Chapter 1A - Logic

1A.1 - Statements
A statement can be either true or false. For example, the Riemann Hypothesis is the greatest unsolved problem
in mathematics and it is a statement, we just don't know whether it is true or false yet. For a more down to earth
example,
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for all x ∈ R, x > 0

is a statement. Is it true or false?

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Taken alone, x > 0 is a statement which is conditional on x , it can only be judged true or false once we know
what x is. We used a statement of this form when defining subsets, for example we could form the subset of all
real numbers whose square is greater than 0 .
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{x ∈ R ∣ x > 0}.

1A.2 - Compound statements

If P and Q are both statements then we can form new statements.

(P  and Q) is the statement that both P and Q are true.

(P  or Q) is the statement that at least one of P or Q is true.

We sometimes use the notation P ∧ Q for P  and Q and P ∨ Q for P  or Q . There's another way to build a
new statement, the negation of a statement P , is written ¬P and is true if P is false and false if P is true.

Question - What effect do the operations ∧, ∨ and ¬ have in membership tests?

1A.3 - Quantifiers
If a statement P (x) depends on x then we can only say whether P is true or false once we know what x is.
However we can convert P (x) into a new statement using a quantifier. There are two main examples

(for all x ∈ A)P (x)

and

(there exists x ∈ A)P (x).

The first is true only if P (x) is true for every element x ∈ A . The second is true if P (x) is true for at least one
element x ∈ A.

There is shorthand notation for these quantifiers, (for all x ∈ A) is written ∀x ∈ A and
(there exists x ∈ A) is written ∃x ∈ A .
1A.4 - Implication
If P and Q are statements, then one can form the statement P  implies Q (also written P ⇒ Q ). The
statement P ⇒ Q is true either if P is false, or when both P and Q are true. For example

(for all x ∈ R)(x > 2) ⇒ (x > 0).

An important statement which is always true is

(P ∧ (P ⇒ Q)) ⇒ Q.

This says that if P is true and P implies Q is true, then Q is true.

For two statements P and Q , if P ⇒ Q and Q ⇒ P then we say that P is equivalent to Q , written P ≡ Q .

Question - What effect does the operation ⇒ have on membership tests?

1A.5 - Some important identities

double negative, ¬(¬P ) ≡ P

¬(P ∧ Q) ≡ (¬P ) ∨ (¬Q)

contrapositive, P ⇒ Q ≡ (¬Q) ⇒ (¬P )

¬(P ⇒ Q) ≡ P ∧ ¬Q

1A.6 - Proof by contradiction

If we want to prove a statement P , it's often easier to start by assuming the negation ¬P and then working to
find a contradiction. If we can find a contradiction then this means that ¬P can't be true and hence P must be
true. Proceeding in this way is called proof by contradiction.

When trying to prove a statement of the form P ⇒ Q by contradiction we first take the negation which is
P ∧ ¬Q and so assume that P is true and Q is false and then work to find a contradiction.

For example, to prove (x2 > 0) ⇒ (x ≠ 0) , we assume that x2 > 0 and that x = 0 . Taking this second
assumption and squaring we find that x2 = 0. But both x2 = 0 and x2 > 0 can't be true, hence we have
reached a contradiction. So we have proved (x2 > 0) ⇒ (x ≠ 0) .

1A.7 - Proof by induction

We use induction when trying to prove families of statements P (n) , where n is a natural number. It may be
quite hard to prove a single statement on its own, but induction can help us prove all at once. It suffices to first
prove

the base case n = a , where usually a = 0, 1 or 2 , and then

the inductive step, P (n) ⇒ P (n + 1) for all n ≥ a .

With these two statements proved, the principle of induction states that

(for all n ≥ a) P (n).

i.e. that P (n) is true for all n greater than or equal to the base case a .