Date of Award:

5-1963

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Mathematics and Statistics

Committee Chair(s)

Charles H. Cunkle

Committee

Charles H. Cunkle

Abstract

The purpose of this section is to define a boolean algebra and to determine some of the important properties of it.

A boolean algebra is a set B with two binary operations, join and meet, denoted by + and juxtaposition respectively, and a unary operation, complementation, denoted by ', which satisfy the following axioms:

(1) for all a,b ∑ B (that is, for all a,b elements of B) a + b = b + a and a b = b a, (the commutative laws),

(2) for all a,b,c ∑ B, a + b c =(a + b) (a + b) and a (b + c) = a b + a c, (the distributive laws),

(3) there exists 0 ∑ B such that for each a ∑ B, a + 0 = a, and there exists 1 ∑ B such that for each a ∑ B, a 1 = a,

(4) for each a ∑ B, a + a' = 1 and a a' = 0.

If a + e = a for all a in B then 0 = 0 + e = e + 0 = e, so that there is exactly one element in B which satisfies the first half of axiom 3, namely 0. Similarly there is exactly one element in B which satisfies the second half of axiom 3, namely 1.

The 0 and 1 as defined above will be called the distinguished elements.

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Included in

Algebra Commons

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