Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is not a statement?

Answer: D

a) The integer 20112011 is greater than 1080 , the approximate number

of atoms in the observable universe.
This is a TRUE statement.

b) While green apples are sometimes sour, red apples are always
sweet.
The form While p, q is actually a CONJUNCTION.

c) This sentence contains exactly 27 letters.

This is a FALSE statement. The sentence has exactly 34
letters.

d) Quadrilaterals are the simplest geometrical figures in Euclidian

geometry.
This is NOT a statement but an opinion. Also, the set {x | x is
the simplest figure in Euclidian geometry} is NOT well-defined.

2. Only one of the statements below is not true. Which one is it?
Answer: A

a) If 1 2 3 , then 1 4 2 .
This is FALSE since the conditional has a TRUE premise (
1 2 3 ) and a FALSE conclusion 1 4 2 .

b) Consecutive odd counting numbers always differ by 2.

This is clearly TRUE.

c) Every non-empty set has at least one proper subset.

This is TRUE since the empty set is a proper subset of every set with
at least one element (i.e. non-empty).

d) No real number x satisfies the equation x 1 x .

This is a TRUE statement in algebra.
3. The negation of the phrase No sane person likes to construct truth tables
with more than 16 rows is
Answer: B

Look at the structure of the statement: the negation of No sane person

likes is Some sane person likes

4. If p is true and q , r are false statements, then what is the truth value of
the compound statement r ~ p ~ ( p ~ q ) ?
Answer: A

TRUE since ( F ~ T ) [~ (T ~ F )] ( F F ) [~ (T T )] F F T .

Note also that since the premise r ~ p p is FALSE, the conditional

statement is necessarily TRUE.

For questions 5 and 6, let p represent the statement Paul is afraid of

French food, q represent the statement Paul drives up to Quebec, and
r represent the statement Paul wants to eat poutine.

5. Writing the symbolic statement ~ p q r verbally yields

Answer: C

a) Paul is not afraid of French food, but whenever he wants to eat

poutine he drives up to Quebec.
This is written symbolically as ~ p r q .

b) If Paul is not afraid of French food, then he drives up to Quebec

and wants to eat poutine.
This is written symbolically as ~ p q r .

d) Paul is not afraid of French food, but if he wants to eat poutine, he

drives up to Quebec.
This is also written symbolically as ~ p r q . This
statement is then equivalent to choice A.
6. Writing the verbal statement It is not true that Paul drives up to Quebec
whenever he wants to eat poutine or is not afraid of French food
symbolically yields
Answer: C

7. What can you conclude, in general, about a statement of the form , where
represent any component statements?
Answer: C

Nothing! Although the conclusion q ~ q is clearly a contradiction,

the premise p ~ q can be either TRUE or FALSE depending on the
truth values of components p and q.

Now, if the premise is TRUE, then the conditional statement is

FALSE. If the premise is FALSE, then the conditional statement is
TRUE. Therefore, nothing can be concluded from this conditional
form.

Problem 1

Write the following quotations in symbolic form. You will need to specify the
letters you attribute to each of the component statements in the quotation and to
remove any negations from these components.

a) Ready or not, here I come.

The Delfonics

Let p represent the statement You are ready.

Let q represent the statement Here I come.

We can then write the quotation symbolically as the conditional statement

b) All predicate logic is conceptually based on set theoretical principles,
otherwise mathematics is a collection of illogical statements.
Dr. Pestieau

Let l represent the statement Its predicate logic.

Let s represent the statement It is conceptually based on set theoretical
principles.
Let m represent the statement Mathematics is a collection of illogical
statements.

Here, the first part of the statement All predicate logic is conceptually
based on set theoretical principles is actually the CONDITIONAL l s .

The word otherwise is logically equivalent to or, the logical connective

for DISJUNCTIONS.

Therefore, we can write the quotation symbolically as

Problem 2

a) Write the compound inequality 2 x 6 (an algebraic statement)

symbolically as the conjunction of 2 disjunctions.

2 x 6 x 2 x 2
x 6 x 6

b) Explain logically (i.e. using truth values) why the inequality is false when
x 1.

