COMP9020

Foundations of Computer Science

Lecture 12: Boolean Logic

Topic 3: Logic

Logic

[LLM] [RW] [Rosen]

Week 8 Boolean Logic Ch. 3 Ch. 2, 10 Ch. 12
Week 8 Propositional Logic Ch. 3 Ch. 2 Ch. 1

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What is logic?

Logic is about formalizing reasoning and defining truth

Adding rigour
Removing ambiguity
Mechanizing the process of reasoning

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Loose history of logic

(Ancient times): Logic exlusive to philosophy

Mid-19th Century: Logical foundations of Mathematics
(Boole, Jevons, Schröder, etc)
1910: Russell and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica
1928: Hilbert proposes Entscheidungsproblem
1931: Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
1935: Church’s Lambda calculus
1936: Turing’s Machine-based approach
1930s: Shannon develops Circuit logic
1960s: Formal verification; Relational databases

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Logic in Computer Science

Computation = Calculation + Symbolic manipulation

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Logic in Computer Science

Computation = Calculation + Symbolic manipulation

Logic as 2-valued computation (Boolean logic):
Circuit design
Code optimization
Boolean algebra
Nand game

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Logic in Computer Science

Computation = Calculation + Symbolic manipulation

Logic as symbolic reasoning (Propositional logic, and beyond):
Formal verification
Proof assistance
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Automated reasoning
Databases

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Outline

Boolean Logic

Boolean Functions

Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Form

Karnaugh Maps

Boolean Algebras

5
Outline

Boolean Logic

Boolean Functions

Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Form

Karnaugh Maps

Boolean Algebras

6
Boolean logic

Boolean logic is about performing calculations in a “simple”

mathematical structure.

complex calculations can be built entirely from these simple

ones
can help identify simplifications that improve performance at
the circuit level
can help identify simplifications that improve presentation at
the programming level

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The Boolean Algebra B

Definition
The (two-element) Boolean algebra is defined to be the set
B = {0, 1}, together with the functions ! : B → B, &&: B2 → B,
and ∥: B2 → B, defined as follows:

!x = (1 − x) x && y = min{x, y } x ∥ y = max{x, y }

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The Boolean Algebra B – Alternative definition

Definition
The (two-element) Boolean algebra is defined to be the set
B = {false, true}, together with the functions ! : B → B,
&&: B2 → B, and ∥: B2 → B, defined as follows:

x y x && y x y x ∥y
x !x false false false false false false
false true false true false false true true
true false true false false true false true
true true true true true true

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Alternative notation

Commonly, the following alternative notation is used:

For B: {F , T }
For !x: x, x ′ , ∼x, ¬x
For x && y : xy , x ∧ y
For x ∥ y : x + y, x ∨ y

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Properties

We observe that !, &&, and ∥ satisfy the following:

For all x, y , z ∈ B:
Commutativity x ∥y =y ∥x
x && y = y && x
Associativity (x ∥ y ) ∥ z = x ∥ (y ∥ z)
(x && y ) && z = x && (y && z)
Distribution x ∥ (y && z) = (x ∥ y ) && (x ∥ z)
x && (y ∥ z) = (x && y ) ∥ (x && z)
Identity x ∥0=x
x && 1 = x
Complementation x ∥ (!x) = 1
x && (!x) = 0

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Examples

Examples
Calculate x && x for all x ∈ B
Calculate ((1 && 0) ∥ ((!1) && (!0))

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Outline

Boolean Logic

Boolean Functions

Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Form

Karnaugh Maps

Boolean Algebras

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Boolean Functions

Definition
An n-ary Boolean function is a map f : Bn → B.

Question
How many unary Boolean functions are there?
How many binary functions?
n-ary?

