Question:medium

Which of the following statement is not tautology?

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Tautology: statement true for all truth values of its components.
Updated On: Jun 16, 2026
  • \(\sim(p \land q) \lor p\)
  • \((p \land q) \rightarrow p\)
  • \(q \lor \sim(p \land q)\)
  • \((\sim p \land q) \cap (\sim p \lor p)\)
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The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

A tautology is a logical statement that is always true, regardless of the truth values of its constituent propositions. We need to identify which of the given statements is not a tautology.

  1. \(\sim(p \land q) \lor p\):
    • Consider the expression \(\sim(p \land q)\), which is equivalent to \(\sim p \lor \sim q\) (De Morgan's Law).
    • Replacing, we get: \((\sim p \lor \sim q) \lor p\).
    • This can be simplified further to: \(\sim q \lor \sim p \lor p\), which simplifies to \(\sim q \lor \text{True}\) (since \(p \lor \sim p\) is always true).
    • The expression evaluates to True, hence it is a tautology.
  2. \((p \land q) \rightarrow p\):
    • This is equivalent to \(\sim(p \land q) \lor p\) (since \((p \rightarrow q) \equiv (\sim p \lor q)\)).
    • From the previous expansion on the first point, this reduces to a tautology.
  3. \(q \lor \sim(p \land q)\):
    • This can also be simplified as: \(q \lor (\sim p \lor \sim q)\)
    • This simplifies further to \(q \lor \sim p \lor \sim q\).
    • Regardless of \(\sim p\) and \(\sim q\), since there's a disjunction with \(q\), it becomes True, confirming it is a tautology.
  4. \((\sim p \land q) \cap (\sim p \lor p)\):
    • The expression \((\sim p \lor p)\) is a tautology (always true) due to the law of excluded middle.
    • However, there's a confusion here, as "\(\cap\)" is unconventional in propositional logic compared to "\(\land\)", assuming it's a logical conjunction.
    • This simplifies to \((\sim p \land q) \land \text{True}\), which ultimately depends on the truth values of \(\sim p\) and \(q\).
    • Since it does not uniformly evaluate to true across all variable assignments, it is not a tautology.

Thus, the statement that is not a tautology is \((\sim p \land q) \cap (\sim p \lor p)\).

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