Part I: Propositional Logic

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Section Summary
 Propositions

 Connectives
 Negation
 Conjunction
 Disjunction
 Conditional; contrapositive, inverse, converse
 Biconditional

 Truth Tables
Propositions
 A proposition is a declarative sentence that is either true or false, but
not both.

 Examples of propositions:
a) Today is Friday.
b) New Delhi is the capital of India.
c) Dhanbad is the capital of Jharkhand.
d) 1+0=1
e) 0+0=2

 Examples that are not propositions.

a) Read this carefully. (a) and (b) are not propositions because
b) What time is it? they are not declarative sentences.
c) x+1=2
d) x+y=z (c) and (d) are not proposition because
they are neither true nor false.
Propositional Logic
 Constructing Propositions
 Propositional Variables: p, q, r, s, …

 The proposition that is always true is denoted by T and

the proposition that is always false is denoted by F.
 Compound Propositions; constructed from logical
connectives and other propositions
 Negation ¬
 Conjunction ∧
 Disjunction ∨
 Conditional →
 Biconditional ↔
Compound Propositions: Negation
 The negation of a proposition p is denoted by ¬p (also
denoted by p), is the statement
“It is not the case that p.”
 The truth table:
p ¬p
T F
F T

 Example: If p denotes “The earth is round.”, then ¬p denotes

“It is not the case that the earth is round,” or more simply “The
earth is not round.”
Conjunction
 The conjunction of propositions p and q is denoted by
p ∧ q (“p and q”) and has this truth table:
p q p∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
 Example:
If p denotes “I am at home.” and
q denotes “It is raining.”, then
p ∧q denotes “I am at home and it is raining.”
Disjunction
 The disjunction of propositions p and q is denoted by
p ∨q (“p or q”) and has this truth table:
p q p ∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

 Example:
If p denotes “I am at home.” and
q denotes “It is raining.” then
p ∨q denotes “I am at home or it is raining.”
The Connective “Or” in English
 In English “or” has two distinct meanings.
 “Inclusive Or” - In the sentence “Students who have taken CS101 or MC101
may take this class,” we assume that students need to have taken one of the
prerequisites, but may have taken both. This is the meaning of disjunction.
For p ∨q to be true, either one or both of p and q must be true.

 “Exclusive Or” - When reading the sentence “paneer or chicken comes with
this menu,” we do not expect to be able to get both paneer and chicken.
This is the meaning of Exclusive Or (Xor). In p ⊕ q , one of p and q must be
true, but not both. The truth table for ⊕ is:
p q p ⊕q
T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F
Conditional Statement (Implication)
 If p and q are propositions, then p →q is a conditional statement or
implication which is read as “if p, then q ” and has this truth table:
p q p →q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

 Example: If p denotes “I am at home.” and q denotes “It is

raining.” then p →q denotes “If I am at home then it is raining.”
 In p →q, p is the hypothesis (antecedent or premise) and q is the
conclusion (or consequence).
Understanding Implication (cont)
 One way to understand the truth values of a
conditional statement is to think of an obligation or
contract.
 “If I am elected, then I will lower taxes.”
 “If you get 100% on the final, then you will get an A+.”

 If the politician is elected and does not lower taxes,

then the voters can say that he or she has broken the
campaign pledge. Something similar holds for the
professor. This corresponds to the case where p is true
and q is false.
Understanding Implication
 In p →q there does not need to be any connection
between the antecedent or the consequent. The
“meaning” of p →q depends only on the truth values of
p and q.
 These implications are perfectly fine, but would not be
used in ordinary English.
 “If the moon is made of green cheese, then I have more
money than Mukesh Ambani.”
 “If today is Sunday, then 1 + 1 = 2.”
 “If today is Sunday, then 2+3=6.”
Different Ways of Expressing p →q
if p, then q p implies q
if p, q p only if q
q unless ¬p q when p
q if p
q whenever p p is sufficient for q
q follows from p q is necessary for p

a necessary condition for p is q

a sufficient condition for q is p
Converse, Contrapositive, and Inverse
 From p →q we can form new conditional statements .
 q →p is the converse of p →q
 ¬q → ¬ p is the contrapositive of p →q
 ¬ p → ¬ q is the inverse of p →q

Example: Find the converse, inverse, and contrapositive of

“The home team wins whenever it is raining.”

