Boolean algebra (b
`lēən), an abstract mathematical system primarily used in computer science and in expressing the relationships between sets set, in mathematics, collection of entities, called elements of the set, that may be real objects or conceptual entities. Set theory not only is involved in many areas of mathematics but has important applications in other fields as well, e.g.
..... Click the link for more information. (groups of objects or concepts). The notational system was developed by the English mathematician George Boole Boole, George, 1815–64, English mathematician and logician. He became professor at Queen's College, Cork, in 1849. Boole wrote An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) and works on calculus and differential equations.
..... Click the link for more information. c.1850 to permit an algebraic manipulation of logical statements. Such manipulation can demonstrate whether or not a statement is true and show how a complicated statement can be rephrased in a simpler, more convenient form without changing its meaning. In his 1881 treatise, Symbolic Logic, the English logician and mathematician John Venn interpreted Boole's work and introduced a new method of diagramming Boole's notation; this was later refined by the English mathematician Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll Carroll, Lewis, pseud. of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832–98, English writer, mathematician, and amateur photographer, b. near Daresbury, Cheshire (now in Halton).
..... Click the link for more information. —this method is now know as the Venn diagram. When used in set theory, Boolean notation can demonstrate the relationship between groups, indicating what is in each set alone, what is jointly contained in both, and what is contained in neither. Boolean algebra is of significance in the study of information theory, the theory of probability, and the geometry of sets. The expression of electrical networks in Boolean notation has aided the development of switching theory and the design of computers.
Boolean algebra
Boolean algebra [′bü·lē·ən ′al·jə·brə]
`lēən), an abstract mathematical system primarily used in computer science and in expressing the relationships between sets set, in mathematics, collection of entities, called elements of the set, that may be real objects or conceptual entities. Set theory not only is involved in many areas of mathematics but has important applications in other fields as well, e.g...... Click the link for more information. (groups of objects or concepts). The notational system was developed by the English mathematician George Boole Boole, George, 1815–64, English mathematician and logician. He became professor at Queen's College, Cork, in 1849. Boole wrote An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) and works on calculus and differential equations.
..... Click the link for more information. c.1850 to permit an algebraic manipulation of logical statements. Such manipulation can demonstrate whether or not a statement is true and show how a complicated statement can be rephrased in a simpler, more convenient form without changing its meaning. In his 1881 treatise, Symbolic Logic, the English logician and mathematician John Venn interpreted Boole's work and introduced a new method of diagramming Boole's notation; this was later refined by the English mathematician Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll Carroll, Lewis, pseud. of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832–98, English writer, mathematician, and amateur photographer, b. near Daresbury, Cheshire (now in Halton).
..... Click the link for more information. —this method is now know as the Venn diagram. When used in set theory, Boolean notation can demonstrate the relationship between groups, indicating what is in each set alone, what is jointly contained in both, and what is contained in neither. Boolean algebra is of significance in the study of information theory, the theory of probability, and the geometry of sets. The expression of electrical networks in Boolean notation has aided the development of switching theory and the design of computers.
Boolean algebra
Symbolic system used for designing logic circuits and networks for digital computers. Its chief utility is in representing the truth value of statements, rather than the numeric quantities handled by ordinary algebra. It lends itself to use in the binary system employed by digital computers, since the only possible truth values, true and false, can be represented by the binary digits 1 and 0. A circuit in computer memory can be open or closed, depending on the value assigned to it, and it is the integrated work of such circuits that give computers their computing ability. The fundamental operations of Boolean logic, often called Boolean operators, are “and,” “or,” and “not”; combinations of these make up 13 other Boolean operators.
Boolean algebra
a system of symbolic logic devised by George Boole to codify logical operations. It is used in computers
Boolean algebra [′bü·lē·ən ′al·jə·brə]
(mathematics)
An algebraic system with two binary operations and one unary operation important in representing a two-valued logic.
| (mathematics, logic) | 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 \top and \bot), 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. |
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