BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

BOOLEAN ALGEBRA
• Branch of Algebra used for describing and designing two
valued state variables …
• Introduced by George Boole in 19th century …
• Shannon used it to design switching circuits (1938)
• Deals with binary variables and binary logic functions
• Has two discrete values
• 0 False, Open
• 1 True, Close
• Three basic logical operations
• AND (.); OR (+); NOT(‘)
 The Operations In Boolean Algebra
1. The complementation of an element, denoted with a bar “-‫ ”ــــــــ‬is
defined by:

2. The sum (+; OR):

1+1=1; 1+0=1; 0+1=1; 0+0=0.

3. Boolean product(. ; AND).

1.1=1, 1.0=0, 0.1=0, 0.0=0

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Example1:
Find the value of

Solution:
Using the definition of operations in Boolean algebra, it follows that:
 Translation into a Logical Equivalence

•0 ≡ F,
•1≡T,
• . ≡ Λ,
•+ ≡ V,
• ‫¬ ≡ ــــــــ‬
Example 2:

• 0 ≡ F,
Solution:
• 1≡T,
• . ≡ Λ,
• + ≡ V,
• ‫¬ ≡ ــــــــ‬
Example 3:

• 0 ≡ F,
Solution: • 1≡T,
• . ≡ Λ,
• + ≡ V,
• ‫¬ ≡ ــــــــ‬
 Boolean Functions
Boolean Functions A Boolean function is a special
kind of mathematical function f: Xn → X of degree n,
where X = {0, 1} is a Boolean domain and n is a non-
negative integer. It describes the way how to derive
Boolean output from Boolean inputs.
Example: Let, F(A, B) = A’B’. This is a function of degree 2
from the set of ordered pairs of Boolean variables to the
set {0, 1} where F(0, 0) = 1, F(0, 1) = 0, F(1, 0) = 0 and
F(1, 1) = 0.
 Boolean Expressions
A Boolean expression always produces a Boolean value. A
Boolean expression is composed of a combination of the
Boolean constants (True or False), Boolean variables and logical
connectives. Each Boolean expression represents a Boolean
function.
Example: AB’C is a Boolean expression.
EXAMPLE 5
Find the values of the Boolean function represented by
Solution:
The values of this function are displayed in Table 2.
 Identities of Boolean Algebra
EXAMPLE 8
Show that the distributive law x(y+z)=xy+xz is valid.
Solution:. The identity holds because the last two
columns of the table agree.
Identities of Boolean Algebra
EXAMPLE 9
Translate the distributive law This transforms the
x+yz=(x+y)(x+z) in Table 5 into a Boolean identity into the
logical equivalence. logical equivalence
Solution: pV(qΛr)≡(pVq)Λ(p Vr).
Put x≡p, y≡q, & z≡r, and use the
translation of Boolean
operations • 0 ≡ F,
• 1≡T,
• . ≡ Λ,
• + ≡ V,
• ‫¬ ≡ ــــــــ‬
 Duality
• The dual of a Boolean expression is obtained by interchanging Boolean
sums and Boolean products and interchanging Os and 1 s.
• Duality of a Boolean function F is denoted by Fd
EXAMPLE 11

Solution:
 Duality Principle
An identity between functions represented
by Boolean expressions remains valid when the duals
of both sides of the identity are taken.
This result, called the duality principle, is useful
for obtaining new identities.
EXAMPLE 12
Construct an identity from the absorption law
x(x+y)=x by taking duals.

Solution:
Taking the duals of both sides of this identity
produces the identity x+xy = x, which
is also called an absorption law and is shown in
Table.
Canonical Forms
For a Boolean expression there are two kinds of
canonical forms:
1. The sum of minterms (SOM) form
2. The product of maxterms (POM) form
 x y z minterm maxterm

1. Express F=A+ABC in minterms or SOP form

2. Express F=(x+y).(x+ȳ+z) in maxterm form
Logic Gates
•Example: How can we build a circuit that computes the
function xy + (-x)y ?
x
xy

y
xy + (-x)y

x -x
(-x)y

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