MODULE 1 – Mathematical Statements

Math Elective: Logic

Introduction

Logic plays a very important role in mathematics – it is the foundation on which the
discipline is built. Remember all the proofs you had to write to establish some theorems in
algebra and geometry? You start with the given assumptions, use definitions and perhaps some
known results, and argue logically to establish the conclusion. We consider mathematics as a
language with its own symbols and “grammar”. These symbols may represent various
mathematical objects like numbers, sets, or functions. The grammar will be the rules when
combining these symbols. We apply logic to deduce properties of these objects and rules based
on some axioms. One cannot overemphasize the importance of logic in mathematics, but logic,
or logical reasoning, is just as important in our everyday life. In this era of fake news, post-
truths, false advertising, we must be able to discern what is true or false. We should be able to
determine if a certain argument is valid or not.

Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you should be able to:
1. Determine whether a statement has truth value;
2. Negate simple and compound statements;
3. Describe the various forms of the conditional;
4. Use truth tables to determine the truth value of a statement;
5. Determine whether an argument is valid or invalid using Euler diagrams or
truth tables; and
6. Illustrate deductive and inductive reasoning.

I. Mathematical Statements and Connectives

In this section, we shall study a very basic object in mathematical logic, statements, and
operations and relations on statements. These will be important when we discuss valid and
invalid arguments.
1.1 MATHEMATICAL STATEMENTS
A mathematical statement is a statement that can be assigned a truth value and classified
as true or false, but not both. Lowercase letters, p,q,r,s,...., are used to represent mathematical
statements.

Example 1.1: The following are mathematical statements

p : 38 + 2 = 40
q : 100 – 12 = 90
r : PSU Rizal is located at Purok Balite
s : Rizal is a country

Note that p and s are true statements while q and r are false. Note that all the above statements
are declarative statements. In other words, mathematical statements are declarative sentences that
are either true or false, but not both.
We shall not consider declarative statements whose truth value is not clear or a matter of opinion
as mathematical statements. Questions, exclamations, and imperatives are not considered as
mathematical statements as well, since these sentences do not have a truth value.

Example 1.2: The following are NOT mathematical statements:

1. I love Rizal!
2. Why humans seem hard to understand?
3. Let it go, let it go!
4. 5 + 9
5. x + y = z
6. Rizal is a beautiful place
7. Are you angry?

Statements (1), (2), (3), and (6) do not have a truth value and note that they are not declarative
statements. The expressions “5 + 9” and “x + y = z” may seem to be mathematical statement
because they involve mathematical symbols, but they have no truth value, and in fact, have no
meaning. Statement (6) is a declarative statement but are is considered as mathematical statement
since it has no definite truth value. In particular, mathematics may be interesting for some
people, so it could be true for these people, but false for those who find mathematics boring.

Exercise 1.1
Determine whether the following are mathematical statements or not. Write MS if a
mathematical statement, otherwise put NOT MS.
1. All plants bear fruit ------------------ NOT MS
2. Green is my favorite color ----------- NOT MS
3. The municipal hall of Rizal is Located at Sitio Base ------------ MS
4. How much is this? ---------- NOT MS
5. x < y < z --------- NOT MS
6. 5 + 7 +3 +0 -------- NOT MS
7. Otol Odi is the mayor of Rizal ----------- MS
8. Sir. Amihan is handsome ------- NOT MS
9. Dogs and Cats belong to the Kingdom Animalia ------ MS
10. The Philippine flag has 4 colors -------- MS

1.2 OPERATION ON STATEMENTS

We consider the following operations on statements and their notations. These will give us ways
to combine two statements p and q:

1. Conjunction “p and q” p∧q

2. Disjunction "p or q" p∨q

3. Conditional "If p then q" p→q

Statement p is called the premise and q is called the conclusion.

4. Biconditional "p if and only if q" p ↔ q

The biconditional means p → q and q → p, that is, it is the conjunction of the p → q and
q → p. In symbols, (p → q) ∧ (q → p).