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Examples

Examples
! is a unary Boolean function
&&, ∥ are binary Boolean functions
f (x, y ) =!(x && y ) is a binary boolean function (NAND)
And(x0 , x1 , . . .) = (· · · ((x0 && x1 ) && x2 ) · · · ) is a (family)
of Boolean functions
Or(x0 , x1 , . . .) = (· · · ((x0 ∥ x1 ) ∥ x2 ) · · · ) is a (family) of
Boolean functions

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Application: Adding two one-bit numbers

How can we implement:

add : B2 → B2

defined as
x y add(x, y )
0 0 00
0 1 01
1 0 01
1 1 10

Use two Boolean functions!

NB
Digital circuits are just sequences of Boolean functions.

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Outline

Boolean Logic

Boolean Functions

Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Form

Karnaugh Maps

Boolean Algebras

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Conjunctive and Disjunctive normal form
Definition
A literal is a unary Boolean function
A minterm is a Boolean function of the form
And(l1 (x1 ), l2 (x2 ), . . . , ln (xn )) where the li are literals
A maxterm is a Boolean function of the form
Or(l1 (x1 ), l2 (x2 ), . . . , ln (xn )) where the li are literals
A CNF Boolean function is a function of the form
And(m1 , m2 , . . .), where the mi are maxterms.
A DNF Boolean function is a function of the form
Or(m1 , m2 , . . .), where the mi are minterms.

Important!
CNF/DNF describe how a function is written. It is not a property
of the function itself.
CNF: product of sums; DNF: sum of products
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Examples

Examples
f (x, y , z) = (x && (!y ) && z) ∥ (x && (!y ) && (!z)) =
x y z + x y z: DNF , but not CNF
g (x, y , z) = (x ∥ (!y ) ∥ z) && (x ∥ (!y ) ∥ (!z)) =
(x + y + z)(x + y + z): CNF function, but not DNF
h(x, y , z) = (x && (!y ) && z) = x y z: both CNF and DNF
j(x, y , z) = x + y (z + x): Neither CNF nor DNF

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Theorem
Every Boolean function can be written as a function in DNF/CNF

Proof...

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Canonical DNF
Given an n-ary boolean function f : Bn → B we construct an
equivalent DNF boolean function as follows:
For each b = (b1 , . . . , bn ) ∈ Bn we define the minterm

mb = And(l1 (x1 ), l2 (x2 ), . . . , ln (xn ))

where 
xi if bi = 1
li (xi ) =
!xi if bi = 0

We then define the DNF formula:

X
fDNF = mb ,
f (b)=1

that is, fDNF is the disjunction (or) over all minterms corresponding
to elements b ∈ B where f (b) = 1.
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Canonical DNF

Theorem
f and fDNF are the same function.

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Exercise

Exercises
Find the canonical DNF form of each of the following expressions
in variables x, y , z
xy
z
xy + z
f (x, y , z) = 1

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Outline

Boolean Logic

Boolean Functions

Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Form

Karnaugh Maps

Boolean Algebras

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Karnaugh Maps
For up to four variables (propositional symbols) a diagrammatic method
of simplification called Karnaugh maps works quite well.
For every propositional function of k = 2, 3, 4 variables we construct a
rectangular array of 2k cells. We mark the squares corresponding to the
value true with eg “+” and try to cover these squares with as few rect-
angles with sides 1 or 2 or 4 as possible.

Example

yz y z̄ ȳ z̄ ȳ z
x + + +
x̄ + + +

E = (xy ) ∨ (x̄ ȳ ) ∨ z

Canonical form would consist of writing all cells separately (6 clauses).

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Karnaugh Maps
For optimisation, the idea is to cover the + squares with the minimum
number of rectangles. One cannot cover any empty cells.
The rectangles can go ‘around the corner’/the actual map should be
seen as a torus.
Rectangles must have sides of 1, 2 or 4 squares (three adjacent cells
are useless).

Example

yz y z̄ ȳ z̄ ȳ z
x + + +
x̄ + + +

E = (xy ) ∨ (x̄ ȳ ) ∨ z

Canonical form would consist of writing all cells separately (6 clauses).

