SOLUTION: I can understand the truth table, here is the formula -- (pvq)^~p

You must learn the rules for "not", "or" and "and".

"Not" is denoted by ~.  It only precedes a letter.
It is FALSE whenever what follows it is TRUE, and
it is TRUE whenever what follows it is FALSE.

"or" must be between two letters.
"Or" is denoted by "v", It is FALSE ONLY when there
are FALSEs on BOTH SIDES of it; otherwise it is TRUE.

"And" also must be between two letters.
"And" is denoted by "^", It is TRUE ONLY when there
are TRUEs on BOTH SIDES of it; otherwise it is FALSE.

To make a truth table when there are two letters, put 
TTFF under all the p's like this



Then put TFTF under all q's (in this example there's only 
one q):



Now that we have a list of T's and F's under each letter,
we are ready to start putting a list of T's and F's under
the symbols, using the rules above.

We can put a list under the v because there is a list on
both sides of it, but we must wait to put a list under the 
^, because we must complete the parentheses first.
So we put TTTF under the v, like this: (I explain why
below:





The reason we put T's on the first three lines
and an F on the bottom line under the "v" is because 
only the bottom line has F's on both sides of the 
"v" column. Rmember that "v" get an F only when
there are F's on both sides of the "v" column.

Since we have used the lists on each side of the "v",
we can erase them or cross them out, for we don't need
them anymore.  Or we can leave them there and just
ignore them.  I'll cross them out.



Next we put a list under the ~, using the rule it is an F
if it precedes a T and a T if it precedes an F



Now I will cross out the list that I just used to
get the list under the ~



Now there is only one symbol left to put a list under.
It has the list TTTF on the left of it and FFTT on the
right of it so we put the list FFTF under it, because "^" 
only gets a T in the third line because that's the only
line that has T's on both sides.  The other three lines
get T's

so we have this:

 

Finally we cross out the lines we just used



The answer is FFTF

Edwin