5. Negation "not p" ~p

Except for the negation, all the operations are binary, that is, they involve two statements
at a time.
 Example 1.3: Using the examples in Example 1.1
p : 38 + 2 = 40
q : 100 – 12 = 90
r : PSU Rizal is located at Purok Balite
s : Rizal is a country
1. p ∧ q : 38 +2 = 4 and 100 -12 = 90
2. r ∨ s : PSU Rizal is located at Purok Balite or Rizal is a country
3. p → s : If 38 +2 = 40 then Rizal is a country
4. q ↔ r : 100 -12 = 90 if and only if PSU Rizal is located at Purok Balite
5. ~p : 38+ 2 ≠ 40

Are the resulting statements using the connectives still considered mathematical statements?
That is, do they have a truth value? For the operations on mathematical statements to be
"legitimate" or well-defined operations, the result define when the above are true and when they
are false:
1. The conjunction p ∧q is true if both p and q are true. Otherwise, it is false.
2. The disjunction p ∨ q is true if at least one statement (p, q, or both) is true. It is false
only if both statements are false.
3. The conditional p → q is false only when the premise p is true and the conclusion q is
false. Otherwise, it is true.
4. The biconditional p ↔ q is true if p and q have the same truth value, that is, either p
and q both true or both are false.
5. The negation ~ p is true if p is false. If p is true, ~p is false.

Example 1.4: Using the same examples in Example 1.1

p : 38 + 2 = 40 (True)
q : 100 – 12 = 90 (False)
r : PSU Rizal is located at Purok Balite (True)
s : Rizal is a country (False)

1. p ∧ q is false, since p is true and q is false

2. r ∨ s is true, since p r is true although q is false
3. p → s is false, since p is true and s is false
4. q ↔ r is true, since both p and r are true
5. ~p is false, since p is true
In cases of operations on compound statements, we use delimiters, ( ), { }, [ ], to group
statements together. For example, the statement (p ∧q) ∨ (r → ~q) is the disjunction of the
conjunction (p ∧
q) and the conditional (r → ~q).

Example 1.5 Let p, q, r be true statements.

1. Determine the truth value of the following:
a. p ∨ (q ∧ r)
b. p → ~q
c. (~p ∨ q) → ~r
2. Determine the truth value of statement s if [( p ∧ q ) ↔ ( ~ r ∨ s)] is false.
Solutions:
1. In evaluating statements with delimeters, we first evaluate statement inside the
delimeters.

a. Since q and r are true, the conjunction (q ∧ r) is true. Since p is also true the disjunction
p ∨ (q ∧ r) is therefore TRUE.
b. Since q is true, ~q is false. So the conditional p → ~q is FALSE since the premise p is
true and the conclusion ~q is false.
c. We first evaluate (p ∧ q). Since p is true, ~p is false so the conjunction of ~p and q is
false. On the other hand, ~r is also false so the conditional (~p∧ q) → ~r is TRUE.

2. The statement ( p ∧ q ) is true. For the statement [( p∧ q ) ↔ ( ~ r ∨ s)] to be false, ( ~ r

∨ s) must be false (from the condition that both must have the same truth value for “↔”
to be true). Now, ~ r is false so for ( ~ r ∨ s) to be false, statement s must be FALSE.

Exercises 1.2: Let p, q, r be true statements.

1. Determine the truth value of the following:
a. p ∨ (q ∧ r) --------- FALSE
b. p → ~q --------- TRUE
c. p ↔ ~q -------- TRUE
d. (~ p ∨ q) → ~r ------- TRUE
e. (~p ∧ q) ∨ ~(r → ~q) -------- FALSE

2. Determine whether the following statements can have the given truth value (in
parentheses) for some statement s, and specify the truth value of s whenever possible.
Justify your answers.
a. (p ∨ q) ∧ ~s (TRUE)
 b. [(p ∧ s) → (q ∨ r)] (TRUE)
c. [(p ∧ q) ↔ (r ∨ s)] (FALSE)
1.3 TRUTH TABLES
We can use truth tables to represent the truth values of the compound statements discussed
above. We consider all possible cases for p and q (True (T) or False (F)). Note that there are four
cases when two statements are considered:
p q
T T
T F
F T
F F
We present the truth tables for the conjunction, disjunction, conditional and biconditional. Recall
when the statements resulting from connectives are either true or false.

1. Conjunction p ∧ q (true only when both p and q are true)

p q p∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

2. Disjunction p ∨ q (false only when both p and q are false)

p q p∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

3. Conditional p → q (false only when the premise is true and the conclusion is false)
p q p→q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

4. Biconditional p ↔ q (true only when p and q have the same truth value)
p q p↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
5. Negation ~p
p ~p
 T F
T F
F T
F T
If there are two statements, as seen above, there are 4 = 22 rows in the table showing all possible
cases. If there are three statements, there are 23 = 8 cases. In general, if there are n statements,
there are 2n cases.