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Exercise

Exercise

yz y z̄ ȳ z̄ ȳ z
wx + + +
w x̄ + + + +
w̄ x̄ + +
w̄ x + +

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Outline

Boolean Logic

Boolean Functions

Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Form

Karnaugh Maps

Boolean Algebras

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Definition: Boolean Algebra

Definition
A Boolean algebra is a structure (T , ∨, ∧,′ , 0, 1) where
0, 1 ∈ T
∨, ∧ : T × T → T (called join and meet respectively)
′
: T → T (called complementation)
and the following laws hold for all x, y , z ∈ T :
Commutativity: x ∨ y = y ∨ x, x ∧y =y ∧x
Associativity: (x ∨ y ) ∨ z = x ∨ (y ∨ z)
(x ∧ y ) ∧ z = x ∧ (y ∧ z)
Distributivity: x ∨ (y ∧ z) = (x ∨ y ) ∧ (x ∨ z)
x ∧ (y ∨ z) = (x ∧ y ) ∨ (x ∧ z)
Identity: x ∨ 0 = x, x ∧1=x
Complementation: x ∨ x ′ = 1, x ∧ x′ = 0

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Examples of Boolean Algebras

Example
The set of subsets of a set X :
T : Pow(X )
∨ (join) : ∪
∧ (meet) : ∩
′ (complement) : ·c
0: ∅
1: X (U)

The Laws of Boolean algebra follow from the Laws of Set

Operations.

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Examples of Boolean Algebras

Example
The two element Boolean Algebra :

B = ({true, false}, ∥, &&, !, false, true)

where !, &&, ∥ are defined as:

!true = false; !false = true,
true && true = true; ...
true ∥ true = true; ...

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Examples of Boolean Algebras

Example
Cartesian products of B, that is n-tuples of 0’s and 1’s with
Boolean operations, e.g. B4 :

join: (1, 0, 0, 1) ∨ (1, 1, 0, 0) = (1, 1, 0, 1)

meet: (1, 0, 0, 1) ∧ (1, 1, 0, 0) = (1, 0, 0, 0)
complement: (1, 0, 0, 1)′ = (0, 1, 1, 0)
0 : (0, 0, 0, 0)
1 : (1, 1, 1, 1).

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Examples of Boolean Algebras

Example
Functions from any set S to B; that is, BS

If f , g : S −→ B then

(f ∨ g ) : S → B defined by s 7→ f (s) ∥ g (s)

(f ∧ g ) : S → B defined by s 7→ f (s) && g (s)
f′ :S →B defined by s 7→!f (s)
0:S →B is the function s 7→ 0
1:S →B is the function s 7→ 1

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Proofs in Boolean Algebras
Show an identity holds using the laws of Boolean Algebra, then
that identity holds in all Boolean Algebras.
Example
In all Boolean Algebras
x ∧x =x
for all x ∈ T .

Proof:

x =x ∧1 [Identity]
= x ∧ (x ∨ x ′ ) [Complement]
= (x ∧ x) ∨ (x ∧ x ′ ) [Distributivity]
= (x ∧ x) ∨ 0 [Complement]
= (x ∧ x) [Identity]

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Duality

Definition
If E is an expression defined using variables (x, y , z, etc),
constants (0 and 1), and the operations of Boolean Algebra (∧, ∨,
and ′ ) then dual(E ) is the expression obtained by replacing ∧ with
∨ (and vice-versa) and 0 with 1 (and vice-versa).

Definition
If (T , ∨, ∧,′ , 0, 1) is a Boolean Algebra, then (T , ∧, ∨,′ , 1, 0) is
also a Boolean algebra, known as the dual Boolean algebra.

Theorem (Principle of duality)

If you can show E1 = E2 using the laws of Boolean Algebra, then
dual(E1 ) = dual(E2 ).

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Duality

Example
We have shown x ∧ x = x.

By duality: x ∨ x = x.

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