Logic

3 LOGIC
There are some formulas whose truth values are always True or always False regardless of the truth
value assigned to the variables. The negation of tautology is contradiction and vice-versa. The
knowledge on the simplification of proposition will aid in determining validity of the argument faster
than the use of Truth Table and the use of Laws of Logic (inference rules), which can be used to
construct more complicated valid argument forms. This module will teach you how to establish the
validity of arguments and simplify compound propositions using Laws of Logic.

Objectives:

After completing this module, you should be able to:

1. Convert tautology statements to contradiction and vice-versa.

2. Establish the logical equivalence of propositions using De Morgan’s Laws.
3. Apply the Laws of Logic to simplify compound propositions.

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Tautologies and Contradictions

 Tautology is a statement that is always true regardless of the truth values of the individual
logical variables.

Example:

R  (R)

(P  Q)  (P)  (Q)

If S  T is a tautology, we write S  T.

If S  T is a tautology, we write S  T.

A contradiction is a statement that is always false regardless of the truth values of the
individual logical variables.

Example:

R  (R)

((P  Q)  (P)  (Q))

The negation of any tautology is a contradiction, and the negation of any contradiction is
a tautology.

Logical Equivalence

 Two proposition forms are called logically equivalent if and only if they have identical truth
values for each possible substitution of propositions for their proposition variable.

The logical equivalence of proposition forms P and Q is written

P≡Q

Equivalence of Two Compound Propositions

1. Construct the truth table for P.

2. Construct the truth table for Q using the same proposition variables for identical component
propositions.

3. Check each combination of truth values of the proposition variables to see whether the
truth value of P is the same as the truth value of Q.

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Equivalence Check

1. If in each row the truth value of P is the same as the truth value of Q, then P and Q are
logically equivalent.

2. If in some row P has a different truth value from Q, then P and Q are not logically equivalent.

Example:

Prove that ¬ (¬p) ≡ p

Solution:

The corresponding truth values of p and ¬ (¬p) are same, hence equivalence is justified.

Exercise

Show that the proposition forms ¬(p  q) and ¬p  ¬q are NOT logically equivalent.

De Morgan’s laws

 De Morgan’s laws state that: The negation of a proposition is logically equivalent to the
proposition in which each component is negated.

Symbolically (De Morgan’s Laws)

¬(p  q) ≡ ¬p ¬q

¬(p  q) ≡ ¬p  ¬q

Example:

Negate the following compound propositions:

John is six feet tall and he weights at least 200 pounds.

The bus was late or Tom’s watch was slow.

Solution:

John is not six feet tall or he weighs less than 200 pounds.

The bus was not late and Tom’s watch was not slow.

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Inequalities and De Morgan’s Laws

Example:

Use De Morgan’s laws to write the negation of

-1< x ≤ 4

Solution:

The given proposition is equivalent to

-1< x and x ≤ 4

By De Morgan’s laws, the negation is

-1 ≥ x or x > 4.

Tautology

 A tautology is a proposition form that is always true regardless of the truth values of the
individual propositions substituted for its proposition variables.
 A proposition whose form is a tautology is called a tautological proposition.

Contradiction

 A contradiction is a proposition form that is always false regardless of the truth values of the
individual propositions substituted for its proposition variables.
 A proposition whose form is a contradiction is called a contradictory proposition.

Example:

Show that the proposition form p U ¬p is a tautology and the proposition form p ∩ ¬p is a
contradiction.

Exercise

Show that the proposition form r  s ≡ r is a tautology and the proposition form r  s ≡ s is a
contradiction.

Laws of Logic

 T denotes the compound proposition that is always

true and F denotes the compound proposition that
is always false

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Simplification of Compound Propositions

Example:

prove that ⌐(⌐p  q)  (p  q) ≡ p

Solution:

⌐(⌐p  q)  (p  q) ≡ (⌐(⌐p)  ⌐q)  (p  q) De Morgan’s Laws

(⌐(⌐p)  ⌐q)  (p  q) ≡ (p  ⌐q)  (p  q) Double Negation Law

(p  ⌐q)  (p  q) ≡ p  (⌐q  q) Distributive Law

p  (⌐q  q) ≡ p  (q  ⌐q) Commutative Law

p  (q  ⌐q) ≡ p  F Negation Law

pF≡p Identity Law

Exercise

Prove that

￢(p  (￢p  q)) ≡ ￢p ￢(￢p  q)

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References:

1. Kenneth H. Rosen. Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, 7th Edition. McGrawHill, 2012
2. Gary Weiss Damian Lyons, et al., Fundamentals of Discrete Structures, 2nd edition, Pearson
Learning Solutions, 2012.
3. Susanna S. Epp, Discrete Mathematics with Applications, Brooks Cole; 4th edition, 2011.
4. James L. Hein, Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability, 3rd edition, Jones & Bartlett
Publishers, 3rd edition, 2009.
5. Kolman, B., Busby, R. C., Ross, S. C. Discrete Mathematical Structures, 6th Edition. Prentice Hall,
2008.

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