Solution:
converse: If the home team wins, then it is raining.
contrapositive: If the home team does not win, then it is not raining.
inverse: If it is not raining, then the home team does not win.
Biconditional
 If p and q are propositions, then we can form the biconditional
proposition p ↔q , read as “p if and only if q .” The biconditional p ↔q
denotes the proposition with this truth table:

p q p ↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

 If p denotes “I am at home.” and

q denotes “It is raining.” then
p ↔q denotes “I am at home if and only if it is raining.”
Expressing the Biconditional
 Some alternative ways “p if and only if q” is expressed
in English:

 p is necessary and sufficient for q

 if p then q , and conversely
 p iff q
Truth Tables For Compound Propositions
 Construction of a truth table:
 Rows
 Need a row for every possible combination of values for
the atomic propositions.
 Columns
 Need a column for the compound proposition (usually
at far right)
 Need a column for the truth value of each expression
that occurs in the compound proposition as it is built
up.
 This includes the atomic propositions
Example Truth Table
 Construct a truth table for
p q r r pq p  q → r
T T T F T F
T T F T T T
T F T F T F
T F F T T T
F T T F T F
F T F T T T
F F T F F T
F F F T F T
Equivalent Propositions
 Two propositions are equivalent if they always have the
same truth value.
 Example: Show using a truth table that the
conditional is equivalent to the contrapositive.
Solution:
p q ¬p ¬q p →q ¬q → ¬ p
T T F F T T
T F F T F F
F T T F T T
F F T T T T
Using a Truth Table to Show Non-
Equivalence
Example: Show using truth tables that neither the
converse nor inverse of an implication are not
equivalent to the implication.
Solution:
p q ¬p ¬q p →q ¬ p →¬ q q→p
T T F F T T T
T F F T F T T
F T T F T F F
F F T T T T T
Problem
 How many rows are there in a truth table with n
propositional variables?

Solution: 2n

 Note that this means that with n propositional

variables, we can construct 2n distinct (i.e., not
equivalent) propositions.
Precedence of Logical Operators
Operator Precedence
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5

p q  r is equivalent to (p q)  r

If the intended meaning is p (q  r) then parentheses

must be used.
Applications of Propositional Logic:
Summary
 Translating English to Propositional Logic
 System Specifications
Translating English Sentences
 Steps to convert an English sentence to a statement in
propositional logic:
 Identify atomic propositions and represent using
propositional variables.

 Determine appropriate logical connectives

Example
Problem: Translate the following sentence into
propositional logic:
“You can access the Internet from campus only if you are a
computer science major or you are not a freshman.”

One Possible Solution:

a: You can access the internet from campus.
c: You are a computer science major.
f: You are a freshman.
a→ (c ∨ ¬ f )
Translating English Sentences
Problem: Translate the following sentence into
propositional logic:

“You cannot ride the roller coaster if you are under 4 feet tall
unless you are older than 16 years old.”

One Possible Solution:

r: You can ride the roller coaster.
t: You are under 4 feet tall.
y: You are older than 16 years old.
(t∧ ¬𝑦) → ¬𝑟
System Specifications
 System and Software Engineers take requirements in
English and express them in a precise specification
language based on logic.

