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Assign1 Propcalc

Chapter 1 discusses preliminary concepts in logic, focusing on encoding arguments and assessing their validity. It includes exercises that require the reader to determine the validity of various logical statements and to provide countermodels when necessary. Additionally, it presents a scenario involving a tourist and a fork in the road, prompting the formulation of a propositional question to identify the correct path to the capital.

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Suman Chatterjee
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4 views1 page

Assign1 Propcalc

Chapter 1 discusses preliminary concepts in logic, focusing on encoding arguments and assessing their validity. It includes exercises that require the reader to determine the validity of various logical statements and to provide countermodels when necessary. Additionally, it presents a scenario involving a tourist and a fork in the road, prompting the formulation of a propositional question to identify the correct path to the capital.

Uploaded by

Suman Chatterjee
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 1

Preliminary Concepts

On Logic
Exercise 1 1. Encode the following arguments and show whether they are valid or not. If not
valid give countermodels i.e., truth assignemnets to the propositions which make them false.
(a) If algebra is required or geometry is required, then all students will study mathematics.
Algebra is required and trigonometry is required. Therefore, all students will study
mathematics.
(b) If Bill takes the bus and the bus is late, then Bill misses his appointment. Bill should
not go home if (i) Bill misses his appointment and (ii) Bill feels downcast. If Bill does
not get the job, then (i) Bill feels downcast and (ii) Bill should go home. Therefore,
(a) If the bus is late, then either Bill does not take the bus or Bill does not miss his
appointment.
(b) Bill feels downcast if the bus is late or if Bill misses his appointment. (c) If Bill
should go home and Bill takes the bus, then Bill does not feel downcast if the bus is late.
(c) If a scarcity of commodities develops, then the prices rise. If there is a change of
government, then fiscal controls will not be continued. If the threat of inflation persists,
then fiscal controls will be continued. If there is overproduction, then prices do not rise.
Either there is overproduction or there is a change of government. Therefore, either a
scarcity of commidities does not develop or there is a change of government.
(d) If the investigation continues, then new evidence is brought to light. If new evidence is
brought to light, then several leading citizens are implicated. If several leading citizens
are implicated, then the newspapers stop publicizing the case. If continuation of the
investigation implies that the newspapers stop publicizing the case, then bringing to
light of new evidence implies that the investigation continues. The investigation does
not continue. Therefore, new evidence is not brought to light.
2. A certain country is inhabited only by people who either always tell the truth or always tell
lies and who respond to questions only with a “yes” or “no”. A tourist comes to a fork in the
road, where one branch leads to the capital and the other branch does not. There is no sign
indicating which branch to take but there is an inhabitant standing at the fork. What “yes-
no” question should the tourist ask him to determine which branch to take? Hint: Consider
two propositions p: “you always tell the truth” and q: “the left hand (lh) branch leads to the
capital”. It is required to form a propositional formula w which when asked in the form of a
question “Is it true that w?” will have a response “yes” iff q is true (i.e., the lh branch leads
to the capital).

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