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In propositional logic, a propositional formula is a type of syntactic formula which is well formed. If the values of all variables in a propositional formula are given, it determines a unique truth value. A propositional formula may also be called a propositional expression, a sentence, [1] or a sentential formula.
Together with the normal forms in propositional logic (e.g. disjunctive normal form or conjunctive normal form), it provides a canonical normal form useful in automated theorem proving. Every formula in classical logic is logically equivalent to a formula in prenex normal form.
In propositional calculus, a propositional function or a predicate is a sentence expressed in a way that would assume the value of true or false, except that within the sentence there is a variable (x) that is not defined or specified (thus being a free variable), which leaves the statement undetermined.
In a given propositional logic, a formula can be defined as follows: Every propositional variable is a formula. Given a formula X, the negation ¬X is a formula. Given two formulas X and Y, and a binary connective b (such as the logical conjunction ∧), the expression (X b Y) is a formula. (Note the parentheses.)
The precise form of atomic formulas depends on the formal system under consideration; for propositional logic, for example, the atomic formulas are the propositional variables. For predicate logic , the atoms are predicate symbols together with their arguments, each argument being a term .
Classical propositional calculus is the standard propositional logic. Its intended semantics is bivalent and its main property is that it is strongly complete, otherwise said that whenever a formula semantically follows from a set of premises, it also follows from that set syntactically. Many different equivalent complete axiom systems have ...
A Boolean-valued function (sometimes called a predicate or a proposition) is a function of the type f : X → B, where X is an arbitrary set and where B is a Boolean domain, i.e. a generic two-element set, (for example B = {0, 1}), whose elements are interpreted as logical values, for example, 0 = false and 1 = true, i.e., a single bit of information.
Since all propositional formulas can be converted into an equivalent formula in conjunctive normal form, proofs are often based on the assumption that all formulae are CNF. However, in some cases this conversion to CNF can lead to an exponential explosion of the formula. For example, translating the non-CNF formula