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Open formula

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 109.166.128.100 (talk) at 03:02, 7 September 2019 (details about an echivalent name to open sentence : sentence with (at least) a variable x with unspecified values). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

An open formula is a formula that contains at least one free variable.[citation needed] Some educational resources use the term "open sentence",[1][unreliable source?] but this use conflicts with the definition of "sentence" as a formula that does not contain any free variables. The term open sentence comes from considering the sentence (propositional function) as having a variable x with an unspecified domain of values, thus the variable x associated to the predicate letter is free.

An open formula does not have a truth value assigned to it, in contrast with a closed formula which constitutes a proposition and thus can have a truth value like true or false.

For example, when reasoning about natural numbers, the formula "x+2 > y" is open, since it contains the free variables x and y. In contrast, the formula "y x: x+2 > y" is closed, and has truth value true.

See also

References and notes