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 Logistics and CSE 311: Foundations of

Propositional Logic
Computing I
Lecture 1
Outline

Course logistics (e.g. how are we doing this online?)

What is the goal of this course?
Start of Propositional Logic
Zoom Logistics
We’ll always have a TA watching chat – if you have a question, ask it there
(either general or direct to the TA).
Don’t send direct to me, I won’t see it
TA may answer directly, interrupt me, or wait a few minutes and have me
answer at a good stopping point.

If you’re comfortable (and have the wifi) to turn on your video please do
Nodding/confused looks/glazed over eyes help me know if I said something super
confusing.

We will put recordings of (both) lectures on the course webpage.

Staff
TAs
Timothy Akintilo
Austin Chan
Yijie Deng
Instructor: Robbie Weber Daniel Fuchs
Raymond Guo
Ph.D. from UW CSE in theory Arthur Liang
First quarter as teaching faculty Melissa Lin
Third time as an instructor Arthur Liang
TAed 8 different courses. Andrey Ryabtsev
Zoey Shi
Office: CSE2 311 Josh Shin
Email: [email protected] Alicia Stepin
Jason Waataja
Alice Wang
Howard Xiao
Sections
Sections start tomorrow!
Mostly a chance to practice and ask questions
Please attend your registered section if you can.
There can be multiple sections at the same time, make sure you know the
two-letter code for your section.
Zoom links on Canvas or Ed.

Some sections introduce new material.

TA walkthroughs will be posted for reference, but sections aren’t recorded.
Syllabus
It’s all on the webpage:
https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse311/20au/

In general, when in doubt, it’s on the webpage.

We’ll talk through syllabus details as they become relevant, only a few
highlights today…
Textbook
We’ll have occasional pre- or post-lecture readings. All required readings will
be available on the webpage.

There is also an optional Book:

Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (Kenneth Rosen)
We’ll tell you the relevant sections for 6th or 7th editions.
Many used copies available
Good for practice with solved problems
Older (or newer) editions also have necessary content, but it may be moved
around.
Work
Homework (70%)
Approximately weekly. Mostly due Fridays.
Graded on both accuracy and clarity/style.
Exams (22.5%)
We’ll have two take-home exams (think “shorter homework” rather than one-hour exam).
Approximate dates: Nov. 13-16, Dec. 11-14
Lecture activities (7.5%)
Completed either online “live” or (if you’re asynchronous, or miss a lecture) online by
the following Sunday.
Communication
Ed Discussion board will be our primary means of communication.
Please check frequently.

You are also already be on the class email list

Occasional announcements here.

If you want to contact us:

• Private post on Ed (seen by staff, all TAs)
• Email Robbie
• Anonymous Feedback form on webpage
Pre-Quarter Survey
There’s a “quiz” up on canvas.

Asking you questions like “what time zone are you in?”
This will help us schedule office hours, connect people who might want
study groups, etc.

Please fill it out by tonight!

Collaboration Policy
PLEASE collaborate! Please talk to each other and work with each other.
(subject to the policy – details on webpage)

We’re remote – it’s going to be harder to find people to work with.

Ed posts to help find people
Stay after section tomorrow
Pre-course survey to help asynchronous people
Let us know how we can help.
Form Study Groups!
311 is just a different course than intro programming.
If programming “came easy” for you, 311 might not (and vice versa).
Form a study group!

"when people said form study groups they meant form study groups“
--Chloe Dolese Mandeville, CSE advisor
CSE 390Z
CSE 390Z is a workshop designed to provide academic support to students
enrolled concurrently in CSE 311. During each 1.5-hour workshop, students
will reinforce concepts through:
•collaborative problem solving
•practice study skills and effective learning habits
•build community for peer support
All students enrolled in CSE 311 are welcome to register for this class.If you
are interested in receiving an add code, please fill out a form here. If you
have any questions or concerns please contact Rob ([email protected]).
We’re in a pandemic…
…this just isn’t normal.
This probably isn’t how you envisioned
Your first quarter in CSE
Your first quarter at UW

This definitely isn’t how I envisioned my first quarter as a professor…

We’re going to do our best to support you

If there’s something you’re “missing” that we can help with tell us!
What is this course?
What is this course?
In this course, you will learn how to make and communicate rigorous and
formal arguments.

