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In logic, negation, also called the logical not or logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition to another proposition "not ", written , , ′ [1] or ¯. [citation needed] It is interpreted intuitively as being true when is false, and false when is true.
In mathematics, proof by contrapositive, or proof by contraposition, is a rule of inference used in proofs, where one infers a conditional statement from its contrapositive. [15] In other words, the conclusion "if A , then B " is inferred by constructing a proof of the claim "if not B , then not A " instead.
Although it is quite freely used in mathematical proofs, not every school of mathematical thought accepts this kind of nonconstructive proof as universally valid. [ 1 ] More broadly, proof by contradiction is any form of argument that establishes a statement by arriving at a contradiction, even when the initial assumption is not the negation of ...
negation: not propositional logic, Boolean algebra: The statement is true if and only if A is false. A slash placed through another operator is the same as placed in front. The prime symbol is placed after the negated thing, e.g. ′ [2]
In mathematics, the axiom of choice, abbreviated AC or AoC, is an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that a Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty. Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collection of sets, each containing at least one element, it is possible to construct a new set by ...
Negation introduction is a rule of inference, or transformation rule, in the field of propositional calculus. Negation introduction states that if a given antecedent implies both the consequent and its complement, then the antecedent is a contradiction.
The mathematical proof of an existential statement about "some" object may be achieved either by a constructive proof, which exhibits an object satisfying the "some" statement, or by a nonconstructive proof, which shows that there must be such an object without concretely exhibiting one.
Colloquial usage can label actions or statements as contradicting each other when due (or perceived as due) to presuppositions which are contradictory in the logical sense. Proof by contradiction is used in mathematics to construct proofs. The scientific method uses contradiction to falsify bad theory.