TITLE: Discrete math logic question
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: I have the following two questions.

For all real numbers x, there is a real number y such that $2x+y=7$ would this be true or false?

I think true because if you put
$2(7)+y=14$
$2(8)+y=14$ there will always be a specific y that will make it work is this logic correct.

There is a real numbers x that for all real number y, $2x+y=7$ will be true.

would this be false because if you say $x=6$
then you get
$2(6)+2=14$
only if $y=2$ would it work but it would not work for every y.

REPLY [3 votes]: Yes, indeed, you are correct in your assessment of the truth or falsity of each statement. 
In the first, we can see this as allowing $y$ to depend on $x$. So for any given $x$, we can find some $y$, and in particular, we can simply choose $y = 7 - 2x$ which will guarantee the equalition holds.  
In the second case, $y$ cannot depend on any given $x$. For the statement to be true, we need to consider the existence of a particular $y$ such that for every $x$, regardless of what $x$ may be, the equality holds. Since $x$ can vary, but $y$ can not vary accordingly, the statement is clearly false.
These two statements help demonstrate just how crucial the order of quantifiers and quantified variables can be: in the first, we have a true statement, and in the second, a false statement, and the only difference between them is the placement of $\exists y \cdots$.