MAT 102

Introduction to Logic

Akudo Ijezie
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Objectives
At the end of this session, students should be able to:
Understand what simple statements are,
Express statements in Symbolic Form and vice versa,
Identify and understand the function of logical
connectors,
String simple statements so as to construct compound
statements,
Prepare truth tables,
Examine statement patterns.
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Proper reasoning involves Logic.

The study of logic helps in increasing one’s
ability of systematic and logical reasoning. It
also helps to develop the skills of
understanding various statements and their
validity.
It is the science of correct reasoning.
Since reasoning is involved in most
intellectual activities, logic is relevant to a
broad range of pursuits.
In the process of reasoning one makes
inferences. In an inference one uses a
collection of statements, the premises, in
order to justify another statement, the
conclusion.
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The building block of logic is simple statements.

A statement is a declarative sentence which is either true or false but

not both simultaneously.

A statement is true if what it asserts is the case, and it is false if what it

asserts is not the case.

Examples of statements:

Today is Monday. 3 is an odd number.

He is a girl. 5 is a perfect square.

Zero times any real number is zero.

Sun rises in the East.

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Note: The sentences like exclamatory, interrogative,

imperative etc., are not considered as statements as
the truth value for these statements cannot be
determined.
Exercise:
Which of the following are statements (propositions)?:
1. I like sports cars.
2. Do not disturb.
3.

4. Where are you?

5. Chinese food is very tasty.
6. It is raining outside.
7. May God bless you!
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A statement is either true or false, not neither,

and not both.

The truth value of a statement is an evaluation

of whether the statement is true (T) or false
(F).

We make use of letters P and Q to denote

statements. The truth value of any given
statement can be put in a table. This is called a
truth table.
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Example:
Assign truth values to the following statements:
1.

2. Tomorrow is a holiday.
3. His name is Emeka.
4. The Sun rises in the west.
5. The sum of angles in a triangle is .
6. The square of a real number is negative.
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Compound statements
This is the new statement formed by
combining two or more simple statements by
using logical connectors.
For example: p: Today is Monday
q: I love mathematics
These two statements can be joined by using
the logical connector ‘and’ as shown below:
Today is Monday and I love mathematics.
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There are four basic ways to start with one or more statements and
use them to make a more elaborate compound statement.
The words or group of words such as “and, or, if …. then, if and only if,
not” are used to join or connect two or more simple sentences.
These connecting words are called logical connectors.

Examples of compound statements:

Today is Monday and all girls are nice.

I love Mathematics and English.
If this book is interesting, then I am staying at home.

The truth value of the compound statement is based on the truth

value of its simple statements.
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Negation (not)

This is the negative of a simple statement.

The logical connector is ‘not’.

The truth value of a negated statement is the

opposite of its truth value.

Symbolically, we represent negation as .

The negation of negation of a simple statement is

the statement itself.
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Example
Negate the following statements and present its truth
table.
I understand Spanish.
I love eating apples.
Solution

The negation is: I do not understand Spanish.

I do not love eating apples.
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Conjunction (and)
This logical connector connects statements
using ‘and’ .

This connector is represented symbolically as ‘

’

The truth value of such a compound

statement can only be True if each statement
is True. Otherwise, it is False.
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Given the following statements, create a

compound statement using and.
i. Today is a pleasant day.
ii. I want to go shopping.
The truth table can be given as:
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Disjunction (or)
The connector ‘or’ is used to connect two
statements.

This connector is represented symbolically as ‘

’

The truth value of such a compound

statement can only be True if either statement
is True. Otherwise, it is False.
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Examples
Given the following statements, create a
compound statement using or.
i. Milk is white.
ii. Grass is green.
The truth table can be given as:
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Exercise
Write the truth values of following statements.
i. 3 is a rational number or 3 + i is a complex number.
ii. Jupiter is a planet and Mars is a star.
iii. Moscow is in Russia or London is in France.
Write negations of the following statements:
iv. Rome is in Italy.
v. 5 + 5 = 10
vi. 3 is greater than 4.
vii. It is not true that fuel is scarce.
Express the following statements in symbolic form:
viii. Mango is a fruit but potato is a vegetable.
ix. Either we play football or go for cycling.
x. I like playing but not singing.
xi. James and John are twins.
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Conditional (if…then)
A conditional statement is a statement of the
form “if p, then q” or “p implies q”.

