Logical Reasoning

PT111 · S4 · Q23 The higher the altitude

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The higher the altitude, the thinner the air.

Conclusion

The air must be thinner in MC than in PC.

Evidence (since)

MC's altitude is higher than that of PC. The higher the altitude, the thinner the air.

Evaluate

There are repeating terms throughout, so it makes sense to try to write an Algebraic Recipe for this argument.

P1: The more X, the more Y. P2: A's got more X than B does. C: A's got more Y than B does.

A = mex city, B = pan city X = altitude, Y = air thinness

Goal

Let's look for something with the same logical structure.

discussion on Volume Dial statements (if you're interested) This seems like a valid argument. When we use a Volume Dial (aka Stepladder) formulation like "the more X, the more Y", it goes infinitely in both directions. You can also say "the less X, the less Y".

If the expression is couched in wording like, , then that indicates that reading newspapers has a positive influence on your LSAT ability, but it's not the only relevant factor, so you couldn't automatically assume that someone who's read 100 articles is better at LSAT than someone who's read 50.

The way the rule is presented here, it sounds like we can fairly judge that any higher altitude spot on Earth has thinner air. Although you might wonder whether it's meant to be interpreted as, .

But maybe some places on Earth with an altitude of 100m above sea level have an air thickness of 4 and other places with that same altitude have an air thickness of 5, because other local conditions influence how thin the air is.

Because of this ambiguity, it's not super clear whether this is airtight logic, but we should just worry about structure at first.

23.

Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the argument above?

  1. As one gets older one

    Weaker Logic Match

    This one is very tempting and usually the last wrong answer people eliminate. As one gets older, one gets wiser. The more A, the more B? We could stretch that to maybe mean "the more years you have, the more wisdom you have", but that's ultimately where this answer is worse than the correct one. This Volume Dial relationship is explicitly presented as something internal to one person. "As one gets older, one gets wiser". That is not the same as saying, "The older you are, the wiser you are." According to this rule, Henrietta at 60 years old is wiser than Henrietta was at 30 years old. Saying Henrietta at 60 years old is wiser than Barack Obama at 55 years old would be derivable from "the older you are, the wiser you are" but it's not derivable from "as one gets older one gets wiser". Different life experiences may have accelerated wisdom for people. We can't neatly transfer higher age to higher wisdom, the way we can neatly transfer higher altitude to thinner air (or more tree rings to older tree).

    34% picked this

  2. The more egg whites used

    Weak Evidence Match Bad Validity Match

    Instead of giving us "the more X, the more Y", this answer is giving us, the more X and the more Y, the more Z That difference should already spook us on a first pass. If we read the rest of the argument, it turns out it's pretty badly flawed, since the premise only provides half of that (X and Y) trigger, yet still concludes Z. We'd be objecting, "What if Joseph beat his egg whites for longer? His meringue might still be fluffier!" Then we would hear ourselves and think, "My goodness. Listen to the crazy words coming out of my mouth. What have I become?" and spend the next few hours looking into a bathroom mirror at a Chuck E. Cheese.

    2% picked this

  3. The people who run the

    Trap

    Bad Evidence Match Bad Validity Match This doesn't have a great Volume Dial relationship. It's not saying, the more recent you are as a "fastest marathon runner", the faster your time is. It's just a head-to-head comparison between fastest runners today vs. fastest runners 10 years ago. Also, the logic here is very objectionable. Charles is just identified as "a marathon runner", so we have no idea if he qualifies as "someone who runs the fastest marathons these days", and thus we can' apply the can't apply the rule we were given to him.

    0% picked this

  4. Correct

    The older a tree, the

    Why this is right

    The more X, the more Y The more age a tree has, the more rings it has. A is more X than B L's tree has more age than T's tree Thus, A is more Y than B L's tree has more rings than T's tree X = age, Y, = rings A = tree in Lou's yard, B = tree in Theresa's yard

    Skill tested: Parallel · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    62% picked this

  5. The bigger the vocabulary a

    Bad Logic Match

    This tries to use the Volume Dial relationship backwards. The more X, the more Y The more words in a language, the harder it is to learn The next ingredient should be this: A is more X than B English has more words than Italian does. Instead it's this A is more Y than B English is harder to learn than Italian. With that backwards move, it's not going to match the original argument as much as (D) does.

    2% picked this

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