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Robbins Algebra


Building on work of Huntington (1933ab), Robbins conjectured that the equations for a Robbins algebra, commutativity, associativity, and the Robbins axiom

 !(!(x v y) v !(x v !y))=x,

where !x denotes NOT and x v y denotes OR, imply those for a Boolean algebra. The conjecture was finally proven using a computer (McCune 1997).


See also

Boolean Algebra, Huntington Axiom, Robbins Conjecture, Robbins Axiom, Winkler Conditions

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References

Fitelson, B. "Using Mathematica to Understand the Computer Proof of the Robbins Conjecture." Mathematica in Educ. Res. 7, 17-26, 1998. http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/Articles/1475/. Fitelson, B. "Proof of the Robbins Conjecture." http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/MathSource/291/.Huntington, E. V. "New Sets of Independent Postulates for the Algebra of Logic, with Special Reference to Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica." Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 35, 274-304, 1933a.Huntington, E. V. "Boolean Algebra. A Correction." Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 35, 557-558, 1933b.Kolata, G. "Computer Math Proof Shows Reasoning Power." New York Times, Dec. 10, 1996.McCune, W. "Solution of the Robbins Problem." J. Automat. Reason. 19, 263-276, 1997.McCune, W. "Robbins Algebras are Boolean." http://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/papers/robbins/.Nelson, E. "Automated Reasoning." http://www.math.princeton.edu/~nelson/ar.html.

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Robbins Algebra

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Robbins Algebra." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RobbinsAlgebra.html

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