Logical Reasoning

PT18 · S4 · Q13 I. Room air conditioners produced

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.

Background

Room A/C units from Japan tend to be more reliable than those from U.S.

Surprise

They have about the same average lifetime (of 15 years)

Evaluate / Goal

Given That we are told that the Japanese ones are more reliable than the American ones

Why is it That they have the same average lifetime?

I guess it comes down to how we define "more reliable". It might be that they both last 15 years, but the American one needs to be fixed every 2 years and the Japanese one might only need to be fixed once during that period.

Or maybe 'reliability' refers more to working properly. So both of them last 15 years, but the Japanese ones more reliably blow cool air into the room.

13.

Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?

  1. Correct

    Reliability is a measure of

    Why this is right

    This makes room for how Japanese A/C's could be said to have a reliability advantage, even while only having a total lifetime equal to American A/C's. I would say that LSAC made this paradox pretty weak to begin with, since I don't think most of us inherently define "reliability" as "longevity". But that was the tension they were trying to create with these two statements. If you interpreted "more reliable" to mean "longer-lasting", then you would be surprised to hear that both types of A/C last about as long as each other. However, as this answer says, if you define 'reliability' as how frequently it needs repair, then it's easy to reconcile equal product lifetimes with unequal product reliability.

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

    68% picked this

  2. Production facilities of firms designated

    No Impact

    It doesn't really matter where these are made. There's still a pile of A/C's that are produced by Japanese manufacturers, and a separate pile produced by American manufacturers. Both facts are about a difference or a similarity between those two piles. The fact that some production facilities of the American A/C's might be in Mexico does not explain why reliability is worse than Japanese but overall lifetime is the same.

    7% picked this

  3. Damage to room air conditioners

    No Difference

    Since this statement applies to each group equally, it won't have any impact in how we analyze the difference / sameness paradox.

    1% picked this

  4. Room air conditioners have been

    Unclear Impact

    Here, we get a difference, but does "these manufacturers have been doing it longer" helps us explain why their A/C's are less reliable but have equivalent product lifetime?

    1% picked this

  5. Japanese manufacturers often use more

    Reinforces Background

    This gets into why the Japanese A/C's are more reliable, but we don't really need to know why they're more reliable. We need to be able to reconcile "they're more reliable, but they only last as long as American A/C's".

    24% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free