Lecture 2

Propositional Logic

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 Motivation

• Suppose that your final marks in this course is 80%

• You told your marks to your friend
• Then you asked your friend, what is his marks?
• He got 95% and was little shy to tell you that because he
got much higher marks than you
• So he said, at least 80% 95% is
at least 80% ✓
• Is your friend saying truth or false?
• Remember from Lecture 1, “at least” means same or
more (≥)
• So, he is actually telling the truth, because 95% ≥ 80%
• This is a very simple example of propositional logic

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 Proposition

• Proposition is a statement that is either true or false

(not both) at the time when the statement is made
• “True” and “false” are called truth values
• Note that, “false” is also a truth value
• Example: The statement “2 - 2 = 0” is a proposition,
because its truth value is true truth values
• Example: “4 + 3 = -7” is a proposition with truth are
“true”, “false”
value false
• Example: “4 + x = 9” is not a proposition, because we
do not know the value of x. Based on x, it may be true
or false
• Example: Similarly, “x + y = z” is not a proposition

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 Proposition

• Example:
• “Today is Friday” is a proposition
• Because, its truth value is either true or false
• The truth value will be decided by the
moment/time the statement is made Proposition?
• If it is made in a Friday, then it is true • Today is Friday ✓
• If it is made in another day, then it is false • x+4 = 9 
• Observe that, this example is different from the
example “x+4=9” in the previous slide
• Because, in this example, “today” is not like x. Unlike x,
“today” cannot have different values at a moment

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 Proposition

• Example:
• “Solve this problem” is not a proposition
• Because, it does not have any truth value Proposition?
• It is an order or instruction • Do this job 
• It can have an outcome, such as • I did this job ✓
• the problem is solved • Don’t do this 
• the problem was tried but not finished
• He did this ✓
• do nothing, just ignore the order
• etc.
• true or false is not a value of this statement
• Actually, truth value is meaningless for this
statement

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 Proposition?
Proposition • How is he? 
• He is fine ✓
• Who is he? 
• Example: • He is Osman ✓
• “What is your name?” is not a proposition
• Because, it is a question
• It has an answer, but it does not have a truth value
• The answer can be like this: “My name is Azad”
• True or false cannot be a value of this question
• Observe that (similarly in the previous example)
• The answer “My name is Azad” can itself be
true or false
• So, “My name is Azad” has a truth value
• But that does not give a truth value of the
original question “What is your name?”

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 Proposition

• Exercise: For each of the following statement, decide

whether it is a proposition or not. Give reason (why?)
of your answer
• 5+0=5
• My name is not Mubarak Proposition?
• Where do you live? • He is tall
• 4+x>x • x+4 > x
• Hasan and Hossain are brothers • He is lying
• Exercise: It is difficult to decide whether the following
statements are proposition or not. You can try yourself
• I am not saying the truth
• This statement is false

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 Compound Propositions

• So far, we have seen a single statement which may be a

proposition or not
• However, most of the time logical statements are
combination of one or more propositions with logical 
operators 
• Those statements are called compound propositions
• There are five basic logical operators: 
• not () →
• and ()
• or () }
• Implication (→)
This lecture


• Bi-conditional () } Involved. So, a separate lecture

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 Not ()

• Not means negative, negation, opposite

• It makes true to false, and false to true
• P and “not P” are same
• If P is a proposition, then P is the negative of P
• Example: Suppose that P is “Today is Friday”
• Then, P is “Today is not Friday” true = false
• Example: Suppose that P is “Today is Friday” false = true
• Suppose that today (during this lecture) is Sunday
• So, P is false and P is true
• Here, “Sunday” is true means “not Friday” is true
• Exercise: Repeat the above examples with P: “His age is
19”

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 Not ()

• Example: Consider P: “His car is white”

• Negation of P (P) is: “His car is not white”
• It can also be written in this way: “It is not true that
his car is white”
• Observe that “His car is black” is not a correct white
negation of P
=
• Because, there can be many other colors, such as
blue, green, red, etc. that are not white not white
• So, writing “black” is not enough
• Writing “not white” is enough, because it covers all
other colors
• Exercise: Write the negation of “His car is not white”

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 Not ()

• Example: Negative of “at least”

• Remember, “at least” means same or more (≥)
• So, negative of “at least” is less (<)
• Note: “at most” is not the negative of “at least”
• Example: Negation of P: “His mark is at least 80”
• Here, P is true or false based on term “at least” (≥) is <
• P is true if the mark is 80 or more, like: 80, 85, 88, … (≤) is >
• P is false if the mark is less than 80, like: 79, 2, 5, …
• So, P is: “His marks are less than 80”
• Exercise: Write the negative of “His mark is at most 90”
• Exercise: Why “at most” is not the negative of “at
least”?

