Question

What is the contrapositive of the following conditional statement? "if a bird is an ostrich, then it cannot fly." if a bird can fly, then it is not an ostrich. if a bird is not an ostrich, then it can fly. if a bird cannot fly, then it is an ostrich. if a bird is an ostrich, then it cannot fly.

Answer 1

The contrapositive of the statement 'If a bird is an ostrich, then it cannot fly' is 'If a bird can fly, then it is not an ostrich.'

Step-by-step explanation:

The contrapositive of a conditional statement is created by negating both the antecedent (the 'if' part) and the consequent (the 'then' part) of the original statement and then reversing their order.

So, the contrapositive of the statement 'If a bird is an ostrich, then it cannot fly' is 'If a bird can fly, then it is not an ostrich.'

This is because we reverse and negate the antecedent 'If a bird is an ostrich' to become 'a bird can fly', and the consequent 'then it cannot fly' to become 'then it is not an ostrich'.

It is important to understand that in logical reasoning, a conditional statement and its contrapositive are logically equivalent. This means that if the original statement is true, the contrapositive will always be true as well.