CSC102:Discrete Structure

Instructor : Khurram Iqbal

Department of Computer Science

COMSATS University, Islamabad
Recap

Lecture No 4

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 Propositional Logic

 Propositional logic is
 the study of propositions (true or false statements)
and
 The ways of combining them (logical operators) to
get new propositions.

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 Review: Propositional Logic

 Atomic propositions: p, q, r, …
 Boolean operators:      
 Compound propositions: s  (p  q)  r
 Equivalences: pq  (p  q)
 Proving equivalences using:
 Truth tables.
 Symbolic derivations. p  q  r …

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 Valid and Invalid Arguments

 An argument (form) is a sequence of

statements (statement forms).
 All statements (statement forms) but the last are
called premises, hypotheses, or assumptions.
 The last statement (form) is called the
conclusion.
 The conclusion is preceded by “” (said
“therefore”).
 An argument (form) is valid if whenever its
premises are true, then its conclusion is also
true.
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 Testing an Argument Form for Validity

 Identify the premises and conclusion of the

argument form.
 Construct a truth table showing the truth values
of all the premises and the conclusion.
 A row of the truth table in which all the
premises are true is called a critical row.

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 Testing an Argument Form for Validity

 If there is a critical row in which the conclusion

is false, then it is possible for an argument of the
given form to have true premises and a false
conclusion, and so the argument form is invalid. If
the conclusion in every critical row is true, then
the argument form is valid.

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Additional Valid Argument Forms: Rule of Inference

A rule of inference is a form of argument that

is valid.

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 Today Covered

After completing this lecture you will be able to

understand:
 The Logic of Quantified Statements
 Predicates and Quantified Statements

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 Why not Propositional Logic?

 Consider the statements that we encountered in

mathematics, computer programs, and in
system specifications such as:
 p: n is an odd integer.
 q: computer x is under attack by an intruder
 r: computer y is functioning properly.
 These statements are neither true nor false
when the values of the variables are not
specified.

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 Predicate Logic

 Therefore, the propositional logic, studied so far,

cannot adequately express the meaning of all
statements in mathematics and computer
science.
 Since most of the statements in mathematics
and computer science use variables, we must
extend the system of logic to include such
statements.
 In this lecture we will introduce a more powerful
type of logic called predicate logic

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 Predicate

 To understand predicate logic, we first need to

introduce the concept of a predicate.
 A predicate(a.k.a propositional function) is
a sentence that contains a finite number of
variables and becomes a statement when specific
values are substituted for the variables.
 Anatomy of Predicate:

P(x) = x + 5 > x

variable predicate

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 Propositional Function

 Consider P(x) = x < 5

 P(x) has no truth values (x is not given a value)
 P(1) is true
 The proposition 1<5 is true
 P(10) is false
 The proposition 10<5 is false
 Thus, P(x) will create a proposition when given
a value

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 Propositional Function

 Let P(x) = “x is a multiple of 5”

 For what values of x is P(x) true?
 Let P(x) = x+1 > x
 For what values of x is P(x) true?
 The set of all values that may be substituted in
place of the variable is called domain of a
predicate variable.

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 Propositional Function

 Functions with multiple variables:

 P(x,y) = x + y == 0
 P(1,2) is false, P(1,-1) is true

 P(x,y,z) = x + y == z
 P(3,4,5) is false, P(1,2,3) is true

 P(x1,x2,x3 … xn) = …

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 Example

 Let A(c,n): “computer c is connected to

network n”
 Suppose that the computer MATH1 is connected
to network CAMPUS2, but not to network
CAMPUS1
 What are the truth values of
 A(MATH1, CAMPUS1) and
 A(MATH1, CAMPUS2) ?

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 Your Turn

 Let Q(x, y, z): x2 + y2 = z2.

 What is the truth value of Q(3, 4, 5)?
 What is the truth value of Q(2, 2, 3)?
 How many values of (x, y, z) make the predicate
true?

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 UPSHOT

Let P(x) be a statement involving the variable x and

let D be a set. We call P a predicate (with respect to D)
or propositional function if for each x ∈ D, P(x) is a
proposition. We call D the domain of discourse of P.

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 Quantifiers

 A predicate becomes a proposition when we

assign it fixed values.
 However, another way to make a predicate
into a proposition is to quantify it.
 Consider the following statements:
 All people are mortal
 Every computer is a 16 bit-machine
 No birds are black
 Some people have blue eyes
 There exist an even prime number.

