MTH 110

(DISCRETE MATHEMATICS I)
COURSE NOTES
PAWEL PRALAT

1.

September 6, 2016

Propositions
Definition 1.1. A statement (or proposition) is a sentence that is either true or false but
not both.
Examples of statements:
p = Alice is 12 years old,
q = Bob ate pizza for dinner yesterday,
r = 3 3 = 9,
s = 2 4 = 9.
Examples of non-statements:
Is the sky blue? (question)
x2 + y 2 = 13 (for some values of x and y the proposition is true, whereas for others
it is false).
Compound Statements
We can make new statement from old ones using operators like not, and, or, if
then. There are a few simple examples:
Alice is not 12 years old ( p),
Bob ate pizza for dinner yesterday and 3 3 = 9 (q r).
Compound statements (since they are (regular) statements as well) must have well-defined
truth values they must be either true or false. We can write down a table of truth values
for compound statements based on the truth values of component statements.
Definition 1.2. The negation of a statement p (denoted p) is true if p is false. If p is true,
then p is false.
p p
T F
F T
Definition 1.3. The conjunction of p and q (denoted p q) is true if and only if both p and
q are true. (If either p or q is false, or if both are false, then p q is false.)
p
T
T
F
F

q pq
T
T
F
F
T
F
F
F
1

PAWEL PRALAT

In ordinary language or is sometimes used in an exclusive sense (coffee or tea?) but

sometimes in an inclusive sense (cream or sugar?). We use operator or in its inclusive
sense.
Definition 1.4. The disjunction of p and q (denoted p q) is false if and only if both p and
q are false.
p
T
T
F
F

q pq
T
T
F
T
T
T
F
F

Consider the following sentence: If you have a birthday tomorrow, then you will get a gift.
Note that if the condition is not met, you cannot say whether the promise is false (regardless
of whether or not you get the gift).
Definition 1.5. The conditional of q by p (denoted p q) is false if and only if p is true and
q is false. We call p antecedent (or the hypothesis) of the conditional and q the consequent
(or the conclusion).
p
T
T
F
F

q pq
T
T
F
F
T
T
F
T

The order of operations is that is performed first, then and , and finally . The order
of operations can be overridden through the use of parentheses. Since the symbols and are
considered coequal, an expression such as p q r is considered ambiguous.
Example 1.6. Construct the truth table for the statement form (p q) (p q).
p q p q (p q) p q (p q) (p q)
T T
T
F
T
F
T F
F
T
T
T
F T
F
T
T
T
F F
F
T
F
F
Note that when or is used in its exclusive sense, the proposition p or q is equivalent to
(p q) (p q). This is sometimes abbreviated p q or pXORq.
Logical Equivalence
The statements P =4 is less than 2 and Q =it is not true that 4 is at least 2 are two
different ways of saying the same thing, that is, P and Q are equivalent. Note also that for
two statements to be equivalent we do not need to know whether P = Q is true or not. For
example, the following two statements are equivalent: R =The Riemann hypothesis is true,
S =It is not true that the Riemann hypothesis is false.
Definition 1.7. Two statement forms, P and Q, are called (logically) equivalent (denoted
P Q) if, and only if, they have identical truth values for each possible substitution of statements for their variables.

MTH 110 (DISCRETE MATHEMATICS I) COURSE NOTES

Example 1.8. Show that the statement forms (p q) and p q are logically equivalent.
Check this using truth tables.
p q p q p q (p q) p q
T T F
F
T
F
F
T F F
T
T
F
F
F T T
F
T
F
F
F F T
T
F
T
T
Similarly, one can show that (p q) and p q are logically equivalent. These two
logical equivalences are known as De Morgans laws.
Example 1.9. Write negations for each of the following statements:
p =The train is late or my watch is slow.
p =The train is not late and my watch is not slow.
q =It is cold today and it is sunny outside.
q =It is not cold today or it is not sunny outside.
r =10 x < 7.
r =x < 10 or x 7.
Example 1.10. Show that p q p q and (p q) p q.
p q p pq pq
T T F
T
T
T F F
F
F
F T T
T
T
F F T
T
T
For the second part, note that
(p q) ( p q) ( p) q p q .
This is another approach to showing that two statements are equivalent. We can replace
sections of the statement form by logically equivalent expressions. We continue doing this until
we obtain the desired form.
Example 1.11. The statement forms (p q) and p q are not logically equivalent.
Indeed, they have different truth values for p = F and q = T .
Department of Mathematics, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
E-mail address: pralat@ryerson.ca