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And/Or contrapositive

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:30 am
by e10
Question about and/or statements and their contrapositives.

If a statement said the following:

To graduate from HLS you must be both smart and resourceful.

Therefore, the contrapositive of the statement would be:

If you are not smart or not resourceful then you will not graduate from HLS.

Can someone explain the and --> or part? I am getting a little confused ( thinking too much about the or), what if someone is smart but not resourceful, can they not graduated then?

Any explanation/examples would be appreciated.

Re: And/Or contrapositive

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:32 am
by TheTopBloke
Well simply stated, you require both, so if you don't have one OR the other, than its no good.

Re: And/Or contrapositive

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:43 am
by LSAT Blog
As an exercise, break the statement into two parts, and things may become clearer:

If graduate -> smart

If graduate -> resourceful


Contrapositives:

If not smart -> not graduate

If not resourceful -> not graduate


Graduating requires both, so...if you lack one, the other, or both, then you cannot graduate.