BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

DEVELOPMENT OF BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

George Boole's revolutionary paper 'An Investigation of the laws
of the thought' was published in 1854 which led to the
development of new system, the algebra of logic, "BOOLEAN
ALGEBRA”.
Boole's work remained confined to papers only until 1938 when
Claude E. Shannon wrote a paper titled 'A Symbolic Analysis of
Relay Switching Circuits'. In this paper he applied Boolean
Algebra to solve relay logic problems. As logic problems are
binary decisions and boolean algebra effectively deals with these
binary values. Thus it is also called 'Switching Algebra'.

Binary Decision
The decision which results into either YES(true) or NO(false) is
called a Binary Decision and the variables which can store these
truth values are called logical variables or Binary values.

Logical Function or Compound Statement

Logic statements or truth functions are combined with the help of
Logical Operators like AND, OR and NOT to form a Compound
statement or Logical function.e.g.
 He prefers tea not coffee.
 He plays guitar and she plays sitar.
 I watch TV on Sundays or I go for swimming.

Truth Table
Truth Table is a table which represents all the possible values of
logical variables/statements along with all the possible results of
the given combination of values.
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

Logical Operators
These are the operators which are used to work with the logical
variables and values. There are three basic logical operators.
1. NOT 2. AND 3. OR
1. NOT Operator
This operator operates on single variable and operation performed
by NOT operator is called complementation and the symbol we use
for it is (─ bar). Thus means complement of X and means
complement of YZ.
Truth table for NOT operator

X
0 1
1 0

2. AND Operator
AND Operator performs another important operation of boolean
algebra called logical multiplication and the symbol for AND
operation is (.) dot. Thus X.Y will be read as X AND Y. The rules
for AND operation are :
0.0=0
0.1=0
1.0=0
1.1=1
Truth table for AND Operator

X Y X.Y
0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

3. OR Operator
Another important operator in boolean algebra is OR operator
which denotes operation called logical addition and the symbol we
use for it is +. The + symbol, therefore, does not have the 'normal'
meaning, but is a logical addition or logical OR symbol. Thus X +
Y can be read as X OR Y. For OR operation the possible input and
output combinations are as follows :
0+0=0
0+1=1
1+0=1
1+1=1
Truth table for OR Operator

X Y X+Y
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 1
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

Evaluation of Boolean Expression using Truth Table

To study a Boolean expression, it is very useful to construct a table
of values for the variables and then to evaluate the expression for
each of the possible combinations of variables in turn.
Consider the the expression X+ , here three variables X, Y, Z are
forming the expression, each of the variables can assume the value
0 or 1. The possible combinations of values may be arranged in
ascending order as shown below and the result of expression can be
found.
X Y Z YZ X+
0 0 0 0 1 1
0 0 1 0 1 1
0 1 0 0 1 1
0 1 1 1 0 0
1 0 0 0 1 1
1 0 1 0 1 1
1 1 0 0 1 1
1 1 1 0 0 1

Example 1
Verify using truth table that (A+B)’=A’B’
A B A+B (A+B)’ A’ B’ A’B’
0 0 0 1 1 1 1
0 1 1 0 1 0 0
1 0 1 0 0 1 0
1 1 1 0 0 0 0
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

Example 2
Prepare truth table for the following Boolean expression:
F(X,Y) = X( + ) + X

X Y ( + ) X( + ) X F

0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0
1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Example 3
Prepare truth table for the following Boolean expression:
F(X,Y,Z) = X (Z+Y ) +

X Y Z X Y Z+Y X (Z+Y ) X (Z+Y ) +

0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1
1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1
1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

Logic Gate:
A Gate is simply an electronic circuit which operates on one or
more signals to produce an output signal.
Gates are digital(two-state) circuits because the input and output
signals are either low voltage (denotes 0) or high voltage(1). Gates
are also called logic circuits because they can be analysed with
Boolean algebra.
There are three types of Basic logic gates.
Basic Logic Gates:
1- Inverter (NOT)
An Inverter(NOT) is a gate with only one input signal; the output
state is always the opposite of the input state.
Truth Table for NOT
X
0 1
NOT gate symbol 1 0

2- OR
The OR gate has two or more input signals but only one out signal.
If any of the input signals is 1(high), the output signal is 1.
Truth Table for OR
X Y X+Y
0 0 0
OR gate symbol 0 1 1
1 0 1
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
1 1 1

