Boolean logic

Clause

A disjunction of literals.

Definition

Clause

A clause is true when at least one of its literals is true.

A formula in conjunctive normal form requires every clause to be true. One false clause is therefore enough to reject an assignment.

01

Example

The clause a or not b is false only when a is false and b is true.

02

Important distinction

A conjunction of literals is a term, not a clause in the standard SAT representation.

After reading this article, you should be able to

  • Define Clause in the sense used on this site.
  • Determine which assignments make a given clause false.