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 Not ()

• Example: Suppose that P is: 3+4 = 8

• Then, P is: 3+4  8
• Here, P was false. Now, P is true
• Observe that, in the above example, P cannot be true = false
written as 3+4=7, 4+4=8, 3+3=6, etc.,--- although all of false = true
them are true
• Because, there can be many such true statements. 3+4
 8 covers all of them. So, writing 3+4  8 is enough
• Exercise: Write the negative of the following
propositions
• 3+4 = 7
• 3+4  7

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 Double Negation

• “Not” can be applied as many times as you want

• If it is applied two times, then it is called double negation
• A double negation cancels each other, like minus minus is
plus
• Example: P = P
• P is P
P = P
• P is P
• Example: P = P
• Suppose that P is: “He is good”
• Double negation of P (P) is: “He is good”
• Logically “He is not not good” is the correct answer.
But in English it is not a good way to write “not not”

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 Truth Table

• Truth table is a convenient way to understand how

the truth values of a compound proposition can be
achieved from given propositions
Truth Table
• For P, the truth table is created as follows:
for
• In this table, P is given, and P is to be calculated
not P (P)
• It is created from left to right
• It has two columns, left one for P and right one for P P P
• P has two rows for two possible values, one for true T F
and another for false F T
• True and false are written as T and F for short
• For each row, the value of P is written in the right side
• Right side picture is the truth table for not P (P)

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 And ()

• And is applied to two given propositions P, Q

• Its symbol is  and ()
• It is written as P and Q, PQ means
• And is also called conjunction “both”
• Example:
• Suppose P: “Today is Friday” and Q: “We go to pray”
• Then, P and Q is: “Today is Friday and we go to pray”
• “Conjunction of P and Q”, “P and Q”, “PQ” are all same
• PQ is a new compound proposition and has truth value
• And is true when both of P and Q are true
• If P or Q or both of them are false, then and is false
• Exercise: Write PQ when P: “I go” and Q: “you go”

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 And ()

• Example: Consider P, Q from the previous example

• If today is Friday and we are going to pray, then
both P and Q are true, so PQ is also true
• So, “Today is Friday and we go to pray” is true
• If today is Sunday, then P is false. So, PQ is false  is true
• So, “Today is Friday and we go to pray” is false
when
• If we do not go to pray, then Q is false. So, PQ is
false both true
• So, “Today is Friday and we go to pray” is false
• If today is not Friday and we also do not go to pray,
then both P and Q are false. So, PQ is false
• So, “Today is Friday and we go to pray” is also false

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 Truth Table for and ()
Truth Table for
• Example: Truth table for PQ P and Q (PQ)
• There will be three columns: P, Q, PQ
• Left side P, then Q, then PQ P Q PQ
• P and Q are given, we shall find PQ T T T
• P and Q can be T or F T F F
• So, there will be four possible combinations F T F
of P and Q: TT, TF, FT, FF
• So, four rows F F F
• PQ is true only for TT. For other cases, it is false
• The right-side picture is the truth table for PQ
• Exercise: In the truth table of P, the number of rows
was two. Here, it is four. Is there any formula here?

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 Truth Table for and ()
Truth Table for
• The operation and is commutative
and ()
• That means, PQ and QP are the same
• Sometimes, for better understanding, the variables F P FP
can be chosen close to the given statement 0 0 0
• For example, we can choose F for “Today is Friday” 0 1 0
and P for “We are going to Pray”
1 0 0
• Sometimes, T and F are written as binary digits
1 and 0, so the four combinations are 00, 01, 10, 11 1 1 1
• Usually with T and F, it starts with TT and ends to FF
• With 0 and 1, it starts with 00 and ends to 11, because
these are the four possible binary numbers by two digits
• Example: So, the truth table for and with 0 and 1 is this

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 Or ()