This connector is written symbolically as “”.

For example: Let p: I travel by train.
q: My journey will be cheaper.
The truth value of such a compound
statement is false when p is true and q is false,
otherwise, it is true.
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The event on the left side of the arrow is called

the antecedent of the statement, while the
event on the right side of the arrow is called
the consequence of the statement.
The truth table for the conditional statement is
given as:

Conditional statements have converses,

inverses and contrapositives.
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A converse statement is a conditional

statement with the antecedent and
consequence reversed. That is
An Inverse negates both the antecedent and
the consequence. That is
The Contrapositive is the converse of the
inverse. That is it both reverses and negates
the antecedent and the consequence of the
given conditional statement.
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For example:
Let p : Smith is intelligent.
q : Smith will join Medical.
i. : If Smith joins Medical then she is
intelligent.
ii. : If Smith is not intelligent then she will not
join Medical.
iii. : If Smith does not join Medical then she is
not intelligent.
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T T T F F T T T
T F F F T T F T
F T T T F F T F
F F T T T T T T

Note that the contrapositive and the original

statement will always have the same truth value.
The converse and the inverse will always have
the same truth value.
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Exercise
Given the conditional statement:
“If it is basketball, then it is a sport.”
Identify the inverse, converse, and contrapositive of a given statement.
Identify the truth value of each statement above.
Answer:
1) The inverse is: ‘if it is not basketball, then it is not a sport’. The converse
becomes: ‘if it is a sport, then it is basketball’. The contrapositive is: ‘if it is
not a sport, then it is not basketball’.
To assign truth values to the statements, note that by merging the original
statement into one, we can state that ‘basketball is a sport’. Hence, the
inverse holding true would assume that basketball is the only sport which
is not true, as there are other sports aside from basketball. Thus, the truth
value is FALSE. Again, this is played out in a similar fashion for the
converse statement. All sports aren’t basketball. Thus, the truth value is
FALSE. Lastly, the since basketball is a sport, if it there was an activity that
wasn’t a sporting activity, then it wouldn’t be basketball. Thus, the truth
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Biconditional (if and only if)

This is a statement that is usually of the form
“p if and only if q” or “p iff q”.

It is represented as “”.

The truth value of such a statement is true if p

and q have the same truth value. Otherwise it
is false.
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For example: Let p : price increases

q : demand falls
Here the Biconditional statement is ‘p ↔ q :
Price increases if and only if demand falls’.

The truth table is given as:

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Exercise
If p: It is daytime, q: It is warm
Give the compound statements in verbal form
denoted by
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Statement Patterns
Let, p, q, r,… be simple statements. A
compound statement obtained from these
simple statements and by using one or more
connectives is called a statement pattern.
Note: the use of parentheses must be
introduced whenever necessary.
For instance: and are not the same.
If a statement pattern consists of ‘n’
statements and ‘m’ connectives, then truth
table consists of rows and columns.
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Logical Equivalence
Two logical statements are said to be
equivalent if and only if the truth values in
their respective columns in the joint truth
table are identical.
For example, construct the truth tables for the
following: , ,

Thus, we can say that and

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Tautologies and Contradictions

There are two cases in which compound
statements can be made that result in either
always true or always false.
These are called tautologies and
contradictions, respectively.
Consider the following statement: I am happy
or I am not happy.
This is a compound statement made up of the
statements: ‘I am happy’ , ‘I am not happy’.
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In logical notation, we can write the statement

as:
When we construct the truth table for .
We obtain:
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Similarly, Consider the statement "2 is even and 2

is odd“.
There are two statements.
Symbolically, we can write the statement as:
When we construct the truth table, we obtain:

NB: A statement pattern that is neither a tautology

nor a contradiction is called Contingency.
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Exercises
Using truth tables examine whether the following
statement patterns are tautology, contradiction or
contingency.
i.

ii.

iii.

• If p, q, r are statements with truth values T, F, T

respectively, determine the truth values of the
following:
i. q → (p ∨ ∼r)
ii. (∼r ∧ p) ∨ ∼q