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 Robert Carroll
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#95205
Henry Z,

You got those examples from the top of this page of the thread, where Rachael points out that they are biconditionals.

I would always look at context for any indicator word. "Unique" could be an indicator of many things or nothing, depending on the circumstances. So, when it looks as if it might be a conditional indicator, think about whether it's introducing a necessary condition, a sufficient condition, or both (the biconditional situation of this stimulus). Conditional indicators don't substitute for thought - indicators trigger the idea that you should think more about the possible conditionality, but to actually reduce the statements to a diagram, you have to think about what conditional relationship is actually logically equivalent to the English statements in the thing you're diagramming. No different here - as you point out, "unique" could have different roles in different situations. What role it has in any particular situation has to be thought out.

Robert Carroll
 supjeremyklein
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#96757
breakdown:
p1: super successful ppl ---> leave mark
p2: implement solution ---> only super successful
combined: implement solution ---> only super successful ---> leave mark

(c) implement solution ---> leave mark

analogy:
p1: all dogs have a burning desire to eat human food
p2: dogs are unique in that when they see trash they get excited

p3: all other animals see trash but are too busy bathing themselves

p2 (rephrased): only dogs get excited when they see trash

p1 (diagrammed): all dogs ---> want human food
p2 (diagrammed): excited over trash ---> only dogs
p1 & 2 (linked): excited over trash ---> all dogs ---> want human food
 ealanclos
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#96997
Hello,

after reading the explanations above, I'm a little bit confused as to why the statement "highly successful entrepreneurs are unique in that whenever they see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea" yields a biconditional statement. Is it because you can translate "unique" into "only", and then combined with "whenever" you have both a sufficient and a necessary indicator?

Thanks!
 Rachael Wilkenfeld
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#97057
Exactly, ealanclos. By saying they are unique, we are saying they are the only ones who implement a solution whenever they see a solution to a problem. There is both a sufficient and necessary indicator that applies, so it's a biconditional relationship.

Biconditional relationships are fairly rare on the test, but they are a bit easier to work with than a standard conditional statement.

Hope that helps!
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 emilyjmyer
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#97165
Rachael Wilkenfeld wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:05 pm Exactly, ealanclos. By saying they are unique, we are saying they are the only ones who implement a solution whenever they see a solution to a problem. There is both a sufficient and necessary indicator that applies, so it's a biconditional relationship.

Biconditional relationships are fairly rare on the test, but they are a bit easier to work with than a standard conditional statement.

Hope that helps!
Is unique a biconditional indictor or is it a biconditional indicator in the case because it is combined with whenever?
 Adam Tyson
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#97173
The latter, Emily - it's biconditional in this case because of the combination with "whenever."
 kristinajohnson@berkeley.edu
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#114189
Beth Hayden wrote: Tue Feb 22, 2022 8:14 pm Hi GGIBA,

On your first question, I want to refer you to Adam's earlier answer. There isn't a clear list of words to look for, and it could never be exhaustive. Here, the word "unique" implies that this is something that only happens with highly successful entrepreneurs, so that is effectively the same as "if and only if" in this situation. Remember that a biconditional is essentially two statements combined: A :arrow: B and B :arrow: A, so we can conclude that A :dbl: B.

Here, you are right that "whenever" indicates just part of the conditional. Whenever HSEs see a solution :arrow: they implement it. AND they are unique, which means we can also reverse the arrow to know that if you see someone who implements ideas to solutions, they must be a HSE. Those two pieces together create a biconditional. So there's not one word that signals you have a double arrow, one word here signals the :arrow:, and another word signals the :larrow:.

You are spot on with your explanation of (C). Because of that "unique" word, we know that all people who implement solutions are HSEs, and there is also a premise that says that the main desire of HSEs is to leave their mark on the world. Combine those together and you get (C).

Hope that helps!
Beth
Hello,

"Here, the word "unique" implies that this is something that only happens with highly successful entrepreneurs, so that is effectively the same as "if and only if" in this situation."

"So there's not one word that signals you have a double arrow, one word here signals the :arrow:, and another word signals the :larrow:."

These two sentences seem to disagree. The first says unique "is effectively the same as 'if and only if'" (signals you have a double arrow) and the second says, "there's not one word that signals you have a double arrow" (unique)! I'm not trying to pick replies apart, but I really don't get this conditional so this is confusing me, it's also very helpful, thank you Beth!

If unique means ONLY IF and whenever means IF, okay?:

“Highly successful entrepreneurs are unique [ONLY IF] in that whenever [IF] they see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea.”

[IF] they see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea <-> Highly successful entrepreneurs

I put Highly successful entrepreneurs where I did because of Rachael's helpful examples of the earth and moon diagrams but honestly, I don't get the breakdown of this sentence. Can someone step by step explain exactly how to break down this one sentence, so it goes both ways, everything else makes sense.

If unique means IF AND ONLY IF, no problem:

“Highly successful entrepreneurs are unique [IF AND ONLY IF] in that whenever they see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea.”

Highly successful entrepreneurs are unique <-> they see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea

If unique means ONLY and whenever means IF?:



Thank you.
 kristinajohnson@berkeley.edu
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#114190
Robert Carroll wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 12:06 pm GGIBA003,

The entire phrase "whenever they see a solution, they implement the idea" is one of the conditions of the biconditional. The other is "highly successful entrepreneur". Because it's a biconditional, it doesn't matter what order those two things go in. I could say:

highly successful entrepreneur :dbl: implements solution as soon as they see it

From the first sentence:

highly successful entrepreneur :arrow: mark on world

Biconditionals are reversible, so the combination of these leads to:

implements solution as soon as they see it :dbl: highly successful entrepreneur :arrow: mark on world

That's just what answer choice (C) says.

Robert Carroll
Hello Robert,

I guess everything else doesn't make sense. Can you please break down step by step how answer choice (C) is transformed into " implements solution as soon as they see it :dbl: highly successful entrepreneur :arrow: mark on world?"

Thank you very much.
 kristinajohnson@berkeley.edu
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#114191
Last thing, the last sentence seems to be irrelevant, correct?

Thank you!
 kristinajohnson@berkeley.edu
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#114192
kristinajohnson@berkeley.edu wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 4:01 pm
Robert Carroll wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 12:06 pm GGIBA003,

The entire phrase "whenever they see a solution, they implement the idea" is one of the conditions of the biconditional. The other is "highly successful entrepreneur". Because it's a biconditional, it doesn't matter what order those two things go in. I could say:

highly successful entrepreneur :dbl: implements solution as soon as they see it

From the first sentence:

highly successful entrepreneur :arrow: mark on world

Biconditionals are reversible, so the combination of these leads to:

implements solution as soon as they see it :dbl: highly successful entrepreneur :arrow: mark on world

That's just what answer choice (C) says.

Robert Carroll
Hello Robert,

I guess everything else doesn't make sense. Can you please break down step by step how answer choice (C) is transformed into " implements solution as soon as they see it :dbl: highly successful entrepreneur :arrow: mark on world?"

Thank you very much.
they see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea <-> Highly successful entrepreneurs -> main desire the wish to leave a mark on the world

The main desire of all [IF] people who [IF] implement solutions whenever [IF] they detect them is to -> (?) leave a mark on the world

Help.

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