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 esp165
  • Posts: 4
  • Joined: Nov 15, 2011
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#3273
This is a formal logic question beginning, "In the Hartshorn Building..."

Can someone show me what the diagram for this would look like. The bigger and smaller elements threw me off a bit.

Thanks!
 Rachael Wilkenfeld
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 1358
  • Joined: Dec 15, 2011
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#3274
Hi ESP,

Let's start with the clear relationships. We know that the 4th floor offices are all larger than the second floor offices, and the second floor offices are larger than the first floor offices. We can write that in an inequality:

4 > 2 > 1

But we have the first sentence to deal with. It tells us about the third floor. Most but not all of those offices are larger than those on the second floor. That tells us that most third floor offices are larger than 2nd floor, but some are smaller.

Therefore, we get another inequality:

most 3 > 2 > some 3

To combine the two rules, we get:

4...............1
------- > 2 > -------
most3.......some 3


I hope that helped!
 esp165
  • Posts: 4
  • Joined: Nov 15, 2011
|
#3276
Thank you!
 ChicaRosa
  • Posts: 111
  • Joined: Aug 23, 2016
|
#28198
Hi,

Would anyone help explain why answer choice D is correct and not B?

I had a hard time with this problem and I thought it was D because if some of the third floor offices are smaller than the 2nd floor offices then wouldn't it be possible for the first floor offices to be the same as the small third floor rooms?

I was struggling with diagramming the problem. I graphed the first part of the sentence just like the one here: 4>2>1 but when they mentioned that most but not all of the third floor offices are larger than any of the offices on the second floor, I was struggling with the most and some relationship.

4 > 1
3 :most: 2
3 :some: 2

Is this the correct way of diagramming it?


Thank you!
 Shannon Parker
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 147
  • Joined: Jun 08, 2016
|
#28222
ChicaRosa wrote:Hi,

Would anyone help explain why answer choice D is correct and not B?

I had a hard time with this problem and I thought it was D because if some of the third floor offices are smaller than the 2nd floor offices then wouldn't it be possible for the first floor offices to be the same as the small third floor rooms?

I was struggling with diagramming the problem. I graphed the first part of the sentence just like the one here: 4>2>1 but when they mentioned that most but not all of the third floor offices are larger than any of the offices on the second floor, I was struggling with the most and some relationship.

4 > 1
3 :most: 2
3 :some: 2

Is this the correct way of diagramming it?


Thank you!

Hi,

While the diagram you have is correct, it doesn't visually illustrate how the relationships between the different statements interact. Taking the diagram that previously shown, you can see that even the smallest fourth floor office is larger that than any office on the second floor, but some third floor offices are the same size or smaller than some of the offices on the second floor.

4...............1
------- > 2 > -------
most3.......some 3

As for why B is not correct, it is because the question stem calls for a must be true answer. While it is possible that "some first-floor offices are as large as the smallest third-floor offices," it is also possible that the smallest third floor offices are smaller than the second floor offices and yet still bigger than the first floor offices. Both cases COULD be true, but neither case MUST be true.

I hope this helps.

~Shannon

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