If x 1 , then all the components in the statement above are FALSE

except for x 6 , which is TRUE. Therefore we logically have the
following FALSE conjunction:

F F T F F T F
Problem 3
a) Using the table below, show that the logical statement

p ~ q r
~ p q ~ r

is a contradiction.

p q r p ~ q r
~p ~q ~r p ~ q ~ pq p ~ q r ~ p q ~ r
~ p q ~ r

T T T F F F F T T F F

T T F F F T F T F T F

T F T F T F T F T F F

T F F F T T T F T F F

F T T T F F F T T F F

F T F T F T F T F T F

F F T T T F F T T F F

F F F T T T F T F T F

The final column (the truth table for p ~ q r

~ p q ~ r ) consists
only of FALSES. Therefore, the statement p ~ q r
~ p q ~ r is
a CONTRADICTION.

b) Try to show this contradiction without resorting to a truth table.

Hint: Negate the first term in brackets in the symbolic statement by

applying De Morgans laws.

Applying De Morgans Laws twice, we have the following:

 ~ p ~ q r ~ p ~ q ~ r ~ p q ~ r

Therefore, the statement p ~ q r

~ p q ~ r can be written
as follows:

~ ~ p q ~ r
~ p q ~ r

This is necessarily a CONTRADICTION since it has the structure

~ A A , where A is ~ p q ~ r .

Problem 4

Consider the following definition from Graph Theory:

A graph is said to be Eulerian whenever all its vertices are of even

degree or it has an Eulerian circuit, but some vertices in the graph are of
odd degree.

a) Write this definition symbolically. Make sure you specify the three
components (p, q and r) that make up this compound statement explicitly.

Let p represent the component statement The graph is Eulerian.

Let q represent the component statement All the vertices in the
graph are of even degree.
Let r represent the component statement The graph has a Eulerian
circuit.

Then, ~ q is the statement Some vertices in the graph are of odd

degree and we can write the compound statement symbolically as
follows:

q r p ~ q

b) Construct its truth table below.

 p q r ~q qr q r p q r p ~ q

T T T F T T F

T T F F T T F

T F T T T T T

T F F T F T T

F T T F T F F

F T F F T F F

F F T T T F F

F F F T F T T

c) Using the truth table, explain why the statement must be true if the graph
is Eulerian and some vertices of the graph are of odd degree. Argue
logically using truth values.

If the Graph is Eulerian and some vertices of the graph are of odd
degree, then p is TRUE and q is FALSE.

In the truth table, p is TRUE and q is FALSE only in rows 3 & 4.

Since both of these rows are TRUE, we conclude that the statement
is necessarily TRUE when p is TRUE and q is FALSE.

Problem 5
Use one of De Morgans laws to write the negation of the statement below. Do
not give an answer in symbolic form.

While green apples are sometimes sour, red apples are always sweet.

Let g represent the statement Green apples are sometimes sour or,
equivalently, Some green apples are sour.

The negation of g is then No green apple is sour, or Green apples are never
sour.

Let r represent the statement Red apples are always sweet or, equivalently, All
red apples are sweet.

The negation of r is then Some red apples are not sweet, or Red apples are
not sweet sometimes.

Since the statement we need to negate is the conjunction p q , we use De

Morgans Law:
~ p q ~ p ~ q .

The answer is then given by:

No green apple is sour or some red apples are not sweet.

Bonus Problem 1
Write a symbolic statement that has 3 components, includes at least 1 negation,
1 conjunction, 1 disjunction and 1 conditional, and is also a contradiction.

There are many answers to that could work Here are two:

1) q r ~ (q r ) p ~ p

2) p ~ p q r ~ r

Bonus Problem 2

In set theory, the mutually exclusive form of a disjunction corresponds to the

shaded region in the Venn diagram below.

Write a logical statement that gives the analogous result in terms of the two
component statements p and q .

The set shaded in the Venn diagram above can be expressed as follows:

A B B A
/ /

Therefore, we have the following analogous statement in logic:

p ~ q q ~ p
This corresponds to the exclusive form of the disjunction Either p or q.
[Check this with a truth table.]