In boolean logic, logical nor or joint denial is a truth-functional operator which produces a result that is the negation of logical or. That is, a sentence of the form (p NOR q) is true precisely when neither p nor q is true—i.e. when both of p and q are false. In grammar, nor is a coordinating conjunction.
The NOR operator is also known as Peirce's arrow — Charles Sanders Peirce introduced the symbol ↓ for it, and demonstrated that the logical NOR is completely expressible: by combining uses of the logical NOR it is possible to express any logical operation on two variables. Thus, as with its dual, the NAND operator (a.k.a. the Sheffer stroke — symbolized as either | or /), NOR can be used by itself, without any other logical operator, to constitute a logical formal system (making NOR functionally complete). It is also known as Quine's dagger (his symbol was †), the ampheck (from Greek αμφηκης, cutting both ways; compare amphi-) by Pierce, or "neither-nor".
One way of expressing p NOR q is, where the symbol signifies OR and the bar signifies the negation of the expression under it: in essence, simply . Other ways of expressing p NOR q are Xpq, and .
The computer used in the spacecraft that first carried humans to the moon, the Apollo Guidance Computer, was constructed entirely using NOR gates with three inputs.
Read more about Logical NOR: Definition, Properties, Introduction, Elimination, and Equivalencies
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“Nature’s law says that the strong must prevent the weak from living, but only in a newspaper article or textbook can this be packaged into a comprehensible thought. In the soup of everyday life, in the mixture of minutia from which human relations are woven, it is not a law. It is a logical incongruity when both strong and weak fall victim to their mutual relations, unconsciously subservient to some unknown guiding power that stands outside of life, irrelevant to man.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)