+0=2
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 p is denoted by ¬p and
has this truth table:
p ¬p
T F
F T

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

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

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

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

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

denotes “It is raining.” then p ∨q 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 CS202 or
Math120 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
disjunction. For p ∨q to be true, either one or both of p and q must be true.
 “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 ⊕ q , one of p and q must be true, but
not both. The truth table for ⊕ is:
p q p ⊕q
T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F
Implication
 If p and q are propositions, then p →q is a conditional statement or
implication which is read as “if p, then q ” and has this truth table:

p q p →q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
 Example: If p denotes “I am at home.” and q denotes “It is
raining.” then p →q denotes “If I am at home then it is raining.”
 In p →q , p is the hypothesis (antecedent or premise) and q is
the conclusion (or consequence).
Understanding Implication
In p →q there does not need to be any connection
between the antecedent or the consequent. The
“meaning” of p →q depends only on the truth values of p
and q.
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 p is true and q is false.
Different Ways of Expressing p →q
if p, then q p implies q
if p, q p only if q
q unless ¬p q when p
q if p
q whenever p p is sufficient for q
q follows from p q is necessary for p

a necessary condition for p is q

a sufficient condition for q is p
Converse, Contrapositive, and Inverse
From p →q we can form new conditional statements .
 q →p is the converse of p →q
 ¬q → ¬ p is the contrapositive of p →q
¬ p → ¬ q is the inverse of p →q
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 p and q are propositions, then we can form the biconditional
proposition p ↔q , read as “p if and only if q .” The biconditional
p ↔q denotes the proposition with this truth table:
p q p ↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

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

p ↔q 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 r pq p  q → r
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:
p q ¬p ¬q p →q ¬q → ¬ p
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:
p q ¬p ¬q p →q ¬ p →¬ q q→p
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: 2n We will see how to do this in Chapter 6.

Note that this means that with n propositional

variables, we can construct 2n distinct (i.e., not
equivalent) propositions.
Precedence of Logical Operators
Operator Precedence
 1
 2
3

 4
5


p q  r is equivalent to (p q)  r
If the intended meaning is p (q  r )
then parentheses must be used.
 Applications of
Propositional Logic
Section 1.2
Applications of Propositional Logic:
Summary
Translating English to Propositional Logic
System Specifications
Logic Puzzles (Optional, not covered in class)
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 a, c, and f represent respectively
“You can access the internet from campus,” “You are a
computer science major,” and “You are a freshman.”
a→ (c ∨ ¬ f )
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.”
q→ ¬ p
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: p ∨ q, ¬p, p → q. 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 ¬q and there is no satisfying assignment. So the
specification is not consistent.
Logic Puzzles Raymond
Smullyan
(Born 1919)
 An island has two kinds of inhabitants, knights, who always tell the truth,
and knaves, who always lie.
 You go to the island and meet A and B.
 A says “B is a knight.”
 B says “The two of us are of opposite types.”
Example: What are the types of A and B?
Solution: Let p and q be the statements that A is a knight and B is a
knight, respectively. So, then p represents the proposition that A is a
knave and q that B is a knave.
 If A is a knight, then p is true. Since knights tell the truth, q must also be true.
Then (p ∧  q)∨ ( p ∧ q) would have to be true, but it is not. So, A is not a
knight and therefore p must be true.
 If A is a knave, then B must not be a knight since knaves always lie. So, then
both p and q hold since both are knaves.
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:
Propositional
Equivalences
Section 1.3
Section Summary
Tautologies, Contradictions, and Contingencies.
Logical Equivalence
Important Logical Equivalences
Showing Logical Equivalence
Propositional Satisfiability
Tautologies, Contradictions, and
Contingencies
A tautology is a proposition which is always true.
Example: p ∨¬p
A contradiction is a proposition which is always false.
Example: p ∧¬p
A contingency is a proposition which is neither a
tautology nor a contradiction, such as p

P ¬p p ∨¬p p ∧¬p
T F T F
F T T F
Logically Equivalent
 Two compound propositions p and q are logically equivalent if p↔q
is a tautology.
 We write this as p⇔q or as p≡q where p and q are compound
propositions.
 Two compound propositions p and q are equivalent if and only if the
columns in a truth table giving their truth values agree.
 This truth table shows that ¬p ∨ q is equivalent to p → q.
p q ¬p ¬p ∨ q p→ q
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) ¬(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:
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 p, q, and r.

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to p and F to q.

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.