Solutions for week 2

1. Let Girl denote the statement the student is a girl, and Good denote
the statement the student is good at mathematics. Then (i) reduces to the
statement Girl Good. So its negation is the statement Girl ; Good.
There must therefore be some girl who is not good at mathematics; in other
words, (v) holds.
The contrapositive of (i) is the statement not Good not Girl; that is,
not Good Boy, where Boy denotes the statement the student is a boy.
This is (vii).

2. (i) P Q R P Q Q R (P Q) and (Q R) P R
T T T T T T T
T T F T F F F
T F T F T F T
T F F F T F F
F T T T T T T
F T F T F F T
F F T T T T T
F F F T T T T
Since the entries in the sixth and seventh columns satisfy the truth table (2.1.1)
for (in other words, the pair T | F never appears), the required implication
holds.
(ii) P Q P Q not Q not P (not Q) (not P )
T T T F F T
T F F T F F
F T T F T T
F F T T T T
Since the entries in the third and sixth columns are identical the corresponding
statements are logically equivalent: an implication is equivalent to its contrapos-
itive.

(iii) P Q P Q not P (not P ) or Q

T T T F T
T F F F F
F T T T T
F F T T T
Since the entries in the third and fifth columns are identical the corresponding
statements are logically equivalent.This is sometimes useful in constructing proofs
that P Q.

1
3. (i) We simplify each side by multiplying out.
(a + b c)2 = a2 + b2 + c2 + 2ab 2ac 2bc,
(a + b)2 + (a c)2 + (b c)2 a2 b2 c2
= a2 + b2 + c2 + 2ab 2ac 2bc.
Therefore (a + b c)2 = (a + b)2 + (a c)2 + (b c)2 a2 b2 c2 .
(ii) As with Proposition 3.2.1 we start with the goal and work backwards taking
care to get the implications in the right direction.
bc + ac + ab a2 + b2 + c2 0 a2 + b2 + c2 bc ac ab
0 2a2 + 2b2 + 2c2 2bc 2ac 2ab
0 (b c)2 + (a c)2 + (a b)2
0 (b c)2 and 0 (a c)2
and 0 (a b)2
and this final statement is certainly true for all real numbers a, b and c. Hence
bc + ac + ab a2 + b2 + c2 .

4. Given an integer n such that n2 is not divisible by 7, suppose for contradiction

that n is divisible by 7. Then n = 7q for some integer q, and n2 = 49q 2 = 7(7q 2 ).
So n2 is divisible by 7, contradicting the statement that n2 is not divisible by 7.
Hence our assumption that n is divisible by 7 must be false; so n is not divisible
by 7, as required.
An alternative framework for the main step is:
Suppose for contradiction that
(n2 not divisible by 7) = P 6 Q = (n is not divisible by 7).
Then the truth table for P Q shows that P must be true and Q false; in other
words, n2 is not divisible by 7, and n is divisible by 7 a contradiction! So our
assumption that P 6 Q must be false, and P Q as required.

5. (i) Since a divides b and a divides c, there are integers p and q such that
b = ap and c = aq. So b + c = ap + aq = a(p + q), which implies that a divides
b + c.
(ii) Suppose that a divides b or a divides c. Then there is an integer p such
that b = ap, or there is an integer q such that c = aq. In the former case
bc = (ap)c = a(pc), and in the latter case bc = b(aq) = a(bq). In both cases a
divides bc.