teach-ict.com logo

THE education site for computer science and ICT

2. What is Logic

In general, you use 'logic' to work out whether doing something causes the result to be 'True' or 'False'.

The outcome of applying logic is always either true or false

Consider the painful experiment below (don't try this at home!):

'If I stick my finger in boiling water then I will burn my finger'.

Is this a True statement?

You work out the truth of this statement by applying some known rules such as:

Rule 1: I am human
Rule 2: Human fingers are harmed by contact with boiling water

Therefore the two rules are applied one after another. 'I am human' (True), 'I've
stuck my finger in boiling water (True) therefore (logically) my finger will be burnt

a logic statement

It is very important to note that normal logic does not have anything in-between, there is no 'slightly true' or 'slighty false' result.

It is either True or False.

The early designers of computers quickly realised that logic can be used within a computer to work out problems. After all, computer data is either 1 (Logic True) or 0 (Logic False).

Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: What is computer logic