Definition
A Boolean algebra is a six-tuple consisting of a set A, equipped with two binary operations ∧ (called "meet" or "and"), ∨ (called "join" or "or"), a unary operation ¬ (called "complement" or "not") and two elements 0 and 1 (sometimes denoted by the symbols ⊥ and ⊤, respectively), such that for all elements a, b and c of A, the following axioms hold:
-
-
a ∨ (b ∨ c) = (a ∨ b) ∨ c a ∧ (b ∧ c) = (a ∧ b) ∧ c associativity a ∨ b = b ∨ a a ∧ b = b ∧ a commutativity a ∨ 0 = a a ∧ 1 = a identity a ∨ (b ∧ c) = (a ∨ b) ∧ (a ∨ c) a ∧ (b ∨ c) = (a ∧ b) ∨ (a ∧ c) distributivity a ∨ ¬a = 1 a ∧ ¬a = 0 complements
-
A Boolean algebra with only one element is called a trivial Boolean algebra or a degenerate Boolean algebra. (Some authors require 0 and 1 to be distinct elements in order to exclude this case.)
It follows from the last three pairs of axioms above (identity, distributivity and complements) that
-
- a = b ∧ a if and only if a ∨ b = b.
The relation ≤ defined by a ≤ b if and only if the above equivalent conditions hold, is a partial order with least element 0 and greatest element 1. The meet a ∧ b and the join a ∨ b of two elements coincide with their infimum and supremum, respectively, with respect to ≤.
As in every bounded lattice, the relations ∧ and ∨ satisfy the first three pairs of axioms above; the fourth pair is just distributivity. Since the complements in a distributive lattice are unique, to define the involution ¬ it suffices to define ¬a as the complement of a.
The set of axioms is self-dual in the sense that if one exchanges ∨ with ∧ and 0 with 1 in an axiom, the result is again an axiom. Therefore by applying this operation to a Boolean algebra (or Boolean lattice), one obtains another Boolean algebra with the same elements; it is called its dual.
Read more about this topic: Boolean Algebra (structure)
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places. The propriety is in either case relative. The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this—”devoted and obedient.” This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.”
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)