Assignment 1: 

Simple and Compound Statements.

MAT 101: Logic, Sets and Numbers,

Professors R. Glass and M. Spiegelman,  Nassau Community College

In logic, we have the simple statement, A.  A can be true or false.  In a research database, a query (search) can be formed by just giving the word, for example, death (see your particular database for the exact format).  When the search word appears in an entry in the database, the simple statement A is true and that result is returned.

If all our queries (searches) were simple statements then, well, everything would be simple.  As in class, the more interesting case is when we want to form compound statements.

1. Suppose we needed to research the death penalty. 
1. How many results were returned by putting in the words death and penalty and then searching for death penalty? 
2. Compare the results in the previous part with when you searched for “death penalty” in quotes.
3. Looking at a few of the results, where do the words death and penalty appear?  

i. In the text?  

ii. In the title? 

iii. Are the words adjacent?

4. What would you do if you wanted the exact phrase death penalty to appear?

2. If d = death, p = penalty s = the phrase “death penalty”, c = the phrase “capital punishment” and n the phrase “New York State”.  Enter exactly what you typed into the query box and record the number of hits for:
1. d /\ p
2. d \/ p
3. s
4. s /\ n
5. s /\ ~ n
6. s \/ c
7. s /\ c

© R. Glass and M. Spiegelman