Subject: Discrete Mathematics

Faculty In-charge: Dr. Ruchira Naskar

Assignment 1 Online submission deadline: 24.01.2017

1. Let p be the statement “Maria learns discrete mathematics” and q the statement
“Maria will find a good job.” Express the statement p → q as a statement in English.
2. Which of these are propositions? What are the truth values of those that are
propositions?
a. Do not pass go.
b. What time is it?
c. flies in Maine
d. 4 + x = 5.
e. The moon is made of green cheese.
f. 2n ≥ 100.
3. What is the negation of each of these propositions?
a. Steve has more than 100GB free disk space on his laptop.
b. Zach blocks e-mails and texts from Jennifer.
c. 7 · 11 · 13 = 999.
d. Diane rode her bicycle 100 miles on Sunday.
4. Let p, q, and r be the propositions.
p: You have the flu.
q: You miss the final examination.
r: You pass the course.
Express each of these propositions as an English sentence.
a. p → q
b. ￢q ↔ r

c. q →￢r
d. p ∨ q ∨ r
e. (p →￢r) ∨ (q →￢r)

f. (p ∧ q) ∨ (￢q ∧ r)
5. Let p and q be the propositions.
p:You drive over 65 miles per hour.
q :You get a speeding ticket.
Write these propositions using p & q and logical conjectives (including negations).
a. You do not drive over 65 miles per hour.
b. You drive over 65 miles per hour, but you do not get a speeding ticket.
c. You will get a speeding ticket if you drive over 65 miles per hour
 d. If you do not drive over 65 miles per hour, then you will not get a speeding
ticket
e. Driving over 65 miles per hour is sufficient for getting a speeding ticket.
f. You get a speeding ticket, but you do not drive over 65 miles per hour.
g. Whenever you get a speeding ticket, you are driving over 65 miles per hour.
6. In [Sm78] Smullyan posed many puzzles about an island that has two kinds of
inhabitants, knights, who always tell the truth, and their opposites, knaves, who
always lie. You encounter two people A and B. What are A and B if A says “B is a
knight” and B says “The two of us are opposite types?”.
7. A father tells his two children, a boy and a girl, to play in their backyard without
getting dirty. However, while playing, both children get mud on their foreheads.
When the children stop playing, the father says “At least one of you has a muddy
forehead,” and then asks the children to answer “Yes” or “No” to the question: “Do
you know whether you have a muddy forehead?” The father asks this question
twice. What will the children answer each time this question is asked, assuming that
a child can see whether his or her sibling has a muddy forehead, but cannot see his
or her own forehead? Assume that both children are honest and that the children
answer each question simultaneously.
8. What Boolean search would you use to look for Web pages about hiking in West
Virginia? What if you wanted to find Web pages about hiking in Virginia, but not in
West Virginia?
9. Each inhabitant of a remote village always tells the truth or always lies. A villager will
give only a “Yes” or a “No” response to a question a tourist asks. Suppose you are a
tourist visiting this area and come to a fork in the road. One branch leads to the ruins
you want to visit; the other branch leads deep into the jungle. A villager is standing
at the fork in the road. What one question can you ask the villager to determine
which branch to take?
10. The below relate to inhabitants of the island of knights and knaves created by
Smullyan, where knights always tell the truth and knaves always lie. You encounter
two people, A and B. Determine, if possible, what A and B are if they address you in
the ways described. If you cannot determine what these two people are, can you
draw any conclusions?
a. A says “At least one of us is a knave” and B says nothing.
b. A says “The two of us are both knights” and B says “A is a knave.”
c. A says “I am a knave or B is a knight” and B says nothing.
d. Both A and B say “I am a knight.”
11. The below relate to inhabitants of an island on which there are three kinds of
people: knights who always tell the truth, knaves who always lie, and spies who can
either lie or tell the truth. You encounter three people, A, B, and C. You know one of
these people is a knight, one is a knave, and one is a spy. Each of the three people
knows the type of person each of other two is. For each of these situations, if
 possible, determine whether there is a unique solution and determine who the
knave, knight, and spy are. When there is no unique solution, list all possible
solutions or state that there are no solutions.
a. A says “C is the knave,” B says, “A is the knight,” and C says “I am the spy.”
b. A says “I am the knight,” B says “I am the knave,” and C says “B is the knight.”
c. A says “I am the knave,” B says “I am the knave,” and C says “I am the knave.”
d. A says “I am the knight,” B says, “A is not the knave,” and C says “B is not the
knave.”
12. Show that ￢(p ∨ (￢p ∧ q)) and ￢p ∧￢q are logically equivalent by developing a
series of logical equivalences.
13. Show that (p ∧ q) → (p ∨ q) is a tautology.
14. Determine whether (￢p ∧ (p → q))→￢q is a tautology. Determine whether (￢q ∧

