Student Workbook

Your Name: Class:

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 Knowledge Checklist
Before you start, please tick the areas you are already confident in.
Once you have worked through ALL of this workbook (including
those areas you are already familiar with) go through the checklist
again and tick the areas you now feel confident in and which areas
you still need to work on.

I am confident
I am confident now I have I still need to
before I start completed work on this
this workbook this workbook area
Construct truth tables for the
following logic gates: NOT, AND and
OR
Construct truth tables for simple logic
circuits using combinations of NOT,
AND and OR
Create, modify and interpret simple
logic circuit diagrams
Create and interpret simple Boolean
expressions made up of NOT, AND
and OR

Table of Contents
Knowledge Checklist ............................................................................................... 2
Boolean Logic .......................................................................................................... 3
The AND logic gate .............................................................................................. 3
The OR logic gate ................................................................................................ 4
The NOT logic gate .............................................................................................. 5
Logic circuits ............................................................................................................. 6
Solving logic circuits ............................................................................................. 9

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 Boolean Logic
George Boole (1815 - 1864) was an
English mathematician and the author
of “Mathematical Analysis of Logic” written in
1847, in which he introduced the world
to Boolean logic.

Inside a computer there are circuit boards and

on these circuit boards are chips which use
Boolean logic gates and are the foundation for
how computers work.

There are three types of logic gate you need to

know about:

• AND
• OR
• NOT
Logic gates work by taking some form of input on the left-hand side,
processing these inputs through the gate and delivering an output on the
right-hand side. Usually these are represented by a 1 or a 0 to represent true
or false.

The AND logic gate

This is the AND logic gate which is shaped like the
“D” of the word AND. It has two inputs on the left
and one output on the right. If both the inputs on
the left are true then the output will also be true
but if either or the inputs are false then the output
will be false and if neither of the inputs are true
then the output will be false.

This can be shown using a simple truth table. In order to draw a truth table
we need to name the inputs and outputs on the logic gate first and this is
usually done with letters of the alphabet.

Here we have labelled the inputs as A and B and

the output as Z. There are no rules for how these
labels work as long as each input and output use
a different letter.

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Now we can create our truth table with each input and output at the top of
a column.

A B Z
0 0
0 1
1 0
1 1

As you can see in the table above we have used binary counting to fill in the
first two columns. This ensures we have covered every combination of the 0
and 1 digits possible with two columns. Remember: 0 is classed as false and 1
is true.

Now we can fill in the output column. With an AND A B Z

logic gate it will only produce a true output if both the
0 0 0
inputs are true. In this case this is only the bottom row
where both A and B contain the 1. All the other 0 1 0
outputs will be false. 1 0 0

The OR logic gate 1 1 1

Here is the OR logic gate. Notice the more

pointed shape than with the AND gate and the
input edge is curved inwards too. Again, we have
two inputs and one output. The inputs and output
have been labelled for you. With an OR logic gate
the output will be true if EITHER of the inputs are
true or if they are both true. It will only display a false output if both the inputs
are false. This is our truth table for the OR logic gate.

A B Z
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 1

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The NOT logic gate
This is the NOT logic gate which is made up of a
triangle with a circle at the output point. It only
has one input and one output. This logic gate
works by producing the opposite output to
whatever is inputted. If the input is true the output
will be false and if the input is false the output will
be true.

In this truth table there are fewer columns and rows as there is only one input
which has two possible states: 0 or 1.

A Z
0 1
1 0

Task 1: WITHOUT looking at the previous examples, name the

logic gate and complete the truth tables for the three logic
gates we have looked at.

Gate Name A B Z

Gate Name A Z

Gate Name A B Z

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 Logic circuits
Logic circuits are when logic gates have been combined to make a more
complex problem.

Here we have an AND gate and a NOT gate joined together. To solve this
problem start from the inputs on the left and work across the diagram. We
start with the inputs A and B and use binary counting to populate the table
showing all the variants possible. Once we know the inputs we can work out
the Z output which is an AND logic gate. Once we have the Z column
completed we can work out the Y column which is using a NOT gate (flipping
the 1’s to 0 and the 0’s to 1).

Here we can see the truth table for the above logic circuit.

A B Z Y
0 0 0 1
0 1 0 1
1 0 0 1
1 1 1 0

Task 2: Complete the table for the following logic circuit.

A B Z Y

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You can have more than just the two inputs. If you have more than one logic
gate and then merge them later using another logic gate you can create
more complex circuits.

Here we have A and B using an AND logic gate giving the output X and C
going through a NOT logic gate giving the output Y. X and Y are then passed
through an OR logic gate to give the final output Z.

This is a larger truth table than we have used before as we have three inputs.
Again, use binary counting to populate the inputs of the table as this will
ensure that every possible combination is covered. Next go through the two
left hand truth tables first. Start with the top one (the AND gate) and fill in the
X column using A and B as the inputs. Next go through the Y column (the
NOT gate) using C as the input and then finally go through the Z column (the
OR gate) using the X and Y columns as inputs.

Task 3: Complete the truth table for the logic circuit shown
below. We have filled in the A, B and C inputs for you.

A B C X Y Z

0 0 0

0 0 1

0 1 0

0 1 1

1 0 0

1 0 1

1 1 0

1 1 1

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 Task 4: Complete the truth table for the logic circuit shown
below.

A B C D X Y Z

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Solving logic circuits
Sometimes you do not need to create an entire truth table for a
logic circuit and you may only need to be able to draw a logic
circuit to interpret one scenario. For instance, you may want to
know what the output would be for the following:

To solve this problem, you need to find out the answer to the NOT logic gate
which would be 0. Then you use that and the other input with the AND logic
gate which would give you 0 as the output.

Task 5: Work out the solution to this logic circuit.

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If you wanted to draw a logic circuit, you would need very clear instructions
to follow. Take, for instance:

(A AND B) OR (C AND D)
Here we have brackets and these show use the individual logic gates.

The next step would be to join these, and we can see from the statement
that they are joined by an OR gate.

When dealing with brackets start from the inner set and work outwards in the
same way you would do this with a maths equation. For instance, in the
following example:

(NOT(A OR B)) AND C

Work from the inside set of brackets (A OR B) first and get the output for that
column (X) and then apply the NOT scenario (Y) before finally working
through the AND part of the logic circuit (Z).

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 Task 6: Draw a logic circuit for the following problem. If you are
completing this workbook electrically you can use another
piece of software to create the logic circuit and save the image
as a JPEG or PNG file and click on the space to import it. Or else
draw it on paper and take a photo of it on your hone and
import the image

(A OR B) AND (NOT (C OR D)

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 Task 7: Complete the truth table for the following logic circuit
and then draw the circuit for the statement described below.

A B C X Y Z

Draw a logic circuit for the following statement: A OR NOT B:

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