Saturday, October 8, 2011

Ch. Six: Contrapositive

While reading chapter six under necessary and sufficient conditions, I found the concept called contrapositives interesting because it is one way to understand conditional statements a little better. Conditional claims are “if, then…” statements which ties in with contrapositive claims. The definition of a contrapositive is where a claim and its contrapositive are equal. It’s a little hard to explain, but by giving an example it’s easier to understand! As I read in the book, showing a conditional with the contrapositive is better way of understanding the concept as well. An example of a contrapositive would be the following statements:

If you failed your math exam, then you didn’t study prior.

Contrapositive: If you studied for your math exam, you passed your test.

This shows the formula If A, then B & If not A, then not B. Contrapositive statements can be a little tough to understand, but when comparing them with conditional statements one can have a better perspective.

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