(p → q))→￢p is tautology.
15. Show that (p → q) ∧ (q → r) → (p → r) is a tautology.
16. Show that (p ∨ q) ∧ (￢p ∨ r) → (q ∨ r) is a tautology.
17. Show that (p → q) ∧ (p → r) and p → (q ∧ r) are logically equivalent.
18. Show that (p → r) ∧ (q → r) and (p ∨ q) → r are logically equivalent.
19. Show that (p → q) ∨ (p → r) and p → (q ∨ r) are logically equivalent.
20. What does the statement ∀xN(x) mean if N(x) is “Computer x is connected to the
network” and the domain consists of all computers on campus?
21. What is the truth value of ∃xP(x), where P(x) is the statement “x2 > 10” and the
universe of discourse consists of the positive integers not exceeding 4?
22. What do the statements ∀x < 0 (x2 > 0), ∀y _= 0 (y3 _= 0), and ∃z > 0 (z2 = 2) mean,
where the domain in each case consists of the real numbers?
23. What are the negations of the statements ∀x(x2 > x) and ∃x(x2 = 2)?
24. Express the statements “Some student in this class has visited Mexico” and “Every
student in this class has visited either Canada or Mexico” using predicates and
quantifiers.
25. Let C(x) be the statement “x has a cat,” let D(x) be the statement “x has a dog,” and
let F(x) be the statement “x has a ferret.” Express each of these statements in terms
of C(x), D(x), F(x), quantifiers, and logical connectives Let the domain consist of all
students in your class.
a. A student in your class has a cat, a dog, and a ferret.
b. All students in your class have a cat, a dog, or a ferret
c. Some student in your class has a cat and a ferret, but not a dog.
d. No student in your class has a cat, a dog, and a ferret.
e. For each of the three animals, cats, dogs, and ferrets, there is a student in
your class who has this animal as a pet.
26. Express the negation of these propositions using quantifiers, and then express the
negation in English.
a. Some drivers do not obey the speed limit.
b. All Swedish movies are serious.
c. No one can keep a secret.
d. There is someone in this class who does not have a good attitude.
27. Use quantifiers to express the statement that “There does not exist a woman who
has taken a flight on every airline in the world.”
28. Let S(x) be the predicate “x is a student,” F(x) the predicate “x is a faculty member,”
and A(x, y) the predicate “x has asked y a question,” where the domain consists of all
people associated with your school. Use quantifiers to express each of these
statements.
a. Lois has asked Professor Michaels a question.
b. Every student has asked Professor Gross a question
c. Every faculty member has either asked Professor Miller a question or been
asked a question by professor Miller.
d. Some student has not asked any faculty member a question.
e. There is a faculty member who has never been asked a question by a student.
f. Some student has asked every faculty member a question.
g. There is a faculty member who has asked every other faculty member a
question.
h. Some student has never been asked a question by a faculty member.
29. Show that the premises “A student in this class has not read the book,” and
“Everyone in this class passed the first exam” imply the conclusion “Someone who
passed the first exam has not read the book.”
30. For each of these collections of premises, what relevant conclusion or conclusions
can be drawn? Explain the rules of inference used to obtain each conclusion from
the premises.
a. “If I take the day off, it either rains or snows.” “I took Tuesday off or I took
Thursday off.” “It was sunny on Tuesday.” “It did not snow on Thursday.”
b. “If I eat spicy foods, then I have strange dreams.” “I have strange dreams if
there is thunder while I sleep.” “I did not have strange dreams.”
c. “I am either clever or lucky.” “I am not lucky.” “If I am lucky, then I will win
the lottery.”
d. “Every computer science major has a persona computer “Ralph does not
have a personal computer”. “Ann has a personal computer.”
31. Use a proof by contraposition to show that if x + y ≥ 2, where x and y are real
numbers, then x ≥ 1 or y ≥ 1.
32. Prove that if m and n are integers and mn is even, then m is even or n is even.
33. Show that if n is an integer and n3 + 5 is odd, then n is even using
a. a proof by contraposition
 b. a proof by contradiction.
34. Show that the additive inverse, or negative, of an even number is an even number
using a direct proof.
35. Prove that if m + n and n + p are even integers, where m, n, and p are integers, then
m + p is even. What kind of proof did you use?
36. Use a direct proof to show that every odd integer is the difference of two squares.
37. Prove that if n is a perfect square, then n + 2 is not a perfect square.
38. Prove the proposition P(1), where P(n) is the proposition “If n is a positive integer,
then n2 ≥ n.” What kind of proof did you use?.
39. Let P(n) be the proposition “If a and b are positive real numbers, then (a + b)n≥ an +
bn.” Prove that P(1) is true. What kind of proof did you use?