SECTIONBAlgebraofPropositions.docVIP

SECTION D Algebra of Propositions By the end of this section you will be able to: understand a truth table construct a truth table for compound propositions show equivalence of propositions using a truth table D1 Truth Table In this section we use a truth table to evaluate the truth value of propositions. We can make a truth table for a compound proposition by writing down the truth values of each individual proposition. Truth table is a table used to find the truth value of a compound proposition. Let be propositions. By the definition of proposition, can be either true or false. Similarly can only be either true or false. We can write this in a table as: True (T) True (T) False (F) False (F) TABLE 1 We will not write out the complete words true or false but use the symbols T and F respectively. We can construct the truth table for the negation of a proposition. Let be a proposition and (not ) be the negation of (or the opposite of ). What is the truth value of if is true? is false What is the truth value of if is false? is true Hence we have the truth table of : T F F T TABLE 2 The truth table gives the truth values of . Reading the rows from left to right it says that if is true then is false and if is false then is true. You need to remember the truth values of not which has the opposite truth value to . We use this throughout this section. Next we construct the truth table for the connective, (and). Let be propositions. The proposition () is only true if both is true and is true. Otherwise it is false. We can compare this with everyday English. For example let be the proposition ‘it is raining’ and be the proposition ‘it is above ’, then the compound proposition, ‘it is raining and above ’ is only true if both ‘it is raining and ‘it is above ’ is true, otherwise it is false. We can make a truth table for by first listing all the combination of truth values for in the first two columns. T T T T F F F T F F F F TA