Topic 3: Logic, proofs and induction

3.1 Symbolic logic

Tarig Abdelgadir1 : based on notes by P. Brown and D. Trennery

1
Room 5107, Red Centre (East)
tarig.abdelgadir@unsw.edu.au

August 22, 2017

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Definition 3.1
A proposition (or statement) is a sentence or clause that is
unambiguously true or false.

Example 3.2
The following are propositions:
The number 57 is prime.
There are infinity many primes.
The shape of maximal area enclosed by a closed curve of fixed
length is that of a disc.
There are more than 8 1067 ways of ordering a standard deck of
cards 52.

Remark 3.3
Statements that are subjective (depend on opinion or perspective) or
paradoxical are not propositions. The following are not propositions:
Pizza is the best genre of food ever!
This sentence is false.
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Notation 3.4
We use lowercase letter, like p and q, to denote propositions.
We will the uppercase letters T to denote true and F for false.

We use logical operators to make combine propositions resulting in new

shiny propositions.
Definition 3.5 (Negation)
For a proposition p, the negation of p or not p will be denoted p (or
p) and is defined by the following truth table:

p p
T F .
F T

Remark 3.6
The table we used to define negation is called a truth table.

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Definition 3.7 (Conjunction)
Given two propositions p and q the proposition p and q will be denoted
by p q and defined by the following truth table:
p q pq
T T T
T F F .
F T F
F F F
That is, p q is true only when both p and q are true.
Definition 3.8 (Disjunction)
Given two propositions p and q the proposition p or q will be denoted by
p q and defined by the following truth table:
p q pq
T T T
T F T .
F T T
F F F
That is, p q is false only when both p and q are false.
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Definition 3.9 (Implication)
Given two propositions p and q the proposition if p then q (or p implies
q) will be denoted by p q and defined by the following truth table:

p q pq
T T T
T F F .
F T T
F F T
That is, p q is only false when p is true and q is false.
Definition 3.10 (Equivalence)
Given two propositions p and q the proposition p if and only if q (or p iff
q) will be denoted by p q and defined by the following truth table:

p q pq
T T T
T F F .
F T F
F F T
That is, p q is true only when p and q have the same truth value. 5 / 10
Remark 3.11
Logical implication, i.e. p q, does not imply causation. It is to
understood as if p is true then q is true.

Remark 3.12
It might sound counter-intuitive to define p q to be true when p is
false and q is true. Consider the statement

If Scotland win the toss they will choose to bat first

and assume it is true. If you missed the toss and switched on to find that
Scotland did bat first does that imply Scotland won the toss? Logic
seems to give the benefit of the doubt.

Notation 3.13
When interpreting a proposition with a combination of logical symbols we
will use the following order of precedence: 1) anything in parentheses 2)
3) , 4) , . Please always use parentheses to dispel any possible
ambiguity.

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Notation 3.14
We call a proposition made by combining propositions using logical
operators (like , , , ) a propositional formula. We call its building
blocks (like p, q, . . . ) propositional variables.

Definition 3.15
We say a proposition formula is a tautology (denoted T) if it is true for
all possible truth values of its propositional variables. A proposition
formula is a contradiction (denoted F) if it is false for possible truth
values of its propositional variables.

Definition 3.16
Given two propositional formulas P and Q, we say P logically implies Q
and write P Q if P Q is a tautology.

Definition 3.17
Given two propositional formulas P and Q, we say P is logically
equivalent to Q and write P Q if P Q is a tautology.

Lemma 3.18
Two propositional formulae P and Q are logically equivalent if and only if
they have the same truth values in their truth tables.
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Notation 3.19
We will use to denote logical equivalences.

Proposition 3.20
Some standard logical equivalences:
p T T, p F F.
p F p, p T p.
p p T, p p F.
p p p, p p p.
(Commutativity)
p q q p, p q q p.
(Associativity)
(p q) r p (q r ), (p q) r p (q r ).
(Distributivity)
p (q r ) (p q) (p r ), p (q r ) (p q) (p r ).
(De Morgans laws)
(p q) p q, (p q) p q.

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Proposition 3.21
The propositional formula p q is logically equivalent to p q.

Notation 3.22
The converse of p q is q p.
The contrapositive of p q is q p.

Proposition 3.23
The contrapositive of p q is logically equivalent to q p.

Proposition 3.24
The propositional formula p q is logically equivalent to
(p q) (q p).

Corollary 3.25
Every propositional formula is logically equivalent to comprising of
propositional variables decorated by and .

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Definition 3.26
An argument is a finite sequence of propositions written in the form
P1
P2

Pn
Q.
The propositions P1 , . . . , Pn are called the hypotheses and Q the
conclusion. The argument is said to be valid if P1 Pn Q.

Example 3.27 (Proof by contradiction)

The following is a valid argument:
pF
p

Example 3.28 (Proof by cases)

The following is a valid argument:
pq 10 / 10