GetThisDone wrote:
Mayville Airport and Newcomb Airport have the same number of flight departures each day. Mayville Airport experiences 26 departure delays per 100 flights, while Newcomb Airport experiences 20 departure delays per 100 flights. When delays caused by bad weather are disregarded, Mayville Airport has 5 fewer departure delays per 100 flights than Newcomb Airport does.
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information given above?
(A) Bad weather causes a greater number of departure delays at Mayville Airport than at Newcomb Airport.
(B) On average, the weather at Mayville Airport is worse than it is at Newcomb Airport.
(C) Mechanical problems cause a greater number of delays at Newcomb Airport than at Mayville Airport.
(D) The fleet of airplanes leaving from Newcomb Airport is better equipped to handle inclement weather than the fleet of airplanes leaving from Mayville Airport.
(E) Mayville Airport experiences a greater number of arrival delays per 100 flights than Newcomb Airport does.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
When drawing a conclusion, we must remember not to conclude too much. In this case, we are looking for the conclusion that comes directly from the information given without requiring any additional assumptions.
(A) CORRECT. In general, Mayville experiences a greater number of delays per 100 flights than Newcomb does. However, when delays caused by bad weather are discounted, Mayville has 5 fewer delays per 100 flights. Since the two airports run the same number of flights, bad weather must cause a greater number of delays at Mayville Airport than at Newcomb Airport.
(B) While we can conclude that Mayville experiences a greater number of delays caused by bad weather, we cannot make any conclusions about the relative weather conditions at either airport. It is very possible that the airports experience the same weather, but that for some reason Newcomb’s airport is better equipped than Mayville’s airport to handle inclement weather (e.g. the fleet of aircraft at Newcomb is better suited to bad weather, or the air traffic controllers at Newcomb are more competent, etc.). Some other factor could cause the discrepancy in weather related delays aside from the weather conditions being different.
(C) While we can conclude that Mayville experiences a greater number of delays caused by bad weather, we have no information about delays caused by mechanical problems. There may be other reasons aside from either bad weather or mechanical problems that account for departure delays (e.g. human error).
(D) We have no information regarding the quality of airplane fleets at either airport.
(E) The argument gives no information about arrival delays.