Why? Because you’ll have to do technical communication in real life.

If you become a PM – you’ll have to convert non-technical requirements from experts
into clear, unambiguous statements of what is needed.
If you become an engineer – you’ll have to justify to others exactly why your code
works, and interpret precise requirements from your PM.
If you become an academic – to explain to other academics how your algorithms and
ideas improve on everyone else’s.
What is this course?
In this course, you will learn how to make and communicate rigorous and
formal arguments.
Two verbs

Make arguments – what kind of reasoning is allowed and what kind of

reasoning can lead to errors?
Communicate arguments – using one of the common languages of computer
scientists (no one is going to use your code if you can’t tell them what it does
or convince them it’s functional)
Course Outline
Symbolic Logic (training wheels; lectures 1-8)
Just make arguments in mechanical ways.
- Using notation and rules a computer could understand.
Understand the rules that are allowed, without worrying about pretty words.
Set Theory/Arithmetic (bike in your backyard; lectures 9-20)
Make arguments, and communicate them to humans
Arguments about numbers and sets, objects you already know
Models of computation (biking in your neighborhood; lectures 21-30)
Still make and communicate rigorous arguments
But now with objects you haven’t used before.
- A first taste of how we can argue rigorously about computers.
Some Perspective
Computer Science
and Engineering

Programming Theory
CSE 14x

Hardware CSE 311

Symbolic Logic
What is symbolic logic and why do we need it?
Symbolic Logic is a language, like English or Java, with its own
words and rules for combining words into sentences (syntax)
ways to assign meaning to words and sentences (semantics)

Symbolic Logic will let us mechanically simplify expressions and make arguments.
The new language will let us focus on the (sometimes familiar, sometimes unfamiliar)
rules of logic.
Once we have those rules down, we’ll be able to apply them “intuitively” and won’t need
the symbolic representation as often
but we’ll still go back to it when things get complicated.
Propositions: building blocks of logic
Proposition
A statement that has a truth value (i.e. is true or
false) and is “well-formed”
Propositions are the basic building blocks in symbolic logic.
Here are two propositions.
All cats are mammals
True, (and a proposition)
All mammals are cats
False, but is well-formed and has a truth value, so still a proposition.
Analogy
In 142/143 you talked about a variable type that could be either true or false.

You called it a “Boolean”

Boolean variables are a useful analogy for propositions.
They aren’t identical, but they’re very similar.
Are These Propositions?
2+2=5 This is a proposition. It’s okay for propositions to be false.

x + 2 = 5 Not a proposition. Doesn’t have a fixed truth value

Akjsdf! Not a proposition because it’s gibberish.

Who are you?

This is a question which means it doesn’t have a truth value.

There is life on Mars.

This is a proposition. We don’t know if it’s true or false, but we
know it’s one of them!
Propositions
We need a way of talking about arbitrary ideas…
To make statements easier to read we’ll use propositional variables like
Lower-case letters are standard.
Usually start with (for proposition), and avoid ,, because…
Truth Values:
T for true (note capitalization)
F for false
Analogy
We said propositions were a lot like Booleans…
How did you connect Booleans in code?

&&
||
!
Logical Connectives
And (&&) works exactly like it did in code.
But with a different symbol
Or (||) works exactly like it did in code.
But with a different symbol
Not (!)works exactly like it did in code.
But with a different symbol
Some Truth Tables
p p p q pq

p q pq

Truth tables are the simplest way to describe how logical connectives operate.
Some Truth Tables
p p p q pq
T T T
T F
T F F
F T
F T F
F F F

p q pq
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

Truth tables are the simplest way to describe how logical connectives operate.
Implication
Another way to connect propositions
If then .

“If it is raining, then I have my umbrella.”

Think of an implication as a promise.

