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In logic, a clause is a propositional formula formed from a finite collection of literals (atoms or their negations) and logical connectives.A clause is true either whenever at least one of the literals that form it is true (a disjunctive clause, the most common use of the term), or when all of the literals that form it are true (a conjunctive clause, a less common use of the term).
In Boolean logic, a formula is in conjunctive normal form (CNF) or clausal normal form if it is a conjunction of one or more clauses, where a clause is a disjunction of literals; otherwise put, it is a product of sums or an AND of ORs.
A clause is a disjunction of literals (or a single literal). A clause is called a Horn clause if it contains at most one positive literal. A formula is in conjunctive normal form (CNF) if it is a conjunction of clauses (or a single clause). For example, x 1 is a positive literal, ¬x 2 is a negative literal, and x 1 ∨ ¬x 2 is a clause.
In mathematical logic and logic programming, a Horn clause is a logical formula of a particular rule-like form that gives it useful properties for use in logic programming, formal specification, universal algebra and model theory. Horn clauses are named for the logician Alfred Horn, who first pointed out their significance in 1951. [1]
The predicate calculus goes a step further than the propositional calculus to an "analysis of the inner structure of propositions" [4] It breaks a simple sentence down into two parts (i) its subject (the object (singular or plural) of discourse) and (ii) a predicate (a verb or possibly verb-clause that asserts a quality or attribute of the object(s)).
Example. 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 corresponding logical symbols are "", "", [6] and , [10] and sometimes "iff".These are usually treated as equivalent. However, some texts of mathematical logic (particularly those on first-order logic, rather than propositional logic) make a distinction between these, in which the first, ↔, is used as a symbol in logic formulas, while ⇔ is used in reasoning about those logic formulas ...
In mathematical logic, a literal is an atomic formula (also known as an atom or prime formula) or its negation. [1] [2] The definition mostly appears in proof theory (of classical logic), e.g. in conjunctive normal form and the method of resolution. Literals can be divided into two types: [2] A positive literal is just an atom (e.g., ).