PREVIEW

• 1.4: PREDICATES and QUANTIFIERS

– Predicates
– The universal and existential quantifiers
– universe of discourse, scope of quantifiers
– quantifiers with restricted domains
– precedence of quantifiers
– binding variables
– logical equivalence with quantifiers
– negating quantified expressions
– translating from English to logical expressions
• 1.5: NESTED QUANTIFIERS
– more translations
– negating nested quantifiers

HONOUR HOMEWORK: To be done before next week’s tutorials.

7th edition:
• Section 1.4 : #7, 9, 11, 15, 51.
• Section 1.5 : #1, 9, 11, 27, 31.
8th (current) edition:
• Section 1.4 : #7, 9, 11, 15, 53.
• Section 1.5 : #1, 9, 11, 27, 31.
CSCI2110/MATH2080 F19 Propositional Logic 1 Section 1.4 Page 2 of 7
1. LOGIC AND PROOFS
1.4. Predicates and Quantifiers. The motivation here is that propositional logic
is ill-equipped to handle common statements in Math or Computer Science.
“Every non-zero real number has a unique multiplicative inverse”

• A statement involving the variables x1 , x2 , . . . , xn is an n-ary predicate.

Example 1. Let P(x) denote “x is an even integer".

• The set of all possible values of xi is called the universe (or domain) of
discourse of xi .
Example 2. For P(x) defined above, universe of discourse Ux

• The universal quantifier of a predicate P(x) is the statement asserting

P(x) is true for all possible x in the universe of discourse.
Example 3. Again, with P(x) and Ux as above, ∀x P(x) denotes

• The existential quantifier of a predicate P(x) is the statement asserting

there exists (at least) one element x in the universe of discourse for which
P(x) holds true.
Example 4. ∃x P(x) denotes
CSCI2110/MATH2080 F19 Propositional Logic 1 Section 1.4 Page 3 of 7

When True? When False?

∀xP(x)

∃xP(x)

• Quantifiers with restricted domains

Example 5.

• The scope of a quantifier refers to the part of the expression to which the
quantifier applies.
• The ∀, ∃ quantifiers take precedence over all logical operators from propo-
sitional calculus.
• A variable is said to be bound if a quantifier is used on it, free if not bound
by a quantifier or set equal to a particular value.
Example 6. Consider ∀x P(x) ∧ Q(x)
CSCI2110/MATH2080 F19 Propositional Logic 1 Section 1.4 Page 4 of 7
• Logical Equivalences Involving Quantifiers
Statements involving predicates and quantifiers are logically equivalent
if and only if they have the same truth value no matter which predicates
are substituted into these statements and which domain of discourse is
used for the variables in these propositional functions.

Example 7. (1) ∀x(P(x) ∧ Q(x)) ≡ ∀xP(x) ∧ ∀xQ(x)

(2) Are ∀x(P(x) ∨ Q(x)) and ∀xP(x) ∨ ∀xQ(x) logically equivalent?

• Negating quantified expressions

DeMorgan Laws:
¬∀xP(x) ≡ ∃x¬P(x)
¬∃xP(x) ≡ ∀x¬P(x)
CSCI2110/MATH2080 F19 Propositional Logic 1 Section 1.4 Page 5 of 7
• Translating from English to Logical Expressions

Example 8. Express the following using predicates and quantifiers

(1) “Every student in this class has studied calculus.”

(2) “All cats like cream.”

(3) “If anyone can do it, Jones can.”

CSCI2110/MATH2080 F19 Propositional Logic 1 Section 1.5 Page 6 of 7
1.5. Nested Quantifiers.

When True? When False?

∀x∀yP(x, y )
∀y ∀xP(x, y )

∀x∃yP(x, y )

∃x∀yP(x, y )

∃x∃yP(x, y )
∃y ∃xP(x, y )

TRANSLATING FROM ENGLISH TO QUANTIFIED EXPRESSIONS

Example 9. Translate the following into quantified expressions using the predi-
cate L(x, y) : “x loves y” where the universe of discourse for x, y is the set of all
people.

(1) “Everybody loves Jerry.”

(2) “Everybody loves somebody.”

CSCI2110/MATH2080 F19 Propositional Logic 1 Section 1.5 Page 7 of 7
(3) “There are exactly two people that Lynn loves.”

TRANSLATING INTO ENGLISH

Example 10. Translate the mathematical statement into simple English (uni-
verse of discourse for x, y is the set of real numbers):

∀x∀y[((x ≥ 0) ∧ (y ≥ 0)) −→ (xy ≥ 0)]

PUSHING NEGATION THROUGH NESTED QUANTIFIERS

It is generally preferable to avoid having negations to the left of a quantifier
Example 11. Negate the expression: ∃x∀y(P(x) ∧ ¬Q(x, y))