The Foundations: Logic and Proofs

Chapter 1
What is logic?
The rules of logic specify the meaning of
mathematical statements.
Logic is the basis of all mathematical reasoning, and of all
automated reasoning.
Logic is the study of the principle and methods that
distinguish b/w a valid and invalid argument.
It has practical applications to the design of computing
machines, to the specification of systems, to artificial
intelligence, to computer programming, to programming
languages, and to other areas of computer science, as well as
to many other fields of study
What is a proof?
To understand mathematics, we must understand what makes
up a correct mathematical argument, that is, a proof.
Once we prove a mathematical statement is true, we call it a
theorem.
A collection of theorems on a topic organize what we know
about this topic.
To learn a mathematical topic, a person needs to actively
construct mathematical arguments on this topic.
Moreover, knowing the proof of a theorem often makes it
possible to modify the result to fit new situations
 Everyone knows that proofs are important throughout
mathematics, but many people find it surprising how important
proofs are in computer science.
In fact, proofs are used to verify that computer programs
produce the correct output for all possible input values,
to show that algorithms always produce the correct result,
to establish the security of a system,
and to create artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, automated reasoning systems have been created to
allow computers to construct their own proofs.
Propositional Logic

Section 1.1
Propositions
It is the basic building blocks of logic.
A proposition is a declarative sentence (that is, a sentence that
declares a fact) that is either true or false, but not both.
Examples of propositions:
a) Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States of America.
b) Grass is green.
c) 1+0=1
d) 0+0=2
e) There are four fingers n a hand.
Examples that are not propositions.
a) Sit down!
b) What time is it?
c) x+1=2
d) x is greater than 2.
e) He is very rich.
Assessment:
Are these statements or not?

X+2 is positive.
May I come in?
Logic is interesting.
It is hot today.
-1>0
x+y=12.
Constructing proposition:
We use letters to denote propositional variables (or
statement variables), that is, variables that represent
propositions.
The conventional letters used for propositional variables are
p, q, r, s, . . . .
The truth value of a proposition is true, denoted by T, if it is a
true proposition.
And the truth value of a proposition is false, denoted by F, if
it is a false proposition.
 The area of logic that deals with propositions is called the
propositional calculus or propositional logic.
It was first developed systematically by the Greek philosopher
Aristotle more than 2300 years ago.
Compound propositions, are formed from existing
propositions using logical operators.
Propositional Logic
Negation ,~(not)
Conjunction (and)
Disjunction (or)
Implication (if..then)
Biconditional (if and only if)
Negation (,~)
Let p be a proposition.The negation of p, denoted byp (also
denoted by (bar)p), is the statement
It is not the case that p.
The proposition p is read not p.
The truth value of the negation of p, p, is the opposite of the
truth value of p.
Truth table:
p p
T F
F T

Example : Find the negation of the proposition

Michaels PC runs Linux
and express this in simple English.
Solution: The negation is
It is not the case that Michaels PC runs Linux.
This negation can be more simply expressed as
Michaels PC does not run Linux.
 Conjunction ()

Let p and q be propositions.

The conjunction of p and q, denoted by p q, is the proposition p
and q.
The conjunction p q is true when both p and q are true and is false
otherwise.
Truth table:

p q pq
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

Example: If p denotes The sun is shining, . and q denotes

it is raining then p q denotes The sun is shining and it is
raining.
Disjunction ( )

Let p and q be propositions.

The disjunction of p and q, denoted by p q, is the proposition p or
q.
The disjunction p q is false when both p and q are false and is true
otherwise.
Truth table:

p q p q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

Example: If p denotes The sun is shining, . and q

denotes it is raining then p q denotes The sun is
shining or it is raining.
Translate from English to symbols.
Let p and q be propositions.
P=it is hot and q=it is sunny

sentence Symbolic form

It is not hot. ~p
It is hot and sunny. pq
It is hot or sunny. p q
It is not hot but sunny. ~p q
It is neither hot nor sunny ~p ~q
Assesment:
Let h=Ali is healthy, w=Ali is Wealthy, s=Ali is wise
Translate the compound statements to symbolic form:
Ali is healthy and wealthy but not wise.
Ali is not healthy but he is wealthy and wise.
Ali is neither healthy, wealthy or wise.
Exclusive OR: XOR
Let p and q be propositions.
The exclusive or of p and q, denoted by p q, is the proposition
that is true when exactly one of p and q is true and is false
otherwise.
The meaning of Exclusive Or (XoR) is that, one of p and q must be
true, but not both. If both are true then p q is false and
true otherwise.
Truth table:

p q p q
T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F
Laws of Logic:
Commutative Laws
pqqp
p q q p
Associative Laws
(p q) r p (q r)
(p q) r p (q r)
Distributive Laws
p ( q r) (p q) (p r )
p ( q r) (p q) (p r)
Identity Laws
p T p
p F p
 Negation Laws
p ~ p T
p ~ p F
Double negation Laws
~(~p) p
Idempotent Laws
ppp
ppp
De Morgans Laws
~( p q) ~p ~q
~( p q) ~p ~q
 Universal bound Laws/ Domination Laws
p T T
p F F
Absorption Laws
p ( p q) p
p ( p q) p
Negation of T and F
~T F
~F T
 Conditional statements:
Implication ()
Let p and q be propositions.
The conditional statement p q is the proposition if p, then q.
The conditional statement p q is false when p is true and q is
false, and true otherwise.
In the conditional statement p q, p is called the hypothesis (or
antecedent or premise) and q is called the conclusion (or
consequence).
Truth table:

p q p q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

Example 1: If p denotes The sun is shining, . and q

denotes it is raining then p q
denotes If the sun is shining then it is raining.
Example 2:
If you get 100% on the final, then you will get an A.
Example 3: If I am elected, then I will lower taxes.
Different Ways of Expressing p q
The following are ways to express conditional statement:
if p, then q
p implies q
if p, q
p only if q
p is sufficient for q
a sufficient condition for q is p
q if pq whenever p
q when pq is necessary for p
a necessary condition for p is q
q follows from p
q unless p
EXAMPLE : Let p be the statement Maria learns discrete
mathematics and q the statement Maria will find a good job.
Express the statement p q as a statement in English.
Solution: From the definition of conditional statements, we see that when p is the
statement Maria learns discrete mathematics and q is the statement Maria
will find a good job, p q represents the statement
If Maria learns discrete mathematics, then she will find a good job.
There are many other ways to express this conditional statement in English.
Among the most natural of these are:
Maria will find a good job when she learns discrete mathematics.
For Maria to get a good job, it is sufficient for her to learn discrete
mathematics.
and
Maria will find a good job unless she does not learn discrete
mathematics.
Converse, Contrapositive, and Inverse
We can form some new conditional statements starting with
a conditional statement p q.
In particular, there are three related conditional statements that
occur so often that they have special names.
q p is the converse of p q.
~q ~p is the contrapositive of p q .
~p ~q is the inverse of p q.
 We will see that of these three conditional statements formed
from p q, only the contrapositive always has the same
truth value as p q.
When two compound propositions always have the same
truth value we call them equivalent, so that a conditional
statement and its contrapositive are equivalent.
EXAMPLE : What are the contrapositive, the converse, and
the inverse of the conditional statement
The home team wins whenever it is raining?
Solution: Because q whenever p is one of the ways to express the
conditional statement p q, the original statement can be rewritten as
If it is raining then the home team wins.
Consequently, the contrapositive of this conditional statement is
If the home team does not win, then it is not raining.
The converse is
If the home team wins, then it is raining.
The inverse is
If it is not raining, then the home team does not win.
Only the contrapositive is equivalent to the original statement.
Biconditional ():
Let p and q be propositions.
The biconditional statement p q is the proposition p if and only
if q.
The biconditional statement p q is true when p and q have the
same truth values, and is false otherwise.
Biconditional statements are also called bi-implications.
Truth table:

p q p q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

p q is true only when p and q both are true or both are false.
p q is false when either p or q is false.
Example: Let p be the statement You can take the flight, and let q be the
statement You buy a ticket.
Then p q is the statement
You can take the flight if and only if you buy a ticket.
Other Examples:
1. 1+1=3 if and only if earth is flat.
2. Milk is white iff birds lays eggs.
Common ways to express p q
There are some other common ways to express p q:
p is necessary and sufficient for q
if p then q, and conversely
p iff q.
p is equivalent to q.
The last way of expressing the biconditional statement p q
uses the abbreviation iff for if and only if.
Note: p q has exactly the same truth value as
(p q) (q p).
 Equivalent proposition:

Here p q has exactly the same truth value as (p q) (q p).

p q pq pq qp (pq)(qp)

T T T T T T
T F F F T F
F T F T F F
F F T T T T
Laws of Logic:
Commutative law:
p q q p
Implication Law:
p q ~p q
~ (p ~ q)
Exportation Law:
(p q) r p (q r)
Equivalence Law:
p q (p q) (q p)
Reduction and absurdum:
p q (p ~q) c