Logic and Mathematical

Statements
Worked Examples
Negation
Sometimes in mathematics it's important to determine what the
opposite of a given mathematical statement is. This is usually
referred to as "negating" a statement. One thing to keep in mind is
that if a statement is true, then its negation is false (and if a
statement is false, then its negation is true).

Let's take a look at some of the most common negations.

Negation of "A or B".

Before giving the answer, let's try to do this for an example.

Consider the statement "You are either rich or happy." For this
statement to be false, you can't be rich and you can't been happy.
In other words, the opposite is to be not rich and not happy. Or if we
rewrite it in terms of the original statement we get "You are not rich
and not happy."

If we let A be the statement "You are rich" and B be the statement

"You are happy", then the negation of "A or B" becomes "Not A and
Not B."

In general, we have the same statement: The negation of "A or B" 3/20/22,
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 the statement "Not A and Not B."

Negation of "A and B".

Again, let's analyze an example first.

Consider the statement "I am both rich and happy." For this
statement to be false I could be either not rich or not happy. If we
let A be the statement "I am rich" and B be the statement "I am
happy", then the negation of "A and B" becomes "I am not rich or I
am not happy" or "Not A or Not B".

Negation of "If A, then B".

To negate a statement of the form "If A, then B" we should replace

it with the statement "A and Not B". This might seem confusing at
first, so let's take a look at a simple example to help understand
why this is the right thing to do.

Consider the statement "If I am rich, then I am happy." For this

statement to be false, I would need to be rich and not happy. If A is
the statement "I am rich" and B is the statement "I am happy,", then
the negation of "A B" is "I am rich" = A, and "I am not happy" =
not B.

So the negation of "if A, then B" becomes "A and not B".

Example.
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 Now let's consider a statement involving some mathematics. Take
the statement "If n is even, then n2 is an integer." For this statement
to be false, we would need to find an even integer n for which n2
was not an integer. So the opposite of this statement is the
statement that "n is even and n2 is not an integer."

Negation of "For every ...", "For all ...", "There exists

..."

Sometimes we encounter phrases such as "for every," "for any,"

"for all" and "there exists" in mathematical statements.

Example.

Consider the statement "For all integers n, either n is even or n is

odd". Although the phrasing is a bit different, this is a statement of
the form "If A, then B." We can reword this sentence as follows: "If n
is any integer, then either n is even or n is odd."

How would we negate this statement? For this statement to be

false, all we would need is to find a single integer which is not even
and not odd. In other words, the negation is the statement "There
exists an integer n, so that n is not even and n is not odd."

In general, when negating a statement involving "for all," "for every",

the phrase "for all" gets replaced with "there exists." Similarly, when
negating a statement involving "there exists", the phrase "there
exists" gets replaced with "for every" or "for all."

Example. Negate the statement "If all rich people

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 are happy, then all poor people are sad."

First, this statement has the form "If A, then B", where A is the
statement "All rich people are happy" and B is the statement "All
poor people are sad." So the negation has the form "A and not B."
So we will need to negate B. The negation of the statement B is
"There exists a poor person who is not sad."

Putting this together gives: "All rich people are happy, but there
exists a poor person who is not sad" as the negation of "If all rich
people are happy, then all poor people are sad."

Summary.

Statement Negation
"A or B" "not A and not B"
"A and B" "not A or not B"
"if A, then B" "A and not B"
"For all x, A(x)" "There exist x such that not A(x)"
"There exists x such that A(x)" "For every x, not A(x)"

Some simple equivalences

Sometimes in mathematics it is useful to replace one statement
with a different, but equivalent one. Take for example the statement
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 "If is even, then \frac{n}{2} is an integer." An equivalent statement is
"If \frac{n}{2} is not an integer, then n is not even." The original
statement had the form "If A, then B" and the second one had the
form "If not B, then not A." (Here A is the statement "n is even", so
"not A" is the statement "n is not even", and B is the statement
"\frac{n}{2} is an integer" so "not B" is the statement "\frac{n}{2} is
not an integer.")

This is an often useful equivalence: "If A, then B" is equivalent to

the statement "If not B, then not A".

We saw in the last section that negation of the statement "If A, then
B" is the equivalent to the statement "A and not B".

Example. Consider the statement "If all rich people

are happy, then all poor people are sad." Write down
an equivalent statement of the form "If Not B, then
Not A".

Letting A be the statement "All rich people are happy" and B be the
statement "All poor people are sad." we get:

"If there exists a poor person who is not sad, then there exists a rich
person who is not happy."

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