Using Boolean Algebra to Evaluate the News

60% of news articles contain propositional statements, and luckily, George Boole invented a form of analysis that can be used to evaluate whether these statements are true or false.

OK, I made up the 60% number, but it's still an incredibly useful tool to evaluate the legitimacy of news.

I don't go into the mathematical details, but I will give an example of a statement that is illogical.

"Michael claims that he did not pick a girl to take to the dance, but Andrew knows that Michael had narrowed it down to two."

Illogical statement proof:

p = Michael claims he picked a girl to take to the dance;
q= Andrew knows that Michael had narrowed it down to two;

We can further break down the p and q statements:

p1 = Michael claims 'x';

p2 = x = he picked a girl (y) to take to the dance;

(y = 1 girl);

q1 = Andrew knows 'z';

q2 = z = Michael narrowed it down t two ('r);

r = 2;

The above statement translates to:  ((p1)∧(~p2))∧((q1)∧(q2))

(~p2) says "Michael did not pick a girl to take to the dance";

(q2) says "Michael narrowed it down to two"

The problem is that (~p2) = 0 and (q2) = 1; therefore they cannot be joined by an 'and' operator and must be joined by an 'or' operator.

The correct statement is: "Either Michael claims he did not pick a girl to take to the dance, or Andrew knows that Michael had narrowed it down to two."

((p1)∧(~p2))∨((q1)∧(q2)) is correct.