Negating Quantifiers Help

436 Views Asked by At

I'm trying to understand how to negate a quantifier. I'm not that good at writing out a quantified logical statement either.

This is the statement: There is somebody that no-one is taller than. This is the negation: ( ∀ y) ( ∃ x) x is taller than y.

Can someone explain how they found the negation?

This is what I attempted:

Negation: Everybody is taller than somebody.

∀ x: everybody

∃ y: somebody

( ∀ x) ( ∃ y) x is taller than y.

I'm getting it flip flopped. I don't understand why.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

Let's use $h(\;)$ as the height measure.

"There is somebody that no-one is taller than." $\equiv \overset{\tiny\text{some one}}{\exists y}~\overset{\tiny\text{no(t) one}}{\neg\exists x} ~\overset{\tiny\text{is taller than (the some one)}}{(h(x){>}h(y))}$

Negate it: $\neg\exists y~\neg\exists x ~(h(x)>h(y))~~\equiv ~~\forall y~\exists x~(h(x){>}h(y))$

That is "Everyone has someone that is taller than them", or "Everybody is shorter than somebody."