Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science

What condition must be met for the OR Boolean operator to evaluate as true?

1. Both inputs must be true

2. At least one input must be false

3. Only one of the inputs needs to be true

4. None of the inputs can be true

The correct answer is: Only one of the inputs needs to be true

The correct answer reflects the fundamental operation of the OR Boolean operator, which is designed to evaluate to true if at least one of the operands is true. This means that even if only a single input is true, the entire expression will evaluate to true. For instance, consider the following scenarios using the OR operator: - If one input is true and the other is false, the result is true. - If both inputs are true, the result is still true. - The only condition that causes the OR operator to evaluate as false is when both inputs are false. This characteristic makes the OR operator particularly useful in programming and logic, where you might want to check for multiple conditions and only require one of them to be satisfied for the overall condition to hold true. The other options describe conditions that do not accurately represent how the OR operation functions, thus clarifying why this specific understanding of the OR operator is essential in logical evaluations.