Hello all,

I'm a freshman electrical engineer in a digital logic class (I'll be here a lot this semester!) and I'm stuck on a homework problem involving Boolean equations.

The question asks me to prove this equation using algebraic manipulation:

WY + W'YZ' + WXZ + W'XY' = WY + W'XZ' + X'YZ' XY'Z

I figured it out using expansion but is there any way of approaching problems like this (where identities aren't immediately obvious) from a purely algebraic standpoint? Or is expansion into minterms the simplest way?

Cheers,
Ben

 

Not really, there isn't. Only experience or ingenuity. It's gonna be hard for you at the beginning while they ask you to prove those identities using only Boolean manipulation.

After a few courses the truth table and the Karnaugh map will become legitimate tools and your life will become easier.