Truth Table For "If...., then...." P Q If P, then Q T T T T F F F T F F T T Second Truth Table For "If...., then....

" P Q If P, then Q If Q, then P T T T F F T F F T F T T T T F T

What happens if you interchange (commute) P and Q in an "if...then"? Generally, you get a sentence with a different truth. For example, here is a true "if...then": if an animal is a bird, then it is a warm-blooded animal (this sentence is always true). However, the commuted "if...then" is false (meaning, sometimes false; not reliably true): if an animal is warm-blooded, then it is a bird. This is false about people for example: people are warm-blooded but they are not birds. A side-by-side comparison of truth tables for "if P, then Q" and "if Q, then P" show that they do not mean the same thing in the second and third rows:

"If P, then Q" means the same as "(not(P)) or Q" P Q If P, then Q not(P) (not(P)) or Q T T T F F T F F T F T T F F T T T F T T This last truth table proves that "if P, then Q" means the same thing as "(not(P)) or Q". Note that the third and fifth columns are the same.

IF and only if Mathematicians often use symbols and tables to represent concepts in logic. The use of these variables, symbols and tables creates a shorthand method for discussing logical sentences. Truth table biconditional (if and only if):
(notice the symbol used for "if and only if" in the table below)

T T F F

T F T F

T F F T

A truth table is a pictorial representation of all of the possible outcomes of the truth value of a compound sentence. Letters such as and are used to represent the facts (or sentences) within the compound sentence.