AMC 110

Exercises on the Laws of Logic

1. Negate and express each of the following statements in smooth English.

a. Kelsey will get a good education if she puts her studies before her interest in
cheerleading.
b. Norma is doing her homework and Karen is practicing her piano lessons.
c. If Harold passes his C++ course and finishes his data structures project, then he
will graduate at the end of the semester.
2. Negate each of the following and simplify the resulting statement.
a. p ~ q r
b. p q ~ p ~ q r
3. Show that p q r p ~ q r
4. Determine if the following are tautologies.
a. p q p q
b. p q q q
c. p q q p q
5. Give the reasons for each step in the following simplifications of compound
statements.
p q p ~ q q
a.
Reasons
p q ~ q q
p F0 q
pq

p q ~ q r ~ q

b.

p q ~ q
~ p q ~ q
~ q ~ p q
~ q ~ p ~ q q
~ q ~ p F0

Reasons

~ q ~ p
~ q p

6. Provide the steps and reasons to establish the following logical equivalences.
a. p p p q p
b. p q ~ p ~ q r p q r
c. ~ p ~ q p q r p q