In
mathematics and
mathematical logic,
Boolean algebra is the branch of
algebra in which the values of the
variables are the
truth values true and
false, usually denoted 1 and 0 respectively. Instead of
elementary algebra where the values of the variables are numbers, and the main operations are addition and multiplication, the main operations of Boolean algebra are the
conjunction and, denoted ∧, the
disjunction or, denoted ∨, and the
negation not, denoted ¬. It is thus a formalism for describing logical relations in the same way that ordinary algebra describes numeric relations.