3.

Truth Tables for Negation,

Conjunction, and Disjunction

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc.

Truth Table

„ A truth table is used to determine when a

compound statement is true or false.

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-2

Conjunction Truth Table
Click on speaker for audio

The symbol ^ is read as “and”

p q p∧ q
Case 1 T T T

Case 2 T F F

Case 3 F T F

Case 4 F F F

The conjunction is true only when both p and q are true.

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-3

Disjunction
Click on speaker for audio The symbol V is read as “or”

p q p∨ q

Case 1 T T T

Case 2 T F T

Case 3 F T T

Case 4 F F F

The disjunction is true when either p is true, q is true, or

both p and q are true.

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-4

Making a truth table

Let’s construct a truth table for p v ~q. This is

read as “p or not q”.
Step 1: Make a table with different possibilities for
p and q .There are 4 different possibilities.

p q
Case 1 T T
Case 2 T F
Case 3 F T
Case 4 F F
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-5
Making a truth table (cont’d)
Click on speaker for audio

Step 2: Now, make a column for ~q (“not” q) since

we want to ultimately find p v ~q

p q ~q
Case 1 T T F
Case 2 T F T
Case 3 F T F
Case 4 F F T

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-6

Making a truth table (cont’d)
Step 3: Next, make a column for p v ~q. Use the first and
third columns to decide the truth values for p v ~q
The truth table is now finished.

p q ~q p v~q

T T F T

T F T T

F T F F

F F T T

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-7

Check it out

„ Use the truth table above to decide the truth

value of p V ~q if p is false and q is true.
„ (Answer: p V ~q is false)

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-8

Next steps

„ Read Examples 1-6

„ Work problems 5-13,odds; 43-50,all; 51-54,all
from p. 115 in text
„ Do online homework for Sec . 3.2

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-9

 3.3

Truth Tables for the

Conditional and Biconditional

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc.

Conditional
Click on speaker for audio

p -> q is read as “if p then q”

p q p→q
Case 1 T T T
Case 2 T F F
Case 3 F T T
Case 4 F F T

The conditional statement p → q is true in every case

except when p is a true statement and q is a false
statement.

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-11

Biconditional
Click on speaker for audio

„ The biconditional statement, p ↔ q means that p → q and q → p,

or, symbolically p → q ∧ q → p .
( ) ( )
Take these 2 columns to get column 7

p q (p → q) ∧ (q → p)
case 1 T T T T T T T T T
case 2 T F T F F F F T T
case 3 F T F T T F T F F
case 4 F F F T F T F T F
order of steps 1 3 2 7 4 6 5

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-12

Next steps

„ Read Examples 1 and 5 only

„ Work problems 7-13, odds; 71-76, all from p.
125 in text
„ Do online homework for Sec . 3.3
„ Do online quiz for 3.2 and 3.3

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-13