Boolean algebra (nonfiction)

In mathematics (nonfiction) and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra (or Boolean logic) is the branch of algebra in which the values of the variables are the truth values true and false, usually denoted 1 and 0 respectively.

Description

The main operations of Boolean algebra are the conjunction and, denoted ∧, the disjunction or, denoted ∨, and the negation not, denoted ¬.

It is thus a formalism for describing logical relations in the same way that ordinary algebra describes numeric relations.

By contrast, in elementary algebra the values of the variables are numbers, and the main operations are addition and multiplication.

History

Boolean algebra was introduced by George Boole in his first book The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847), and set forth more fully in his An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854).

According to Huntington, the term "Boolean algebra" was first suggested by Sheffer in 1913.

Applications

Boolean algebra has been fundamental in the development of digital electronics, and is provided for in all modern programming languages.

It is also used in set theory and statistics.