Another Statement Negation

jimophtho

Statement reads:

"Rattlesnakes molt exactly once a year."

How would you negate this? Is is better to use one statement that says "Rattlesnakes do not molt exactly once a year" or is it better to split it into two that each say "Rattlesnakes molt less than once a year" and "Rattlesnakes molt at least twice a year"? Or is the first statement logically equivalent to the combination of the second and third? Thanks

c.janson35

"Rattlesnakes do not molt exactly once a year", which could mean exactly what you said: more than once per year, or less than once per year.

LoraxMan

Agreed that first statement is logically equivalent to first and third.

@jimophtho I think most negations are pretty straightforward using a logical opposite along the lines of "it is not the case that" with the exception of situations where you need to negate a conditional statement (at least this is where I had the most trouble doing negations). In these conditional phrase cases you can use the "some...not..." format to find the logical opposite. For example to negate: "If one flies on a plane then one gets frequent flyer miles" we would say "some people that fly on planes do not get frequent flyer miles".

jimophtho

Thank you guys. @LoraxMan your explanation was very helpful

LoraxMan

@jimophtho glad it helped! The rattlesnake question is the very worst.