A·B + Ā·C + B·C = A·B + Ā·C — Boolean algebra laws

introconsensus

Answer

verified equivalent (both sides → A′ · C + A · B)

Why this example is worth doing

The consensus theorem, stated with its usual pattern: two terms containing a variable and its complement, and a third built from the remaining literals. The page shows why the third is implied — whatever A does, one of the first two terms already covers every row where B·C holds — and then makes the practical qualification that redundant does not mean useless. The consensus term is exactly the one you add back to eliminate a static-1 hazard in a real gate network, so this law is read in both directions.

Try your own input in the Boolean laws & theorems. Every law, both duals, each with a truth-table proof you can check.

How the answer is reached

The law

A · B + A′ · C + B · CA · B + A′ · CBoth sides have the same truth table over the union of their variables.

Truth table

Truth table — columns #, A, B, C, F
#ABCF
00000
10011
20100
30111
41000
51010
61101
71111

Compare with

Open the Boolean laws & theorems

This input is entered in the tool itself — it is too rich for a link to carry.

Note:

Notation this page assumes

  • Symbols: · is AND, + is OR, ⊕ is XOR, a prime or an overline is NOT. The field also takes ∧ ∨ ¬ ~ ! & | and the words.
  • Operator precedence, tightest first: NOT, then AND (including juxtaposition), then XOR/XNOR, then NAND/NOR, then OR, then IMPLIES, then IFF.
  • In a minterm index the first variable is the most significant bit, so over [A, B, C] minterm 5 is A·B̄·C.

Sources

  • Boole, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854)
  • Shannon, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits” (1938)