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Discrete Mathematics - Propositional Logic

The rules of mathematical logic specify methods of reasoning mathematical statements.
Greek philosopher, Aristotle, was the pioneer of logical reasoning. Logical reasoning
provides the theoretical base for many areas of mathematics and consequently computer
science. It has many practical applications in computer science like design of computing
machines, artificial intelligence, definition of data structures for programming languages
etc.

Propositional Logic is concerned with statements to which the truth values, “true” and
“false”, can be assigned. The purpose is to analyze these statements either individually or
in a composite manner.

Prepositional Logic – Definition

A proposition is a collection of declarative statements that has either a truth value "true”
or a truth value "false". A propositional consists of propositional variables and connectives.
We denote the propositional variables by capital letters (A, B, etc). The connectives
connect the propositional variables.

Some examples of Propositions are given below −

"Man is Mortal", it returns truth value “TRUE”

"12 + 9 = 3 – 2", it returns truth value “FALSE”

The following is not a Proposition −

"A is less than 2". It is because unless we give a specific value of A, we cannot say
whether the statement is true or false.

Connectives
In propositional logic generally we use five connectives which are −

OR ( )

AND ( )

Negation/ NOT ( )
Implication / if-then ( )

If and only if ( ).
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OR ( ) − The OR operation of two propositions A and B (written as ) is true if at

least any of the propositional variable A or B is true.

The truth table is as follows −

A B A∨ B

True True True

True False True

False True True

False False False

AND ( ) − The AND operation of two propositions A and B (written as ) is true if

both the propositional variable A and B is true.

The truth table is as follows −

A B A∧ B

True True True

True False False

False True False

False False False

Negation ( ) − The negation of a proposition A (written as ) is false when A is true

and is true when A is false.

The truth table is as follows −

A ¬A

True False

False True

Implication / if-then ( ) − An implication is the proposition “if A, then B”. It is

false if A is true and B is false. The rest cases are true.

The truth table is as follows −

A B A→B
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True True True

True False False

False True True

False False True

If and only if ( ) − is bi-conditional logical connective which is true when p and

q are same, i.e. both are false or both are true.

The truth table is as follows −

A B A⇔ B

True True True

True False False

False True False

False False True

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Tautologies
A Tautology is a formula which is always true for every value of its propositional variables.

Example − Prove is a tautology

The truth table is as follows −

A B A→B (A → B) ∧ A [( A → B ) ∧ A] → B

True True True True True

True False False False True

False True True False True

False False True False True

As we can see every value of is "True", it is a tautology.

Contradictions
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A Contradiction is a formula which is always false for every value of its propositional
variables.

Example − Prove is a contradiction

The truth table is as follows −

A B A∨ B ¬A ¬B (¬ A) ∧ ( ¬ B) (A ∨ B) ∧ [( ¬ A) ∧ (¬ B)]

True True True False False False False

True False True False True False False

False True True True False False False

False False False True True True False

As we can see every value of is “False”, it is a contradiction.

Contingency
A Contingency is a formula which has both some true and some false values for every
value of its propositional variables.

Example − Prove a contingency

The truth table is as follows −

A B A∨ B ¬A (A ∨ B) ∧ (¬ A)

True True True False False

True False True False False

False True True True True

False False False True False

As we can see every value of has both “True” and “False”, it is a

contingency.

Propositional Equivalences
Two statements X and Y are logically equivalent if any of the following two conditions hold
−

The truth tables of each statement have the same truth values.
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The bi-conditional statement is a tautology.

Example − Prove are equivalent

Testing by 1st method (Matching truth table)

A B A∨ B ¬ (A ∨ B) ¬A ¬B [(¬ A) ∧ (¬ B)]

True True True False False False False

True False True False False True False

False True True False True False False

False False False True True True True

Here, we can see the truth values of are same, hence the
statements are equivalent.

Testing by 2nd method (Bi-conditionality)

A B ¬ (A ∨ B ) [(¬ A) ∧ (¬ B)] [¬ (A ∨ B)] ⇔ [(¬ A ) ∧ (¬ B)]

True True False False True

True False False False True

False True False False True

False False True True True

As is a tautology, the statements are equivalent.

Inverse, Converse, and Contra-positive

Implication / if-then is also called a conditional statement. It has two parts −

Hypothesis, p
Conclusion, q

As mentioned earlier, it is denoted as .

Example of Conditional Statement − “If you do your homework, you will not be
punished.” Here, "you do your homework" is the hypothesis, p, and "you will not be
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punished" is the conclusion, q.

Inverse − An inverse of the conditional statement is the negation of both the hypothesis
and the conclusion. If the statement is “If p, then q”, the inverse will be “If not p, then not
q”. Thus the inverse of is .

Example − The inverse of “If you do your homework, you will not be punished” is “If you
do not do your homework, you will be punished.”

Converse − The converse of the conditional statement is computed by interchanging the

hypothesis and the conclusion. If the statement is “If p, then q”, the converse will be “If q,
then p”. The converse of is .

Example − The converse of "If you do your homework, you will not be punished" is "If
you will not be punished, you do your homework”.

Contra-positive − The contra-positive of the conditional is computed by interchanging

the hypothesis and the conclusion of the inverse statement. If the statement is “If p, then
q”, the contra-positive will be “If not q, then not p”. The contra-positive of is
.

Example − The Contra-positive of " If you do your homework, you will not be punished” is
"If you are punished, you did not do your homework”.

Duality Principle
Duality principle states that for any true statement, the dual statement obtained by
interchanging unions into intersections (and vice versa) and interchanging Universal set
into Null set (and vice versa) is also true. If dual of any statement is the statement itself,
it is said self-dual statement.

Example − The dual of is

Normal Forms
We can convert any proposition in two normal forms −

Conjunctive normal form

Disjunctive normal form

Conjunctive Normal Form

A compound statement is in conjunctive normal form if it is obtained by operating AND
among variables (negation of variables included) connected with ORs. In terms of set
operations, it is a compound statement obtained by Intersection among variables
connected with Unions.
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Examples

Disjunctive Normal Form

A compound statement is in disjunctive normal form if it is obtained by operating OR
among variables (negation of variables included) connected with ANDs. In terms of set
operations, it is a compound statement obtained by Union among variables connected with
Intersections.

Examples