Question
Consider the first-order logic sentence . Assuming non-empty logical domains, which of the sentences below are implied by ?
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Official answer and solution
- Official answer
- B
- From
- Official GATE 2017 answer key
Solution
Analyze each first-order logic statement using quantifier duality and standard existential/universal instantiation rules over non-empty domains.
Given . This asserts that for every element in the domain, there is at least one element such that the relation holds.
Statement I: . Since the logical domain is non-empty, we can pick any element . By sentence , there exists some such that holds. Therefore, there exists and exists such that , so statement I is necessarily true and implied by .
Statement II: . This asserts that there is a single element that is related to every element . In general, does not imply . For example, over the set of integers with , for every integer there is a larger integer , but there is no single integer that is greater than all integers. Hence, II is not implied.
Statement III: . This asserts that every element is related to by some element . Sentence does not guarantee that every in the domain is chosen by some . Hence, III is not implied.
Statement IV: . Applying quantifier duality (De Morgan's laws for quantifiers):
This is identical to sentence . Thus, statement IV is logically equivalent to , and therefore implied by .
Thus, statements I and IV are implied by .
B
The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.
Source
- Paper
- GATE 2017 Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) Session 1
- Question
- 2 of 65, printed as CS Q.2
- Section
- Computer Science and Information Technology
Report an error in this question
GATE questions are the work of the organising institutes. This site is independent and is not affiliated with them.