Assignment No.
02
Semester Fall 2024
CS636 – Formal Methods
Marks: 15
Due Date: January 04, 2025
FAIQA SHAHZADI
(BC230209196)
Assignment Syllabus: Week 10
Scenario
Suppose a system consists of three components: A, B, and C. Each component can either
function correctly or fail. Let the following sets represent the states of the components:
Af: Set of conditions where component A fails.
Bf: Set of conditions where component B fails.
Cf: Set of conditions where component C fails.
The overall system fails if at least two components fail simultaneously.
Questions: [Marks (7.5+7.5=15)]
Question 1: Using set theory, express the failure condition of the system as a union of
intersections of the given sets.
Answer
Using set theory, express the failure condition of the system as a union of intersections
of the given sets.
The system fails if at least two components fail simultaneously. This condition can be broken
into three cases:
1. Components A and B fail simultaneously (Af∩Bf)
2. Components A and C fail simultaneously (Af∩Cf)
3. Components B and C fail simultaneously (Bf∩Cf)
The overall failure condition is the union of these three cases, as any one of them will cause
the system to fail.
Expression for failure condition:
Sf=(Af∩Bf)∪(Af∩Cf)∪(Bf∩Cf)
Question 2: Simplify the expression answered in Question 1 and provide a mathematical
interpretation of the result.
Answer:
Using set theory properties, there’s no direct simplification beyond recognizing that the
expression already represents the failure condition of the system explicitly.
However, interpreting this mathematically:
The system fails if any pairwise combination of failures occurs among A, B and C.
Each intersection (e.g., Af∩Bf) represents the simultaneous failure of two
components.
The union ensures that any such pairwise failure is accounted for in the overall system
failure condition.
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