(A·B)′ — De Morgan's laws

introNAND expands to a sum

Answer

A′ + B′

Why this example is worth doing

The first law in its bare form. The bar over a product becomes a sum of barred variables, and the operator flips — that flip is the entire content of the theorem and the thing that gets dropped. The page animates the negation moving inward one node at a time rather than presenting before and after, because the mechanical rule students need is per-node: break the bar, change the sign, negate each operand. It also shows the resulting NAND-equals-inverted-input-OR symbol, which is the same statement in IEEE 91 notation.

Try your own input in the De Morgan’s laws. Push a negation through any expression and see both forms side by side.

How the answer is reached

Negation pushed inwards

(A · B)′A′ + B′De Morgan swaps the operator as the bar passes through it.

Truth table

Truth table — columns #, A, B, F
#ABF
0001
1011
2101
3110

Compare with

Open this example in the De Morgan’s laws

The field arrives filled in with this example’s input.

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

  • De Morgan, Formal Logic (1847)
  • Boole, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854)