On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 1:29 PM 'ookami' via Metamath <
[email protected]> wrote:

> While I am at it, I'd like to point out that the propositional section is
> in some sense incomplete. I know for some years, that all propositional
> expressions can be dissected into implication chains like
>
> Ph -> ( Ps -> ... -> Ka )..)
>
> where each node in the chain is either a wff variable, or the negation
> thereof.  An expression (like (( ph -> ps ) -> ch) can map to more than one
> such chain ( ps -> ch and -. ph -> ch ). In any case, this process is
> reversible (see ja, bija for example).  This lets the above chains appear
> as normalized expressions covering the whole propositional logic.  A few
> basic operations on chains like reordering (com12, con1i), adding (a1i) or
> dropping (syllogisms, pm2.18, pm2.61) nodes are sufficient to do all you
> need in propositional logic.  Why do I emphasize this? Should you ever
> strive for automated theorem proving, then such normalized chains are a
> good operational base.
>

In the literature, this is usually called conjunctive normal form, where
the implication chain is replaced by a disjunction ( -. ph \/ -. ps \/ ...
\/ ka ). Most SAT solvers are based on this representation. The particular
form that usually comes up in deduction proofs is called a Horn clause, in
which only one disjunct is true and all the others are false. This can be
written as ( ph -> ps -> ... -> ka ) or ( ( ph /\ ps /\ ... ) -> ka ), and
in this case there is actually an efficient algorithm for SAT. The general
case requires lots of case splits and is worst case exponential.

Mario

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