CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

Name: ID#:

CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures

Exam 1- Fall 1999
Closed book, closed notes

Date: Sept. 29 1999, 5:30 pm - 6:50 pm

1. Which of the following are statements ? ( 8 points )

a) All windows are rectangular.

b) is greater than .

c) Isn’t greater than ?



d) The weather will be sunny tomorrow.

e) He is an engineer.

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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

2. Use propositional logic to prove that the following arguments are valid. (All steps in the proof
sequence have to be annotated indicating the rule applied. Only the rules listed on the pages at
the end of this exam can be used.) ( 16 points )

a) 
 
 



b) 
 

 


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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

   
3. Give the truth values of the following formulas for the interpretation where the domain consists

 
of the all integers greater than 0 and 
is “x is a prime number”,  
 is “

 ”, and


is “
is even”. ( 9 points )

a)       
 
  

 
  




  



b)     
    
 
 
 


  

c)     
 

 
 

4. Underline all instances of bound variables in the following expressions. ( 15 points )

a)    

 
 
  
   

    

b)      

 
  
   
 


 

c)    
   
 
 

 

d)  
    
   


    
 
  



e) 
      
     
 
 
 
  !   "

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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

5. Use predicate logic to prove the following arguments. (All steps in the proof sequence have to
be annotated by the rule used to derive it. Only the rules listed on the pages at the end of this
exam can be used.) ( 16 points )
a)    
   


 
  
  

   
  

"

b)       
       

   
    
 


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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

6. For each of the following proofs indicate which proof technique was used (counterexample,
exhaustive proof, direct proof, proof by contraposition, proof by contradiction, proof by induc-
tion). ( 12 points )


 
 
  
    
a) Conjecture: The product of an arbitrary number of odd integers is always odd.
Proof: Assume the product were even. Then

and therefore at least one of the factors has to be an even number. Thus the product of odd
integers is always odd.

b) Conjecture: All prime numbers are odd.

Proof: is a prime number and it is even. Therefore not all prime numbers are odd.

c) Conjecture: The square of an even number is even.


 


    
Proof: Let , where is an integer, be an even number. Then its square is

and thus even.


d) Conjecture: All natural numbers between and are either even or prime numbers.
  !

Proof: , , , and are even and , , and are prime number. Therefore all natural




numbers between and are either even or prime.

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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

7. Prove or disprove the following conjectures. You can use any of the proof techniques introduced
in class. ( 24 points )

a) For every positive integer , 
 

 

 .

b) The product of two consecutive positive integers is always even.

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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion


c) Every positive integer greater than can be written as the sum of s and s.

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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

Proofs using Formal Logic

For all your formal logic proofs you can use only the rules given in the following tables. In addition
you are allowed to apply the deduction method and to use the method of temporary hypotheses. All
other rules have to be proven first.

Equivalence Rules
Rule Name Expression Equivalent Expression
Commutativity (comm) 
 


 
 

Associativity (ass)            

 
 
 
 
  

Distributivity (dis)     
  
 


   

 
      
  
   

De Morgan’s Laws (De Morgan)  

   


 
   

Implication (imp)
  

Double negation (dn)   P

Self-reference (self)  

Negation (neg)  
 
  

   



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CSE 2315 - Discrete Structures Exam 1: Formal Logic, Proofs, and Recursion

Inference Rules
Rule Name From Can Derive
Conjunction (con) , 


Simplification (sim) 
 ,
Modus ponens (mp) ,
 

Modus tollens (mt)

 ,
Addition (add)  

Universal instantiation (ui)  

 
  

 
(Be careful with the rule’s restrictions)  
 
  

 

Existential Instantiation (ei)  


  

  
(Be careful with the rule’s restrictions)  

  


 
Universal generalization (ug)  

   
 
 

(Be careful with the rule’s restrictions)

Existential generalization (eg)  

    
 

(Be careful with the rule’s restrictions)     
 

For all proofs the steps have to be annotated such as to indicate the rule and which elements of the
proof sequence it was applied to.

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