Symbolic Notation

Notice that the words "if" and "then" are not part of the hypothesis and conclusion.

It is important to note that sometimes conditional statements are not written exactly in the if-then format above, but the meaning is still the same.

For instance, the conditional statement "If it is raining, then I’ll bring my umbrella," would still have the same meaning if it were written as "I’ll bring my umbrella if it is raining."  The hypothesis would still be "it is raining" and the conclusion would still be "I’ll bring my umbrella."  When statements are not written neatly in the if-then format, it takes a bit of detective work on your part to determine which element is the hypothesis and which element is the conclusion.

Let's look at another example:

"Dogs have tails" implies the conditional statement "If an animal is a dog, then it will have a tail."

If you get confused, ask yourself which happens first.  That is the hypothesis.  Is it that being a dog means it will have a tail or does having a tail mean that it is a dog?  We’ll explore this idea further later in the section.