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I have a statement,

Either p or q

and I have to write it in terms of logical connectives but I don't get which logical connector should I be using? Here is what I did (I think there could have been a better way to do this)

$(p \lor q ) \land (\neg((p \Rightarrow q) \land (q \Rightarrow p)))$

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    (Added) If, again, you mean exclusive or, then your sentence works, but even better, part of it works. Look at $\lnot((p \to q)\land (q\to p))$. This holds if $p$ is true and $q$ is false, or vice-versa. So well done, except for the unnecessary $p \lor q$ part. But it took me a few seconds of looking to realize this, because the connective $\to$ is somehow less intuitive. (The connectives $\lor$ and $\land$ are closely connected to the geometric notions of union and intersection.)2011-09-28

4 Answers 4

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To me, the word "either" is unnecessarily confusing, and should be avoided if possible (of course, since it is part of the problem we have no choice in this case).

If "either $p$ or $q$" means the same thing as "$p$ or $q$", then the answer is simply $p\vee q$ (by the definition of $\vee$).

However, if "either $p$ or $q$" means "either $p$ or $q$, but not both" then this is equivalent to "$p$ is true and $q$ is false, or $p$ is false and $q$ is true". Do you see how to write the logical expression for this?

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    Interpreting *either ... or ...* to mean anything different than _p or q, but not both_, would render the word _either_ utterly useless. There is a reason for the word to exist, so interpreting it in other ways does not make sense. It is exactly for the purpose of expressing *p or q, but not both* , so that we can talk about these things in a precise way. Of course it's going to be useless, if you interpret it to mean something it does not. Still does not mean it should not be used. You'd rather not use it and express things imprecisely? That seems strange.2017-05-01
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If "Either p or q" means "p or q", then logical disjunction $p \lor q$ would do it, if "Either p or q" means not both, then exclusive disjunction is needed: $p \oplus q = (p\land \neg q)\lor (\neg p\land q) = (\neg p\lor \neg q)\land (p\lor q)$.

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    +1, for mentioning XOR. I was wondering if that was going to be on this question.2015-09-24
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There are several symbols for exclusive or, including $\oplus$ and $\veebar$. However, while in classical logic such connectives are both easily defined in terms of existing connectives and by means of a truth-table, they are not commonly employed in mathematics.

It's worth noting that there are many minimal functionally complete sets of logical connectives, but the definition of xor in terms of formulae using predefined connectives will be different in each. An obvious one is replacing $\phi \oplus \psi$ with $(\phi \vee \psi) \wedge \neg (\phi \wedge \psi)$.

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Assuming I understand the question correctly (you're looking to describe "exclusive or"), hint: either p or q means p is true and not q, or (inclusive or) ...

You could also try draw the truth table.