[Math] Wondering how to express this statement symbolically.

logicpredicate-logicquantifiers

The question asks: Express the statement symbolically, including a quantification of all variables which makes the universe explicit. Negate the symbolic statement, and express the negation in natural language as a useful denial.

1.) The inequality $x^2-4x+3 < 0$ has a real solution.

I am lost on this, but my attempt was like so:

Expressing symbolically:
$(\forall{x}\in \mathbb{R})P(x^2-4x+3 < 0)$

Negate: $(\exists_{x} \in \mathbb{R})\neg P(x^2-4x+3 < 0)$

Express to language: The inequality $x^2-4x+3 < 0$ has only one solution.

Any calcification would be great. The books doesn't help much 🙁

Best Answer

In natural language the negation "The inequality $x^2−4x+3<0$ has a real solution" expresses existence of a number $x$ such that $x^2-4x+3 < 0$. Translated into symbols, this gives $(\exists x \in \mathbb{R})\ x^2-4x+3 < 0$.

Taking the negation,

$$\begin{align}&\neg (\exists x \in \mathbb{R})\ x^2-4x+3 <0\\ \iff & (\forall x \in \mathbb{R}) \neg(x^2-4x+3<0)\\ \iff & (\forall x \in \mathbb{R})\ x^2 -4x+3 \geq 0 \end{align}$$ The last statement, translated into language, says that $x^2-4x+3\geq 0$ for all real numbers $x$. This exactly expresses the negation of the original statement, because whenever we don't have a real solution to $x^2-4x+3<0$, then we know that for every real $x$, $x^2-4x+3 \geq 0$, and vice versa.