Discrete Mathematics 2002 Lecture 9, 9-August-2002

4.3 Connectives & Truth Tables

• In logic, we won’t be concerned with the
truth value of a proposition like
‘The 1956 Olympic Games were held in
Melbourne’
• This is a question of sports history, not logic
• Instead, we’ll study propositions such as:
‘If Mary and Michael are not both left-
handed, then either Mary is not left-handed,
or Michael is not left-handed’
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Logical Structure of Propositions

• The proposition: ‘If Mary and Michael are not
both left-handed, then either Mary is not left-
handed, or Michael is not left-handed’ is true
because of its logical structure
• As well, any sentence with the same logical
structure must also be true
• e.g. The following proposition is true:
‘If 57 & 59 are not both prime nos, then either
57 is not a prime no., or 59 is not a prime no.’
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Connectives
• Return to ‘If Mary and Michael are not both
left-handed, then either Mary is not left-
handed, or Michael is not left-handed’
• This is a compound proposition
• It is built up from the atomic propositions
‘Mary is left-handed’ & ‘Michael is left-
handed’ using the words and, or, not & if-then
• These words are called connectives
• In logic, connectives have a role similar to
those of operations such as + and × in algebra
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Discrete Mathematics 2002 Lecture 9, 9-August-2002

Notation for Basic Connectives

• The text identifies the connectives and, or, not,
etc, by writing them in bold – to make
handwriting easier, we’ll underline them (and,
or, not, etc)
• The 5 connectives we will use, and their
symbols, are given in the following table
• Note that if-then is also known as implies, and
if-and-only-if is also known as is-equivalent-to
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Table of Connectives
Connective Symbol
and ∧
or ∨
not ¬
if-then →
if-and-only-if ↔
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Notation in Propositional Logic

• Lower-case letters (p, q, r, etc) are used to

denote propositions
• Apart from ¬ , the connectives are written
between the propositions they connect
• ¬ is placed before the proposition to which
it applies

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Discrete Mathematics 2002 Lecture 9, 9-August-2002

Example of Notation
• Let p be the proposition ‘Cows are animals’
& let q denote ‘Cows produce milk’. Then:
p ∧ q denotes the proposition ‘ Cows are
animals and cows produce milk’
¬ p means ‘Cows are not animals’
• not is termed a unary operator, as it applies
to a single proposition; the other connectives
are binary operators, since they operate on
two propositions
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The Connective ‘and’

• A formal definition of and follows by stating
the truth value of p ∧ q for each possible
combination of truth values of p & q
• The everyday understanding of the term ‘and’
is that for p ∧ q to be true, p & q must both
be true – if p is false, or q is false, or both are
false, then p ∧ q is false
• This everyday understanding leads to the
formal defn of and, which is presented as a
truth table
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Truth Table for ‘and’

p q p∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

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Discrete Mathematics 2002 Lecture 9, 9-August-2002

The Connective ‘or’

• In everyday language, ‘or’ has 2 meanings
• In ‘Tom will pass or fail’, it means the result
will be either a pass or a fail, but not both
• Here, ‘or’ is used exclusively – the possibility
of both outcomes is excluded
• In ‘Tom is smart or he studies hard’, we allow
for the possibility that Tom is both smart and
studies hard – i.e. ‘or’ is used inclusively
• In logic, or means the inclusive ‘or’
• i.e. p ∨ q means ‘p or q or both’
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Truth Table for ‘or’

p q p∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

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The Connectives ‘not’ & ‘if-then’

• The truth table for not is straightforward. i.e.
if p is T then ¬ p is F, & if p is F then ¬ p is T
• Now look at the connective if-then
• Suppose p is the propn ‘Sue attends tutorials’, &
q is the propn ‘Sue will pass Discrete Maths’
• Then p → q is the propn ‘If Sue attends tutorials,
then she will pass Discrete Maths’
• Suppose your lecturer claims: ‘If Sue attends
tutorials, then she will pass Discrete Maths’ –
When is this claim true? i.e. When is p → q true?
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Discrete Mathematics 2002 Lecture 9, 9-August-2002

The Connective ‘if-then’

• The claim is certainly true if Sue attends tutorials
& passes, so p → q is T if p is T & q is T
• However, if Sue attends tutes and doesn’t pass,
the claim is false, so p → q is F if p is T & q is F
• What if p is false – i.e. Sue doesn’t attend tutes?
• Then, whether or not Sue passes, the lecturer
can’t be accused of making a false claim – i.e. he
said only what would happen if Sue attended
tutes, not what would happen if she didn’t attend
• Thus p → q is true whenever p is false
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Truth Table for ‘if-then’

p q p→q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

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The Connective ‘if-then’

• The truth table can be interpreted as:
‘The only time the implication is false is if the
premise is true & the conclusion is false’
• We can assign truth values to weird sentences:
‘If the sky is blue then cows have 4 legs’
This is true (though blue sky does not cause
cows to have 4 legs)
• Are the following propositions true or false?
‘If the sky is yellow then cows have 6 legs’
‘If the sky is blue then cows have 6 legs’
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Discrete Mathematics 2002 Lecture 9, 9-August-2002

The Connective ‘if-and-only-if’

• The connective ↔ is defined to be true
precisely when the 2 propositions it
connects have the same truth value
• i.e. p ↔ q is true whenever p & q are both
true or p & q are both false
• Thus the proposition ‘Bendigo is in New
Zealand if and only if apples are blue’ is
true

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Truth Table for ‘if-and-only-if’

p q p↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

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