Immaculate Conception - I College of Arts and Technology

MATHEMATICS FOR THE MODERN WORLD

LESSON 2 Week 3

Topics: Mathematical Language and Symbols

Mathematical Logic

At the end of the lesson, the students would be able to:

➢ Employ mathematical language appropriately in speaking and writing mathematical
ideas.
➢ Discuss logical connectives and its application
➢ Construct a truth value for a given compound statement
➢ Express propositional logic symbol in an English sentence and vice versa.

MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE
• is a system of communication about objects like numbers, variables, sets, operations,
functions, and equations
• is a collection of both symbols and their meaning shared by a global community of people who
have an interest in the subject
• is a universal language, the only one shared by all human beings regardless of culture,
religion, or gender. Not everyone can be proficient in English, French, Chinese, or Japanese
but most possess math literacy. This shared language called numeracy connects people
across continents and through time.

ELEMENTS OF THE MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE

Mathematics uses many of symbols. There are the ten digits (0, 1, 2, …, 9), symbols for
operations (+, – , ×, ÷), symbols that represent values (x, y, z, etc.) and many other special symbols
( =, <, ≤,  , etc.). We use a, b, c for constants (fixed values) and x, y, z for variables (unknowns).

Logic – is the basis of all mathematical reasoning, and of all automated reasoning. It has practical
applications to the design of computing machines, to the specification of systems, to artificial
intelligence etc.
Propositional Logic or PL – is a part of logic which deals with statements that are either true or
false (but not both) called proposition.
Proposition – is a declarative sentence that is either true or false, but not both.
Examples: 1. Quezon City is the capital of the Philippines.
2. Discrete Mathematics is an easy course.
3. 3 + 5 = 8.
4. 3 + 3 = 4
Proposition 1, 2, 3 are true, whereas 4 is false.

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 Immaculate Conception - I College of Arts and Technology
MATHEMATICS FOR THE MODERN WORLD

Logical Connectives – a sentence that maybe either a (single) proposition or a compound

proposition.

Compound Proposition – is formed by combining propositions.

– to be able to form compound propositions, we use basic logical connectives:
not, and, if-then, if-and only –if

NAME SYMBOL SYNTAX VERBAL FORM EQUIVALENT TERM

Not ¬ or ~ ¬P not P Negation
And  PQ P and Q Conjunction
Or  P  Q/ P  Q P or Q Disjunction
If-then → P→Q If P then Q or Conditional/ Implication
P implies Q
If-and only-if  PQ P if and only if Q Bi-conditional

Table 1
Truth Table for the Negation of a Proposition
p ¬p
T F
F T
Example:
The negation of the proposition “ Leni is
simple” is “ Leni is not simple”.

Table 2
Truth Table for the Conjunction of Two Proposition Example:
p q p q Let p = “Duterte is a joker.”
T T T q = “He is a communist.”
T F F Therefore: p  q = “Duterte is a joker and
F T F he is a communist.”
F F F

Table 3
Truth Table for the Disjunction of Two Proposition Example:
p q p q Let p = “Mar is an activist.”
T T T q = “Grace is a loyalist.”
T F T Therefore: p  q = “Mar is an activist or
F T T Grace is a loyalist.”
F F F

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 Immaculate Conception - I College of Arts and Technology
MATHEMATICS FOR THE MODERN WORLD

Table 4
Truth Table for Implication/ Conditional Statement Example:
P q p→q Let p = “Mar is an activist.”
T T T q = “Grace is a loyalist.”
Therefore: p → q = “If Mar is an activist
T F F
then Grace is a loyalist.”
F T T
F F T

Table 5
Truth Table for Bi-conditional Statement
P Q p→q q→p (p → q)  (q → p)  p  q
T T T T T
T F F T F
F T T F F
F F T T T

Example: Marcos is a communist if and only if he declares Martial

Law.