3- AND
The AND gate has two or more input signals and produces one
output signal. When all the inputs are 1(high), the output signal is 1
otherwise output is 0 only.
Truth Table for AND
X Y X.Y
0 0 0
0 1 0
AND gate symbol 1 0 0
1 1 1

Derived Gates:
Boolean algebra uses number of other gates also which are formed
with the help and in combination of other basic gates i.e NOT, OR
and AND gates. These are also known as Derived or combintional
gates. They are following:
1- NAND
The NAND gate is complement of AND gate. It has two or more
input signals and produces one output signal. When any of the
input is 0(low), the output signal is 1.
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
Truth Table for NAND
X Y X.Y
0 0 0 1
NAND gate symbol 0 1 0 1
1 0 0 1
1 1 1 0

2- NOR
The NOR gate is complement of OR gate. It has two or more input
signals and produces one output signal. When all the inputs are
0(low), the output signal is 1.

Truth Table for NOR

X Y X+Y
0 0 0 1
NOR gate symbol 0 1 1 0
1 0 1 0
1 1 1 0

3- XOR (Exclusive-OR)
The XOR gate is exclusive OR gate which has two or more inputs
and produces the output 1(high), when the input combination is
having odd numbers of 1(high). Boolean symbol for XOR
operation is O , and expression for XOY= Y + X
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
Truth Table for XOR
X Y Z XOYOZ
0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1
XOR gate symbol 0 1 0 1
0 1 1 0
1 0 0 1
1 0 1 0
1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1

4- XNOR(Exclusive NOR)
The XNOR gate is complement of XOR gate which has two or
more inputs and produces the output 1(high), when the input
combination is having even numbers of 1(high). Boolean symbol
for XNOR operation is ʘ , and expression for XʘY= XY +

Truth Table for XNOR

X Y Z XʘYʘZ
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 0
XNOR gate symbol 0 1 0 0
0 1 1 1
1 0 0 0
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0

Basic Postulates of Boolean Algebra:

The fundamental laws of Boolean Algebra are known as Basic
Postulates of Boolean Algebra, that follow:
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
I. If X≠0 then X=1 and if X≠1 then X=0
II. OR relations (logical addition)
0+0=0
0+1=1
1+0=1
1+1=1
III. AND relations (logical multiplication)
0+0=0
0+1=0
1+0=0
1+1=1
IV. Complement rules
=1

=0

BASIC LAWS AND THEOREMS OF BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

1. Properties of 0 and 1
(a) 0 + X = X
(b) 1 + X = 1
(c) 0 . X = 0
(d) 1 . X = X

2. Idempotence Law
(a) X+X = X
(b) X.X = X`
Truth Table for Idempotence Law
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
X X X+X X.X
0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1

3. Involution Law
(X’)’ =X
Truth Table fo Involution Law
X X’ (X’)’
0 1 0
1 0 1

4. Complementarity Law
(a) X + = 1

(b) X . =0

Truth Table for Complementarity Law

X X+ X.
0 1 1 0
1 0 1 0

5. Commutative Law
(a) X+Y = Y+X
(b) X.Y = Y.X
Truth Table for Commutative Law
X Y X+Y Y+X X.Y Y.X
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 0 0
1 0 1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1

6. Associative Law
(a) X+(Y+Z) = (X+Y)+Z
(b) X.(Y.Z) = (X.Y).Z
Truth Table for Associative Law
X Y Z Y+Z X+Y X+(Y+Z) (X+Y)+Z
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 1 0 1 1 1 1
0 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 0 0 0 1 1 1
1 0 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 0 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

7. Distributive Law
(a) X.(Y+Z) = XY + XZ
(b) X+(Y.Z) = (X+Y).(X+Z)
Truth Table for Distributive Law
X Y Z Y+Z XY XZ X(Y+Z) XY+XZ
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1
1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

8. Absorption Law
(a) X+XY = X
(b) X.(X+Y) = X
Truth Table for Absorption Law
X Y XY X+XY
0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
1 0 0 1
1 1 1 1

9. Special Law
X + Y = X+Y

Proof : LHS = X+ Y = (X+ ). (X+Y)

= 1.(X+Y)
= X+Y
= RHS