Implication

p q pq
The first two lines should match your T T T
intuition.
T F F
The last two lines are called “vacuous F T T
truth.” For now, they’re the definition.
F F T
We’ll explain why in a few lectures.
This is the definition of implication.
When you write “if…then…” in a piece of
mathematical English, this is how you will
be interpreted.
Implication (

“If it’s raining, then I have my umbrella” p q pq

T T T
T F F
It’s useful to think of implications as F T T
promises. An implication is false exactly F F T
when you can demonstrate I’m lying.
It’s raining It’s not raining
I have my
umbrella
I do not have
my umbrella
Implication (

“If it’s raining, then I have my umbrella” p q pq

T T T
T F F
It’s useful to think of implications as F T T
promises. An implication is false exactly F F T
when you can demonstrate I’m lying.
It’s raining It’s not raining
I have my No lie. No lie.
umbrella True True
I do not have LIE! No lie.
my umbrella False True
 𝑝 → 𝑞

and are different implications!

“If the sun is out, then we have class outside.”

“If we have class outside, then the sun is out.”

Only the first is useful to you when you see the sun come out.
Only the second is useful if you forgot your umbrella.
 𝑝 → 𝑞
p q pq
Implication:
T T T
p implies q
T F F
whenever p is true q must be true F T T
if p then q F F T
q if p
p is sufficient for q
p only if q
q is necessary for p

Implications are super useful, so there are LOTS of translations.

You’ll learn these in detail in section.
A More Complicated Statement
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean Theorem if he is a
mathematician and took geometry, and he is a
mathematician or did not take geometry.”

Is this a proposition?

We’d like to understand what this proposition means.

In particular, is it true?
A Compound Proposition
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean Theorem if he is a
mathematician and took geometry, and he is a
mathematician or did not take geometry.”
We’d like to understand what this proposition means.
First find the simplest (atomic) propositions:
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean Theorem”
“Robbie is a mathematician”
“Robbie took geometry”
( if ( and )) and ( or (not ))

( if ( )) ( ())
 A Compound Proposition
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean Theorem if he is a
mathematician and took geometry, and he is a
mathematician or did not take geometry.”
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean
Theorem”
( if ( )) ( ()) “Robbie is a mathematician”
“Robbie took geometry”

How did we know where to put the parentheses?

• Subtle English grammar choices (top-level parentheses are
independent clauses).
• Context/which parsing will make more sense.
• Conventions
A reading on this is coming soon!
Back to the Compound Proposition…
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean Theorem if he is a
mathematician and took geometry, and he is a
mathematician or did not take geometry.”
“Robbie knows the Pythagorean
( if ( )) ( ()) Theorem”
“Robbie is a mathematician”
“Robbie took geometry”

What promise am I making?

(( )) ( ()) ( ( )) ( ())
The first one! Being a mathematician and taking geometry goes with the
“if” knowing the Pythagorean Theorem is the consequence.
Breakout Rooms
We’ll use breakout rooms to give you a chance to try problems with other
students.
Why? It works!
https://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410 a meta-analysis of 225 studies.
Just listening to me isn’t as good for you as listening to me then trying problems on your
own and with each other.
Breakout Rooms
Every lecture we’ll give you an activity to do in the breakout rooms.

Directions are in Activity pdf

Go to cs.uw.edu/311 and get that pdf!
Lecture 1 Activity Practice filling out a poll everywhere
for Activity Credit!
Introduce yourselves!
If you can turn your video on, please do. Go to pollev.com/cse311 and login with
your UW identity
If you can’t, please unmute and say hi.
Or text cse311 to 22333
If you can’t do either, say “hi” in chat.

Choose someone to share screen, showing this pdf.

Answer these “get to know you” questions until you’re pulled back to the
main room.
What is your favorite socially-distanced activity?
What class are you most excited about this quarter?
And why is it 311?
Found a new friend? A new study group? Share your emails!
Todo
Tonight:
Pre-course survey on canvas.
Make sure you can access the Ed discussion board

Tomorrow:
Go to section

Soon:
Form a study group!