Example 1.6 Construct a truth table for the following statements

1. p → ~q
2. (~p ∧ q) → ~r

Solutions:
1. For p → ~q, we have
p q ~q p → ~q
T T F F
T F T T
F T F T
F F T T

2. There are three (3) statements, p, q, r, so there are 23 = 8 possible cases for all
combinations of truth values of p, q, r.
p q r ~p (~p ∧ q) ~r (~p ∧ q) → ~r
T T T F F F T
T T F F F T T
T F T F F F T
T F F F F T T
F T T T T F F
F T F T T T T
F F T T F F T
F F F T F T T

Note that the first row of the given table (p, q, r are all true) corresponds to
Example 1.5 (3).

Exercises 1.3
Construct a truth table for the following statements.
1. p ↔ ~q
2. ~ q → ~ p
 3. (~ p ∨ q) ↔ (p → q)
4. p ∨ (q ∧ r)
5. (~p ∧ q) ∨ ~ (r → ~q)
1.) p ~q
p q (p ~q
F F F
F T T
T F T
T T F
2.) ~q ~p
p q ~q
~p
F F T
F T T
T F F
T T T
3.) (~p v q) (p q)
p q (~p
~q
F F T
F T T
T F T
T T T
4.) p v (q v r)
p q r (p v (q ^ r)
F F F F
F F T T
F T F F
F T T T
T F F T
T F T T
T T F T
T T T T
5.) (~p ^ q) v ~ (r ~q
p q r (~ p ^ q) v ~ (r
~q)
F F F F
F F T F
F T F T
F T T T
T F F F
T F T F
T T F F
T T T T
1.3 RELATIONS ON STATEMENTS

In the previous section, we defined the possible operations on statements that are used to
construct compound statements. The resulting compound statement has a truth value although it
may or may not make sense. For example, the statement “If all roses are red, then all violets are
blue.” This is a true statement (F → F) but it is not materially true (the two statements are not
related). We have conditionals p → q and biconditionals p ↔ q that actually make sense or are
materially true. We consider two relations on statements, implication and equivalence.

1. Implication. We know for a fact that all cats are mammals. This means that if an animal is a
cat, then it is a mammal. We can state this as “If it is a cat, then it is a mammal.” This is not just
a compound statement with the connective “ → “, rather a material implication. So, if something
is a cat, it is also true that it is also a mammal. We call this relation an implication, denoted by “
⇒ ” . Hence, if statement p (materially) implies statement q, we denote this by “p ⇒ q ” (read as
p implies q).

2. Equivalence. On the other hand, we may also have statements which are equivalent. We
usually see this in definitions and compound statements which may be restated in another way.
Consider the definition “A polygon is a triangle if and only if it has three sides”. This actually
means that the statements
p: A polygon is a triangle.
q: A polygon has three sides.
are equivalent. In this case, we may replace p with statement q. We denote the equivalence of
two statements p and q by p ⇔ q.

In the following sections, we shall discuss further negation of statements and the conditional and
in these discussions, we can find more examples of equivalent compound statements. Note that
we can determine the equivalence of two compound statements by comparing their truth tables.
If they have the same truth value for each case, then they are equivalent.

Example 1.7 Using a truth table, show that ~ ( p ∧ q ) ⇔ ~p ∨ ~q .

Solution:
We consider the four cases for the truth values of p and q and if for each case ~( p ∧ q )
has the same truth value as ~p ∨ ~q, the two statements are equivalent.
 p q ~p ~q p∧q ∼(p∧ ∼p∨∼q
q)
T T F F T F F
T F F T F T T
F T T F F T T
F F T T F T T

Observe that for each case, the two statements have the same truth value so ∼ ( p ∧ q ) is
equivalent to ∼ p ∨ ∼ q. This implies the negation of the conjunction of p and q may be
restated as the disjunction of the negation of p and the negation of q. (See Section 2.2 for
examples illustrating negation of compound statements.)

Exercises 1.4
1. Prove the following equivalences using truth tables:

a. ~ ( p ∨ q ) ⇔ ~p ∧ ~q
b. (p → q) ⇔ ( ~p ∨ q )

2. Give examples of implications and equivalences encountered in everyday

life.