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 Quantifiers

 Consider the following statements:

 All people are mortal
 Every computer is a 16 bit-machine
 No birds are black
 Some people have blue eyes
 There exist an even prime number.
 Each contains a word indicating the quantity
such as all, every, none, some, and one.
 Such words, called quantifiers, gives us an idea
about how many objects have a certain
property.
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 Quantifiers

 Quantifiers are words that refer to quantities

such as "some" or "all" and tell for how many
elements a given predicate is true.
 That is, the predicate is true (or false) for all
possible values in the universe of discourse or for
some value(s) in the universe of discourse.

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 Quantifier

 A quantifier is “an operator that limits the

variables of a proposition”
 Two types:
 Universal
 Which tell us that a predicate is true for every element
under consideration.
 Existential
 Which tell us that there is one or more element under
consideration for which the predicate is true.

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 Universal Quantifier

 Represented by an upside-down A: 
 It means “for all”, “for each”, “for every”
 If the universe of discourse is finite, say {n1, n2, . . ,
nk}, then the universal quantifier is simply the
conjunction of all elements:

 We can state the following:

 x P(x)
 English translation: “for all values of x, P(x) is true”
 Let P(x) = x+1 > x
 English translation: “for all values of x, x+1>x is
true”
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 Universal Quantifier

 But is that always true?

 x P(x)
 Let x = the character ‘a’
 Is ‘a’+1 > ‘a’?
 Let x = the city of Pakistan
 Is x+1 > x?
 You need to specify your universe!
 What values x can represent
 Called the “domain” or “universe of discourse” by the
textbook

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 Universal Quantifier

 In order to prove that a universal quantification

is true, it must be shown for ALL cases

 In order to prove that a universal quantification

is false, it must be shown to be false for only
ONE case

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 Universal Quantifier

 Think of  as a for loop:

 x P(x), where 1 ≤ x ≤ 10 … can be translated as …

for ( x = 1; x <= 10; x++ )

is P(x) true?

 If P(x) is true for all parts of the for loop, then x P(x)
 Consequently, if P(x) is false for any one value of the for loop,
then x P(x) is false

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 Existential Quantifier

 Represented by an backwards E: 
 It means “there exists a”, “some”, for at least one
 If the universe of discourse is finite, say {n1, n2, . . ,
nk}, then the universal quantifier is simply the
disjunction of all elements:

 We can state the following:

 x P(x)
 English translation: “there exists (a value of) x such
that P(x) is true”
 Let P(x) = x+1 > x
 English translation: “for at least one value of x,
x+1>x is true”
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 Existential Quantifier

 Note that you still have to specify your universe

 Let P(x) = x+1 < x
 There is no numerical value x for which x+1<x
 Thus, x P(x) is false
 Let P(x) = x+1 > x
 There is a numerical value for which x+1>x
 In fact, it’s true for all of the values of x!
 Thus, x P(x) is true

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 Existential Quantifier

 In order to show an existential quantification is

true, you only have to find ONE value
 In order to show an existential quantification is
false, you have to show it’s false for ALL values

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 UPSHOT

 Recall that P(x) is a propositional function

 Let P(x) be “x == 0”
 Recall that a proposition is a statement that is either
true or false
 P(x) is not a proposition
 There are two ways to make a propositional function
into a proposition:
 Supply it with a value
 For example, P(5) is false, P(0) is true
 Provide a quantification
 For example, x P(x) is false and x P(x) is true
 Let the universe of discourse be the real numbers

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 UPSHOT

Truth Values of Quantifiers

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 Negating Quantified Expressions

 Consider the statement:

 All students in this class have red hair
 What is required to show the statement is false?
 There exists a student in this class that does NOT
have red hair
 To negate a universal quantification:
 You negate the propositional function
 AND you change to an existential quantification
 ¬x P(x)  x ¬P(x)

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 Your Turn

 Write the negation of the statement

 “Every student in your class has taken a course in
calculus.”
 Let P(x) :“x has taken a course in calculus”
 and the domain consists of the students in your
class.
 Now the given statement is a universal
quantification, namely, ∀xP(x),
 The negation of this statement is:
 “There is a student in your class who has not
taken a course in calculus.” ∃x ￢ P(x).
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 Negating Quantified Expressions

 Consider the statement:

 There is a student in this class with red hair
 What is required to show the statement is false?
 All students in this class do not have red hair
 Thus, to negate an existential quantification:
 You negate the propositional function
 AND you change to a universal quantification
 ¬x P(x) = x ¬P(x)

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 Your Turn

 Negate the following statement:

 “There is a student in this class who has taken a
course in calculus.”
 Let Q(x) :“x has taken a course in calculus
 This is the existential quantification ∃xQ(x)
 The negation of this statement is the
proposition
 Every student in this class has not taken
calculus
∀x ￢ Q(x).

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 Upshot

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Translating from English into Logical Expressions

 From Book

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