SLOG - Week 1

This week in class we focused on proving and disproving different types of logical claims. I learnt the difference between universal claims, which evaluate if every element in a set 1 are also in a set 2, and existential claims, which evaluate if an element of a set 1 also exists in set 2. I found the knowledge of these topics applied greatly to the material we have covered so far in MAT137, which has been to do with evaluating sets and set builder notation. At first I wasn't totally comfortable with applying my knowledge of these types of claims in programming logic, through the use of any and all statements, but after playing around with sets in Python, the connection became obvious. I did have some trouble this week, mainly with picturing statements in the form of Venn diagrams. The lab helped clear this up a lot, the TA was very thorough in her explanations of the topic, and it made the lab quiz at the end trivial. After fully understanding the Venn diagrams, I also found this helped in my understanding of how to verify and falsify universal and existential claims, which is very obvious when you picture each set involved as either occupied or empty.