A Boolean expression has the following terms
Literals
A literal is a single Boolean variable or it's complement
Constant
A constant is a value or the quantity which has a fixed (unchanging) value. In real number (conventional) algebra, constants include all integers and fractions. In Boolean Algebra, there are only two possible constants 1 and 0. These two constants are used to describe true and false, YES or NO, etc.
Variable
A variable is a quantity which can change its value by taking on the value of any constant. At any one itme the variable has only one particular value of constant. There are only two values of constants in the Boolean System. Therefore, a variable in Boolean algebra can only be either 0 or 1. Variables are denoted by letters.
Term
A term is a literal or a collection of literals.
Product Term
A product ( logical AND) of several different literals is called the product term. For example :
A.B' is a product term
Sum Term
The Logical OR of Literals is called the sum term. For example:
A+B'+C
is an example of sum term
Sum of Products
It is the sum (logical OR) of product terms. For example
A.B' +B.C + A.B.C
is the sum of three different erms i.e. A.B', B.C and A.B.C
Product of Sum
It is tthe product (logical AND) of sum terms. For example:
(A+B).(A+B'+C).(A+C)
is the product of three different sum terms i.e. (A+B), (A+B'+C) and (A+C)
Minterm
A minterm is an AND function that includes each variable once in its normal or complemented form. This is also known as the standard sum of products. For example:
If you have two variables, A and B, there are eight possible terms:
A, B, A', B', A'B', A'B, AB' and AB.
Similarly for three variables we have 26 possible terms.
Maxterm
A maxterm is a logical OR function that includes each variable once in its normal or complemented form. This is known as standard product of sums.
