How the pigment known as Han

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct57% picked this

   Chemical analysis shows that most of the known fragments of both Han purple and the white glass were produced

   Why this is right

   This adds some plausibility to the Author's Explanation. If most known fragments of these two things come from the same, small geographical area, then it's more plausible that these two things are linked, potentially in the way the author is thinking (an accidental discovery of HP while trying to make WG). (note: this correct answer kind of blew my mind when I first saw it. It felt so flimsy. Cool, most fragments are from a similar area. That's it? That's what I was supposed to care about? It taught me to be much looser about what I can use as a correct answer when we're dealing with Causal Explanations. In fact, this correct answer and the one from Q2, like "scale drawings were commonly used in many types of construction" really are why I created the two-prong causal prephrase that I use — Other Ways to explain the curious fact / Plausibility of the Author's Way. Plausibility can be added or subtracted in so many different ways. And making something somewhat more or less plausible doesn't feel that impactful, but it still might be the most impactful answer we're offered.)

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

   57%
2. B

   Out of Scope: how they're used5% picked this

   Han purple was used for luxury and ceremonial items, whereas the white glass was used to

   It doesn't really matter what white glass and Han purple went on to be used for. This argument is only about assessing the causal mystery of their origin story.

   5%
3. C

   No Impact14% picked this

   The technique used for producing Han purple was known to very few people during the

   The fact that very few people knew how to make Han purple doesn't make it any more or less likely that Han purple was discovered by accident by white glass makers. If we knew that very few people also knew how to make white glass, then it would be slightly more suggestive that Han purple and white glass came from the same "secret club", but white glass was not a secret club. The stimulus says that it was a "common type" of glass.

   14%
4. D

   Weakens, if anything13% picked this

   The ingredients used in producing both Han purple and the white glass were easily obtainable during the

   A potential Alternate Explanation is that Han purple was just discovered some other way. Even though it has the same chemical ingredients as white glass, maybe there's are still other things that also use those same chemical ingredients. Or maybe there were people specifically working on developing a new pigment and the chemistry they chose was just coincidentally similar to that of white glass. All of these alternate explanations are easier to believe if the ingredients for each thing were easily obtainable. An easier way to say it is this — the opposite of this answer would strengthen. If the common ingredients used in Han purple and white glass were very difficult to obtain, then that would strengthen the plausibility that Han purple emerged as an accident from people making white glass. It would hurt the plausibility that two separate entities each had access to these shared ingredients. Making the ingredients very easy to obtain creates more ways that independent parties could have each been messing around with the same ingredients, and so it lessens the connection between white glass and Han purple.

   13%
5. E

   No Impact10% picked this

   The white glass is found in more surviving artifacts from the Qin and Han dynasties

   Just like (B), this is dealing with what society ended up using white glass and Han purple for, but we're only concerned with solving the causal mystery of Han purple's origins.

   10%