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Resolution Refutation
Resolution is one kind of proof technique that works this way - (i) select two clauses that contain
conflicting terms (ii) combine those two clauses and (iii) cancel out the conflicting terms.
For example we have following statements,
(1) If it is a pleasant day you will do strawberry
picking
(2) If you are doing strawberry picking you are
happy.
Above statements can be written in propositional
logic like this -
(1) strawberry_picking ← pleasant
(2) happy ← strawberry_picking
And again these statements can be written in
CNF like this -
(1)
(strawberry_picking ∨~pleasant) ∧
(2) (happy ∨~strawberry_picking)
By resolving these two clauses and cancelling out
the conflicting terms 'strawberry_picking' and
'~strawberry_picking', we can have one new
clause,
(3) ~pleasant ∨ happy
How ? See the figure on right.
When we write above new clause
in infer or implies form, we have
'pleasant → happy' or 'happy ← pleasant'
i.e. If it is a pleasant day you are happy.
But sometimes from the collection of the statements we have, we want to know the answer of this
question - "Is it possible to prove some other statements from what we actually know?" In order to
prove this we need to make some inferences and those other statements can be shown true using
Refutation proof method i.e. proof by contradiction using Resolution. So for the asked goal we will
negate the goal and will add it to the given statements to prove the contradiction.
Let's see an example to understand how Resolution and Refutation work. In below example, Part(I)
represents the English meanings for the clauses, Part(II) represents the propositional logic
statements for given english sentences, Part(III) represents the Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF) of
Part(II) and Part(IV) shows some other statements we want to prove using Refutation proof method.
Part(I) : English Sentences
(1) If it is sunny and warm day you will enjoy.
(2) If it is warm and pleasant day you will do
strawberry picking
(3) If it is raining then no strawberry picking.
(4) If it is raining you will get wet.
(5) It is warm day
(6) It is raining
(7) It is sunny
Part(II) : Propositional Statements
(1) enjoy ← sunny ∧ warm
(2) strawberry_picking ← warm ∧ pleasant
(3) ~strawberry_picking ← raining
(4) wet ← raining
(5) warm
(6) raining
(7) sunny
Part(III) : CNF of Part(II)
(1) (enjoy ∨~sunny∨~warm) ∧
(2) (strawberry_picking ∨~warm∨~pleasant) ∧
(3) (~strawberry_picking ∨~raining) ∧
(4) (wet ∨~raining) ∧
(5) (warm) ∧
(6) (raining) ∧
(7) (sunny)
Why ∧ at the end of above statements?
Part(IV) : Other statements we want to prove by
Refutation
(Goal 1) You are not doing strawberry picking.
(Goal 2) You will enjoy.
(Goal 3) Try it yourself : You will get wet.
Goal 1 : You are not doing strawberry picking.
Prove : ~strawberry_picking
Assume : strawberry_picking (negate the goal
and add it to given clauses).
Goal 2 : You will enjoy.
Prove : enjoy
Assume : ~enjoy (negate the goal and add it to
given clauses)
More About Resolution & Refutation
Vishma Shah © 2015 CSUS
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