Biconditional

G7 & G8
 Recognizing
Biconditional
Statements
 Recognizing Biconditional Statements

A biconditional statement is a statement combing a conditional

statement with its converse. So, one conditional is true if and only if
the other is true as well. It often uses the words, "if and only if" or the
shorthand "iff." It uses the double arrow to remind you that the
conditional must be true in both directions.

truth table
Sometimes, it is easier to write the
truth value (whether something is
true or false) for each statement and
then compare the values in a truth
table. This table helps evaluate a
logical statement.

Taking our original biconditional statement:

"You will read carefully to the end of this article if and only if you are
interested in reviewing converse statements, compound statements,
and truth tables in order to understand what a true biconditional
statement is."

Here’s the p in the statement: "You will read carefully on to the end
of this article." (Don't worry, you're close).

Here’s the q: "You are interested in reviewing converse statements,

compound statements, and truth tables in order to understand what
a true biconditional statement is."
Let's show the truth options for p, q, and the overall statement in a
table:

Biconditional statement: Truth table

Individually, p and q can be either true or false, giving us four

possible truth value combinations. The two middle lines are
counterexamples to the logical biconditional, saying, "You read
carefully to the end but you are NOT interested in reviewing
converse statements, compound statements, and truth tables" and
"You did not read carefully to the end but you are interested in
reviewing converse statements, compound statements, and truth
tables."
The first and last support the logical biconditional. The
first statement proves the biconditional. It says, "You
read carefully to the end and you are interested in
reviewing converse statements, compound
statements, and truth tables." But the last statement
does not disprove the biconditional because it doesn't
say anything about the condition at all. In translation,
it means, "You do not read carefully to the end and
you are not interested in reviewing converse
statements, compound statements, and truth tables."
Thank You