Set of Integers:

• • • • • •
3 -2 -1 0 1 2

Set of Real Numbers:

• • • • • • •
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

What is Discrete Mathematics?

Discrete Mathematics concerns processes that consist of a sequence of individual steps.

LOGIC:

Logic is the study of the principles and methods that distinguish between a
valid and an invalid argument.

SIMPLE STATEMENT:
A statement is a declarative sentence that is either true or false but not both.
A statement is also referred to as a proposition

EXAMPLES:

a. 2+2 = 4,
b. It is Sunday today

If a proposition is true, we say that it has a truth value of "true”.

If a proposition is false, its truth value is "false".
The truth values “true” and “false” are, respectively, denoted by the letters T and F.

EXAMPLES:
Propositions Not Propositions
1) Grass is green. 1) Close the door.
2) 4 + 2 = 6 2) x is greater than 2.
3) 4 + 2 = 7 3) He is very rich
4) There are four fingers in a hand.

Rule:
If the sentence is preceded by other sentences that make the pronoun or variable reference
clear, then the sentence is a statement.
Example
Example:
x=1 Bill Gates is an American
x>2 He is very rich
“x > 2” is a statement with truth-value “He is very rich” is a statement with truth-
FALSE. value TRUE.
UNDERSTANDING STATEMENTS

1) x + 2 is positive. Not a statement

2) May I come in? Not a statement
3) Logic is interesting. A statement
4) It is hot today. A statement
5) -1 > 0 A statement
6) x + y = 12 Not a statement

COMPOUND STATEMENT:
Simple statements could be used to build a compound statement.

LOGICAL CONNECTIVES

EXAMPLES:

1. “3 + 2 = 5” and “Lahore is a city in Pakistan”

2. “The grass is green” or “ It is hot today”
3. “Discrete Mathematics is not difficult to me”

AND, OR, NOT are called LOGICAL CONNECTIVES.

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION
Statements are symbolically represented by letters such as p, q, r,...

EXAMPLES:

p = “Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan”

q = “17 is divisible by 3”

CONNECTIVE MEANINGS SYMBOLS CALLED

Negation not ~ Tilde

Conjunction and Hat

Disjunction or Vel

Conditional if…then… Arrow

Biconditional if and only if Double arrow

EXAMPLES

p = “Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan”

q = “17 is divisible by 3”
p q = “Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and 17 is divisible by 3”
p q = “Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan or 17 is divisible by 3”
~p = “It is not the case that Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan”
or simply “Islamabad is not the capital of Pakistan”

TRANSLATING FROM ENGLISH TO SYMBOLS

Let p = “It is hot”, and q = “ It is sunny”

SENTENCE SYMBOLIC FORM

1. It is not hot. ~p
2. It is hot and sunny. p q
3. It is hot or sunny. p q
4. It is not hot but sunny. ~p q
5. It is neither hot nor sunny. ~p ~q

EXAMPLE

Let h = “Zia is healthy”

w = “Zia is wealthy”
s = “Zia is wise”
Translate the compound statements to symbolic form:
1) Zia is healthy and wealthy but not wise. (h ∧ w) ∧ (~ s)
2) Zia is not wealthy but he is healthy and wise. ~ w ∧ (h ∧ s)
3) Zia is neither healthy, wealthy nor wise. ~h∧ ~w∧~s

TRANSLATING FROM SYMBOLS TO ENGLISH:

Let m = “Ali is good in Mathematics”

c = “Ali is a Computer Science student”

Translate the following statement forms into plain English:

1) ~ c Ali is not a Computer Science student

2) c∨ m Ali is a Computer Science student or good in Maths.
3) m ∧ ~ c Ali is good in Maths but not a Computer Science student

A convenient method for analyzing a compound statement is to make a truth

table for it.

Truth Table
A truth table specifies the truth value of a compound proposition for all
possible truth values of its constituent propositions.
NEGATION (~):
If p is a statement variable, then negation of p, “not p”, is denoted as “~p”
It has opposite truth value from p i.e., if p is true, then ~ p is false; if p is false, then ~ p is
true.

TRUTH TABLE FOR ~ p

p ~p

T F

F T

CONJUNCTION ( ):
If p and q are statements, then the conjunction of p and q is “p and q”, denoted as
“p q”.

Remarks
o p q is true only when both p and q are true.
o If either p or q is false, or both are false, then p q is false.

TRUTH TABLE FOR p q

p q p q

T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

DISJUNCTION ( ) or INCLUSIVE OR

If p & q are statements, then the disjunction of p and q is “p or q”, denoted as

“p q”.

Remarks:
o p q is true when at least one of p or q is true.
o p q is false only when both p and q are false.
TRUTH TABLE FOR p q

p q p q

T T T

T F T
F T T

F F F

Note it that in the table F is only in that row where both p and q have F and all other
values are T. Thus for finding out the truth values for the disjunction of two statements
we will only first search out where the both statements are false and write down the F in
the corresponding row in the column of p q and in all other rows we will write T in the
column of p q.

Remark:
Note that for Conjunction of two statements we find the T in both the
statements, But in disjunction we find F in both the statements. In other words, we will
fill T in the first row of conjunction and F in the last row of disjunction.

SUMMARY
1. What is a statement?
2. How a compound statement is formed.
3. Logical connectives (negation, conjunction, disjunction).
4. How to construct a truth table for a statement form.