Skip to main content

Testing Equivalence and Consistency

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Two statements are equivalent when their main columns match on every row, and a set of statements is consistent when at least one row makes every member true. Both verdicts are read directly off completed tables.

Show

First, equivalence. Table the conditional p horseshoe q beside the disjunction of tilde p and q. Four rows each. The conditional reads true, false, true, true. The disjunction: tilde p is false, false, true, true, and joined to q by a wedge it reads true, false, true, true. Compare row by row — true and true, false and false, true and true, true and true. Every row agrees, so the two are equivalent. Now consistency. Take three statements: p horseshoe q, p, and tilde q. Build one table holding all three main columns. Scan for a single row where all three are true. Row one gives true, true, false. Row two gives false, true, true. Rows three and four both fail on p. No row makes all three true, so the set is inconsistent.

Watch for

Equivalence needs agreement on every row, not on most of them. One differing row is enough to break it, and that row is often the last — which is why the comparison has to run to the end rather than stopping once a pattern looks established.

Builds on

Unlocks

  • Nothing yet depends on this.