Discrete Mathematics

MH1812
Topic 2.1 - Propositional Logic I
Dr. Gary Greaves

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 Topic Overview

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What’s in store…

P roposition and Paradox

L ogical Operators

D e Morgan’s Laws

C ontradiction and Tautology

E quivalent Expressions

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By the end of this lesson, you should be able to…
• Explain what is a proposition and a paradox.

• Use logical operators to combine statements.

• Apply De Morgan’s Laws.

• Explain what is a contradiction and a tautology.

• Identify equivalent expressions.

• Demonstrate that two expressions are equivalent.

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 Proposition and Paradox

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Proposition and Paradox: Logic
• Accepted rules for making precise statements

• Logic for computer science:

– Programming
– Artificial intelligence
– Logic circuits
– Database

• Logic:
– Represents knowledge precisely
– Helps to extract information (inference)

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Proposition and Paradox: Proposition

A proposition is a declarative statement

that is either true or false.

Examples of propositions
• “1 + 1 = 2”. . . True

• “1 + 1 > 3”. . . False

• “Singapore is in Europe.”. . . False

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Proposition and Paradox: Proposition

A proposition is a declarative statement

that is either true or false.

Examples that are not propositions

• “1 + 1 > x”. . . X

• “What a great book!”. . . X

• “Is Singapore in Asia?”. . . X

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Proposition and Paradox: Paradox

A declarative statement that

cannot be assigned a truth value
is called a paradox.

• A paradox is not a proposition.

• E.g., the liar paradox:

“This statement is false”.

Relativity Lattice (M.C. Escher)

Retrieved Feb 19, 2018 from https://www.wikiart.org/en/m-c-escher/relativity-lattice

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 Logical Operators

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Logical Operators: Symbolic Logic
• Use symbols to represent statements (both have the same truth values)

• Use logical operators to combine statements:

Compound
Propositions = Propositions Combined
with Logical Operator(s)

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Logical Operators: Three Basic Operators

∧ Conjunction (and)

Disjunction (or) ∨
￢ Negation (not, alternatively ∼)

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Logical Operators: Negation
• Negation (not) of p: ￢p (∼ p is also used) ￢
p ￢p
T F
F T
Truth Table

p: You may enter ￢p: You may not enter

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Logical Operators: Disjunction
• Disjunction (or) of p with q: p ∨ q ∨
p q p∨q q∨p
True when “at least one”
T T T T of them is true
T F T T
F T T T
F F F F
Truth Table

p∨q≡q∨p i.e., operator ∨ commutes

Means “equivalent”
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Logical Operators: Conjunction
• Conjunction (and) of p with q: p ∧ q ∧
p q p∧q q∧p
True only when “both” of
T T T T them are true
T F F F
F T F F
F F F F
Truth Table

∧ is also commutative: p∧q≡q∧p

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 De Morgan’s Laws

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De Morgan’s Laws: Definition

￢ (p ∧ q) ≡ ￢ p ∨ ￢ q
￢ (p ∨ q) ≡ ￢ p ∧ ￢ q

p q ￢p ￢q p ∧ q ￢(p ∧ q) ￢p ∨ ￢q
TT F F T F F
TF F T F T T
FT T F F T T
Augustus De Morgan
FF T T F T T (1806 - 1871)

Augustus De Morgan by Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan under WikiCommons (PD-US)

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 Contradiction and Tautology

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Contradiction and Tautology: Definition

A compound proposition that is always

false is called a contradiction.

Example
This course is easy “and” this
p ￢p p ∧ ￢p
course is not easy.
T F F
p ∧ (￢p) ≡ F F T F

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Contradiction and Tautology: Definition

A compound proposition that always

gives a true value is called a tautology.

Example

p ∨ (￢p) ≡ T p ￢p p ∨ ￢p
T F T Always
F T T true!

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 Equivalent Expressions

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Equivalent Expressions: Bob and Alice
1. Alice is not married but Bob is not single.

￢h ∧ ￢b

2. Bob is not single and Alice is not married.

￢b ∧ ￢h
Bob

3. Neither Bob is single nor Alice is married.

￢(b ∨ h)
These three statements are equivalent.

￢h ∧ ￢b ≡ ￢b ∧ ￢h ≡ ￢(b ∨ h) Alice

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Equivalent Expressions: The Statements

These three statements are equivalent:

￢h ∧ ￢b ≡ ￢b ∧ ￢h ≡ ￢(b ∨ h)

bh ￢b ￢h b ∨ h ￢h ∧ ￢b ￢b ∧ ￢h ￢(b ∨ h)
TT F F T F F F
TF F T T F F F
FT T F T F F F
FF T T F T T T

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 Topic Summary

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Let’s recap…
• We have covered:
– Proposition (Compound Propositions)
– Paradox
– Contradiction
– Tautology
– Equivalent Expressions

• Basic logical operators (and De Morgan’s laws):

– Negation
– Conjunction
– Disjunction

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