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Minterms and Maxterms

A minterm is a product term in a boolean function where each variable is either in normal or complemented form. There are 2^n possible minterms for an n variable boolean function. A maxterm is a sum term with the same properties. Both minterms and maxterms can be represented using a shorthand notation by replacing variables with 1s and 0s and writing the decimal equivalent as a subscript. For minterms, complements are 0 and non-complements are 1. For maxterms, it is the opposite.

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235 views2 pages

Minterms and Maxterms

A minterm is a product term in a boolean function where each variable is either in normal or complemented form. There are 2^n possible minterms for an n variable boolean function. A maxterm is a sum term with the same properties. Both minterms and maxterms can be represented using a shorthand notation by replacing variables with 1s and 0s and writing the decimal equivalent as a subscript. For minterms, complements are 0 and non-complements are 1. For maxterms, it is the opposite.

Uploaded by

Shilpa Paul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Minterms and Maxterms

Minterm:

A minterm is a product term in boolean function in which every element present is either in normal or in
complemented form.

If we have two boolean variables X and Y then X.Y' is a minterm. So, if we have two variables then the minterm will
consists of product of both the variables. For example if F(a,b,c) is a boolean function then the possible minterms
would be abc, abc’, ab’c, ab’c’, a’bc, ab,c, a’b’c, a’b’c’ . that is for n varibale boolean function, there would be 2^n
possible minterms.

Minterm from values

We can also create Minterm from the given values of the variables. If value is 0 then we take the complement of the
variable. If value is 1 then we take the variable as it is.

Example

if X, Y and Z are three boolean variables having value X = 0, Y = 1 and Z = 0 then,

Minterm = X’YZ’

Note! X and Z are 0 so their complement are taken, Y is 1 so it is taken as is.

Shorthand notation for Minterm

If there are two variables X and Y then both of them will appear in the product when forming Minterm. Following are
the steps to get the shorthand notation for minterm:

1. Write the term consisting of all the variables


2. Replace all complement variables like X’ with 0
3. Replace all non-complement variables like X or Y with 1
4. Express the decimal equivalent of the binary formed in the above steps
5. The decimal number is then written as a subscript of letter m where, small m denotes minterm.

Example

1. Find the shorthand notation for the minterm AB’C


2. Write the term consisting of all the variables AB’C
3. Replace all complement variables with 0, So, B’ is replaced by 0.
4. Replace all non-complement variables with 1, So, A and C are replaced by 1.
5. Express the decimal equivalent of the binary formed in the above steps AB’C = 101 in binary (101) 2 in decimal
is 5. So, shorthand notation of AB’C is m 5

Maxterm: A maxterm is a sum term in boolean function in which every element is present is either in normal or
in complemented form.

For example if F(a,b,c) is a boolean function then the possible maxterms would be (a+b+c), (a+b+c’), (a+b’+c),
( a+b’+c’), (a’+b+c), ( a+b’+c), ( a’+b’+c), (a’+b’+c’) . that is for n varibale boolean function there would be 2^n
possible maxterms.
Maxterm from values

We can also create Maxterm from the given values of the variables. If value is 1 then we take the complement of
the variable. If value is 0 then we take the variable as it is.

Example

If X, Y and Z are three boolean variables having value X = 0, Y = 1 and Z = 0 then,

Maxterm = X + Y’ + Z

Shorthand notation for Maxterm

If there are two variables X and Y then both of them will appear in the sum when forming maxterm. Following
are the steps to get the shorthand notation for maxterm:

1. Write the term consisting of all the variables


2. Replace all complement variables like X’ with 1
3. Replace all non-complement variables like X or Y with 0
4. Express the decimal equivalent of the binary formed in the above steps
5. The decimal number is then written as a subscript of letter M where, capital M denote maxterm.

Lets check an example.

1. Find the shorthand notation for the maxterm A’+B’+C


2. write the term consisting of all the variables A’+B’+C
3. Replace all complement variables with 1. so, A’ and B’ are replaced by 1
4. Replace all non-complement variables with 0. so, C is replaced by 0
5. Express the decimal equivalent of the binary formed in the above steps A’+B’+C = 110 in binary. (110) 2 in
decimal is 6. so, shorthand notation of A’+B’+C is M 6

Point to remember for shorthand notation

For minterm

 replace all complement variables like ~X or X’ with 0


 replace all non-complement variables like X or Y with 1
 small letter m denote minterm.

For maxterm

 replace all complement variables like ~X or X’ with 1


 replace all non-complement variables like X or Y with 0
 capital letter M denote maxterm.

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