Finite Mathematics : Logic, Sets, and Counting

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Finite Mathematics

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Example Questions

Example Question #21 : Logic, Sets, And Counting

Consider the conditional statements:

"If Mickey is a Freemason, then Nelson is a Freemason."

"If Oscar is not a Freemason, then Nelson is not a Freemason."

Nelson is a Freemason. What can be concluded about whether or not Mickey and Oscar are Freemasons?

Possible Answers:

Mickey is a Freemason; no conclusion can be drawn about Oscar.

No conclusion can be drawn about either Mickey or Oscar.

Mickey and Oscar are both Freemasons.

Oscar is a Freemason; no conclusion can be drawn about Mickey.

Mickey is a Freemason; Oscar is not a Freemason.

Correct answer:

Oscar is a Freemason; no conclusion can be drawn about Mickey.

Explanation:

Consider the second conditional "If Oscar is not a Freemason, then Nelson is not a Freemason.". It is known that Nelson is a Freemason, making the consequent of this conditional false. By a modus tollens argument, it follows that the antecedent is also false, and Oscar is a Freemason.

No conclusion can be drawn about Mickey, however. If Mickey is a Freemason, then by the first conditional, it follows that Nelson is a Freemason, which is already known; if Mickey is not a Freemason, no conclusion can be drawn that is inconsistent with what is known. Thus, either status is consistent with Nelson and Oscar both being Freemasons.

Example Question #22 : Logic, Sets, And Counting

Let be the set of all of the solutions of the equation .

True or false: is an example of a well-defined set.

Possible Answers:

False

True

Correct answer:

True

Explanation:

A set is well-defined if each element can be identified with certainty as being or not being an element of the set. Since, for any value of , it can be clearly determined through substitution whether or not it is a solution of the given equation, is indeed well-defined.

Example Question #23 : Logic, Sets, And Counting

The state of A has passed a law stating that all license plate numbers must adhere to the following rules:

1) There must be seven characters, each a numeral or a letter.

2) The first character may be a numeral or a letter, but either way, letters and numerals must alternate.

3) Repetition is allowed.

How many license plate numbers are possible under these rules?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let L stand for a letter and N stand for a numeral. One of two events will happen - the selection of a license plate with the pattern LNLNLNL, or the selection of a license plate with pattern NLNLNLN. These events are mutually exclusive, so we can count the number of ways to obtain them separately, then add.

There are no restrictions as to which letters or numerals can be chosen, or how many times each can be chosen, so the number of ways to choose a license plate number with the pattern LNLNLNL is

.

The number of ways to choose a license plate number with the pattern NLNLNLN is

.

Add these to get

,

the total number of license plates possible.

Example Question #63 : Finite Mathematics

Consider the conditional statement

If , then .

Give the inverse of this statement.

Possible Answers:

If , then .

If , then .

If , then .

If , then .

If , then .

Correct answer:

If , then .

Explanation:

Call the hypothesis of the conditional, "", and call the conclusion, "". Then the given statement is the conditional "If then ."

The inverse of this conditional is the conditional "If (not ) then (not )/"- the conditional which negates the antecedent and the consequent,

"Not " is the negation of "", which is "It is not true that ", or, restated, "". Similarly, "Not " is the statement .

Thus, the inverse of the conditional is

"If , then ."

Example Question #23 : Logic, Sets, And Counting

Consider the statements:

: The horse is black.

: The horse is white.

True or false: is the negation of .

Possible Answers:

True

False

Correct answer:

False

Explanation:

The negation of a statement can be stated as (not ), or, "It is not true that ." Therefore, the negation of the statement "The horse is black" is "It is not true that the horse is black" - or, restated, "The horse is not black." Since not being black is not the same as being white - the horse could be brown, for example - then is not the negation of .

Example Question #65 : Finite Mathematics

Define the universal set to be

Let and .

Which of the following is equal to the set ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

denotes the intersection of and , the set of all elements the two sets share. Inspect the two sets, whose shared elements are in red:

.

It follows that

.

Example Question #62 : Finite Mathematics

Define the universal set to be

Let and .

Which of the following is equal to the set ?

 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

denotes the union of and , the set of all elements that are in , , or both. To find this set, first, collect the elements in both sets:

 and :

The union, including duplicates, is

Arrange, and eliminate the duplicates, shown in red:

Example Question #66 : Finite Mathematics

Consider the statement

"If , then "

Which is true - its converse or its inverse?

Possible Answers:

Both the converse and the inverse are true.

The converse is true, but the inverse is false.

Both the converse and the inverse are false.

The converse is false, but the inverse is true.

Correct answer:

Both the converse and the inverse are true.

Explanation:

The converse of a conditional statement reverses the antecedent and the consequent; the inverse negates both. That is, for a conditional

If , then ,"

the converse of the statement is

"If , then ,"

and the inverse is

"If (not ), then (not )."

This problem becomes easier if you know that the converse and the inverse of any conditional are logically equivalent - that is, one is true if and only the other is. It suffices to determine the truth value of one of them. The converse of the given conditional is the statement

"If , then ."

This is easily proved true; if , then , as proved through some algebra, and, by substitution, . Since the converse is true, the inverse is also true.

Example Question #67 : Finite Mathematics

Consider the logical proposition

""

True or false: The  logical proposition "" is the negation of this statement.

Possible Answers:

False

True

Correct answer:

True

Explanation:

The negation of a logical proposition is the proposition "Not ," or, "It is not true that ."

The negation of the proposition " can be found by first noting that the solution set of that arithmetic inequality can be found to be the set . Therefore, the proposition "" is equivalent to the given proposition. The negation of this statement is "It is not true that ," or, equivalently, the proposition ""

Example Question #70 : Finite Mathematics

Define the universal set

Define .

How many proper subsets does have?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

, the complement of , is the set of all elements of not in :

A set with elements has subsets; since the set itself, which is not considered a proper subset, is one of those sets, the number of proper subsets is . has 4 elements, so, setting , has

proper subsets.

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