Example: Express in propositional logic:

“The automated reply cannot be sent when the file
system is full”

One possible solution:

p: The automated reply can be sent.
q: The file system is full.
q→ ¬ p
Consistent System Specifications
Definition: A list of propositions is consistent if it is
possible to assign truth values to the proposition variables
so that each proposition is true.
Exercise: Are these specifications consistent?
 “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer or it is retransmitted.”
 “The diagnostic message is not stored in the buffer.”
 “If the diagnostic message is stored in the buffer, then it is retransmitted.”

Solution:
p: The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer.
q: The diagnostic message is retransmitted.
The specification can be written as: p ∨ q, ¬p, p → q.

When p is false and q is true all three statements are true. So the
specification is consistent.
Consistent System Specifications
Definition: A list of propositions is consistent if it is
possible to assign truth values to the proposition variables
so that each proposition is true.
Exercise: Are these specifications consistent?
 “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer or it is retransmitted.”
 “The diagnostic message is not stored in the buffer.”
 “If the diagnostic message is stored in the buffer, then it is retransmitted.”

Solution: Let p denote “The diagnostic message is stored in the buffer.” Let
q denote “The diagnostic message is retransmitted” The specification can
be written as: p ∨ q, ¬p, p → q. When p is false and q is true all three
statements are true. So the specification is consistent.
 What if “The diagnostic message is not retransmitted” is added.
Solution: Now we are adding ¬q and there is no satisfying assignment. So the
specification is not consistent.
Section Summary
 Tautologies, Contradictions, and Contingencies
 Logical Equivalence
 Important Logical Equivalences
 Showing Logical Equivalence

 Propositional Satisfiability
Tautologies, Contradictions, and
Contingencies
 A tautology is a proposition which is always true.
 Example: p ∨¬p
 A contradiction is a proposition which is always false.
 Example: p ∧¬p
 A contingency is a proposition which is neither a
tautology nor a contradiction.

P ¬p p ∨¬p p ∧¬p
T F T F
F T T F
Logically Equivalent
 Two compound propositions p and q are logically equivalent if p↔q
is a tautology.
 We write this as p⇔q or as p≡q where p and q are compound
propositions.
 Two compound propositions p and q are equivalent if and only if the
columns in a truth table giving their truth values agree.
 This truth table shows that ¬p ∨ q is equivalent to p → q.

p q ¬p ¬p ∨ q p→ q
T T F T T
T F F F F
F T T T T
F F T T T
 De Morgan’s Laws
Augustus De Morgan
1806-1871

This truth table shows that De Morgan’s Second Law holds.

p q ¬p ¬q (p∨q) ¬(p∨q) ¬p∧¬q

T T F F T F F
T F F T T F F
F T T F T F F
F F T T F T T
Key Logical Equivalences
 Identity Laws: ,

 Domination Laws: ,

 Idempotent laws: ,

 Double Negation Law:

 Negation Laws: ,
Key Logical Equivalences (cont)
 Commutative Laws: ,

 Associative Laws:

 Distributive Laws:

 Absorption Laws:
More Logical Equivalences
Constructing New Logical
Equivalences
 We can show that two expressions are logically equivalent
by developing a series of logically equivalent statements.
 To prove that we produce a series of equivalences
beginning with A and ending with B.

 Keep in mind that whenever a proposition (represented by

a propositional variable) occurs in the equivalences listed
earlier, it may be replaced by an arbitrarily complex
compound proposition.
Equivalence Proofs
Example: Show that
is logically equivalent to
Solution:
Equivalence Proofs
Example: Show that
is a tautology.
Solution:
Propositional Satisfiability
 A compound proposition is satisfiable if there is an
assignment of truth values to its variables that make it
true. When no such assignments exist, the compound
proposition is unsatisfiable.

 A compound proposition is unsatisfiable if and only if

its negation is a tautology.
Questions on Propositional
Satisfiability
Example: Determine the satisfiability of the following
compound propositions:

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to p, q, and r.

Solution: Satisfiable. Assign T to p and F to q.

Solution: Not satisfiable. Check each possible assignment

of truth values to the propositional variables and none will
make the proposition true.