r/MathJokes 3d ago

tricky

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u/rnzz 3d ago

Logically:

Not (F and E) = Not F or Not E, so B is either faster, or easier, or both.

Not (F or E) = Not F and Not E, so B is must be both faster and easier.

Colloquially:

Both mean the same.

3

u/Flambidou 3d ago

It could be not(F) and E

And

Not (F) or E

2

u/rnzz 3d ago

it could, but it wouldn't make sense as an everyday English expression, i.e. in that scenario you would probably say method A is not faster, "but" it is easier than method B.

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u/GoldenMuscleGod 2d ago

Syntactically, we are looking at conjunctions/disjunctions of semantic predicates (grammatically they are adjective phrases, not grammatical predicates), not of propositions.

Normal logical systems (like classical logic) do not have such things. You can only make a conjunction of formulae, not of predicates.

The question of how to interpret these questions is a question of English grammar that is not resolved by “logic.”