• Similar to and, or is applied to two propositions P, Q

• Its symbol is 
• It is written as P or Q, P  Q
• Or is also called disjunction
• Example: Suppose that P: “Today is Friday” and Q: “We or ()
go to pray”
means
• Then, P or Q is: “Today is Friday or we go to pray”
• “disjunction of P and Q”, “P or Q”, “PQ” are all one or both
same
• PQ is a compound proposition and has a truth value
• Or is true when one or both of P and Q are true
• If both of P and Q is false, then or is false

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 Or ()

• Example: Consider P, Q from the previous example

• If today is Friday, then P is true. So, PQ is true
• That means, “Today is Friday or we go to pray” is
true. It does not matter whether we go to pray or  is true
not
means
• If we are going to pray, then Q is true. So, PQ is
true one or both
• So, “Today is Friday or we go to pray” is true. It does true
not matter whether today is Friday or not
• If today is not Friday and we are also not going to
pray, then both P and Q are false. So, PQ is false
• So, “Today is Friday or we go to pray” is false

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 Truth Table for or ()

• Example: Truth table for PQ

• There will be three columns: P, Q, PQ. Left side P,
then Q, then PQ
• P and Q are given, we shall find PQ
Truth Table for
• P and Q can be T or F
P or Q (PQ)
• So, four rows for PQ will be TT, TF, FT, FF
• PQ is false for FF. For other cases, it is true P Q PQ
• The right-side picture is the truth table for PQ T T T
• Exercise: T F T
• Which rows are similar in the truth tables of
F T T
and and or? Why?
• Draw the truth table of or with 0 and 1 F F F

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 Exclusive or (xor, )

• Exclusive or is also written as xor Truth Table for

• The symbol of xor is , and it is written as PQ P xor Q (PQ)
• In English it is expressed as “either … or”
P Q PQ
• Example: Suppose P: “Musa went there” and
Q: “Isa went there” T T F
• Then PQ: “Either Musa or Isa went there” T F T
• Xor is true when exactly one of P or Q is true F T T
• If both P and Q are true or false, then xor is false
F F F
• Example: From the previous example,
• If both Musa and Isa were there, then PQ is false
• If only one of Musa and Isa went, then PQ is true
• If none of them went there, then PQ is false

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 Multiple and (), Multiple or ()

• And or or can be applied more than once

• Example:
• P1P2P3…Pn is a conjunction of n propositions
• P1P2P3…Pn is a disjunction of n propositions
• For multiple and, the compound statement is true
when all the given propositions are true …
• If any one is false, then it is false …
• For multiple or, the compound statement is false when
all the given propositions are false
• If any one is true, then it is true
• Exercise: In the truth table of and of three propositions
P, Q, R, how many columns and rows will be there?

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 Multiple and (), Multiple or ()
Truth Table for
PQR and PQR
• Example: Truth table for PQR and PQR
with 0, 1 (see in the right-side table) P Q R PQR PQR
• Five columns: P, Q, R, PQR and PQR 0 0 0 0 0
• 8 rows: 000, 001, …, 111 0 0 1 0 1
• Number of rows in a truth table: 0 1 0 0 1
• If a compound statement has n variables, 0 1 1 0 1
then number of rows will be 2n 1 0 0 0 1
• Because, each variable can have two 1 0 1 0 1
values: T, F 1 1 0 0 1
• So, total possible combination for n 1 1 1 1 1
variables is: 2*2*… n times = 2n
• This is same as the number of n-bit binary numbers

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 Truth Tables for Multiple , , , 

• And, or, not, xor can appear together multiple times 

• Example: Draw truth table for (qp)(pq) with 0, 1

• Two variables p, q. So, 22=4 rows, from 00 to 11

• Six columns: p, q, q, (qp), (pq), (qp)(pq)
• We go gradually from left to right 

Truth Table for (qp)(pq)

p q q pq qp (qp)(pq)
0 0 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 1 0
1 0 1 1 1 1
1 1 0 0 1 0

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 Truth Tables for Multiple , , , 

• Example: Draw the truth table for (pr)(rq)

• We have three variables: p, q, r
Truth Table for (pr)(rq)
• So, 23 = 8 rows, from TTT to FFF
p q r pr rq (pr)(rq)
• Six columns: p, q, r, (pr), (rq),
(pr)(rq) T T T T F T
• We go gradually from left to right T T F F T T
• Exercise: Draw truth tables for: T F T T T T
• (pr)(rp)(rp) T F F F F F
• p(qp) F T T F F F
• (pq)(rq)(pr) F T F F T T
• pp F F T F T T
• (pq)q F F F F F F

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