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Elementary Logic

What information do we have to


put in the last equation?

How did you come up with your


final answer?

1
Elementary Logic
Logic is the discipline that considers the methods
of reasoning.
•allows us to determine the validity of arguments
in and out of mathematics
•used to prove theorems in mathematics
•used to prove the correctness of programs in
computer science
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Elementary Logic
A proposition is a declarative statement that is either true or false but
not both.
A logical connective (or operator) is a word or symbol that joins or
connects two statements to form a new one called a compound
statement.
Operator Symbol Statement Read as
Conjunction  pq p and q
Disjunction  pq p or q
Conditional → 𝑝→𝑞 p implies q or if p then q
Biconditional ↔ 𝑝 ↔𝑞 p iff q or p if and only if q

3
Elementary Logic
Let p: Today is Monday and q: I will go to school.
How do you read the following: p  q , p  q , 𝑝 → 𝑞 and 𝑝 ↔ 𝑞?

4
Elementary Logic
Negation uses the symbol ¬ (or ) which means “not”. If
statement p is to be negated, we write it as ¬ p to be read as
“not of p” or “not p” or “it is not the case that p is…” Thus,
“I will not go to school” in symbols is ¬ q.

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Exercises
Find the negations of the
following propositions.
(a) p: "2+2 = 4" (e) p: "There is life on Mars."
(b) q: "1 = 0"
(c) r: "Diamonds are a pearl's (f) p: "All lacrosse players are
best friend." tall."
(d) s: "All the politicians in this (g) p: "My computer has some
town are crooks." new software."

6
Elementary Logic
The following are important
conditional statements :
Given: p →q
Converse: q→p
Inverse: ¬ p→ ¬ q
Contrapositive: ¬ q → ¬ p

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Elementary Logic
Let p: Today is Monday and q: I will go to school.
How do you read the following: q → p, ¬ p→ ¬ q, ¬ q → ¬ p

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Elementary Logic
Some important negations:
 ( p)  p
 ( p  q)   p  q
 ( p  q )   p  q
 ( p  q)  p  q
( p  q)  p  q
Note that the symbol ≡ (or may use  ) are read as “is logically equivalent to”.

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