Boolean algebra
(After the logician George Boole) 1. Commonly, and especially in computer science and digital electronics, this term is used to mean two-valued logic. 2. This is in stark contrast with the definition used by pure mathematicians who in the 1960s introduced "Boolean-valued models" into logic precisely because a "Boolean-valued model" is an interpretation of a theory that allows more than two possible truth values! Strangely, a Boolean algebra (in the mathematical sense) is not strictly an algebra, but is in fact a lattice. A Boolean algebra is sometimes defined as a "complemented distributive lattice". Boole' s work which inspired the mathematical definition concerned algebras of sets, involving the operations of intersection, union and complement on sets. Such algebras obey the following identities where the operators ^, V, - and constants 1 and 0 can be thought of either as set intersection, union, complement, universal, empty or as two-valued logic AND, OR, NOT, TRUE, FALSE or any other conforming system. a ^ b = b ^ a a V b = b V a (commutative laws) (a ^ b) ^ c = a ^ (b ^ c) (a V b) V c = a V (b V c) (associative laws) a ^ (b V c) = (a ^ b) V (a ^ c) a V (b ^ c) = (a V b) ^ (a V c) (distributive laws) a ^ a = a a V a = a (idempotence laws) --a = a -(a ^ b) = (-a) V (-b) -(a V b) = (-a) ^ (-b) (de Morgan' s laws) a ^ -a = 0 a V -a = 1 a ^ 1 = a a V 0 = a a ^ 0 = 0 a V 1 = 1 -1 = 0 -0 = 1 There are several common alternative notations for the "-" or logical complement operator. If a and b are elements of a Boolean algebra, we define a <= b to mean that a ^ b = a, or equivalently a V b = b. Thus, for example, if ^, V and - denote set intersection, union and complement then <= is the inclusive subset relation. The relation <= is a partial ordering, though it is not necessarily a linear ordering since some Boolean algebras contain incomparable values. Note that these laws only refer explicitly to the two distinguished constants 1 and 0 (sometimes written as LaTeX op and ot), and in two-valued logic there are no others, but according to the more general mathematical definition, in some systems variables a, b and c may take on other values as well. (1997-02-27) In addition suitable contents: [ 2 ] [ = ] [ ai ] [ AL ] [ al ] [ algebra ] [ alt ] [ am ] [ an ] [ AND ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ as ] [ at ] [ au ] [ aw ] [ B ] [ b ] [ be ] [ Boolean ] [ br ] [ bs ] [ by ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ cl ] [ co ] [ com ] [ complement ] [ computer ] [ con ] [ cons ] [ D ] [ de ] [ digit ] [ digital ] [ ding ] [ distributive lattice ] [ du ] [ E ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ electron ] [ element ] [ er ] [ era ] [ es ] [ et ] [ fact ] [ FALSE ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ G ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ gen ] [ George Boole ] [ gh ] [ gi ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hat ] [ hr ] [ ht ] [ hu ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ inclusive ] [ incomparable ] [ int ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ it ] [ ke ] [ la ] [ LaTeX ] [ lattice ] [ law ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ line ] [ logical ] [ logical complement ] [ ls ] [ LSE ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ lv ] [ ly ] [ M ] [ ma ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ mode ] [ model ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ ms ] [ mu ] [ N ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ND ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ nl ] [ no ] [ NOT ] [ ns ] [ O ] [ om ] [ op ] [ operator ] [ OR ] [ ordering ] [ org ] [ OT ] [ pa ] [ partial ordering ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ pt ] [ query ] [ range ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ relation ] [ ro ] [ ru ] [ S ] [ sa ] [ sc ] [ SE ] [ se ] [ set ] [ sh ] [ si ] [ so ] [ spec ] [ st ] [ strict ] [ su ] [ sy ] [ system ] [ T ] [ ] [ tar ] [ th ] [ theory ] [ to ] [ tr ] [ tron ] [ tt ] [ tw ] [ two-valued logic ] [ ug ] [ union ] [ us ] [ V ] [ va ] [ value ] [ var ] [ variable ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ win ] [ ws ] [ X ]
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