Several industries have recently switched at least partly from older

^ As per the premise and OA, fossil fuel is used to generate electricity which in turn power the new technologies. Fossil fuel does not directly power the new machines, but does so indirectly.

The idea that you'll need to reconcile with is, generating electricity from fossil fuel has a better efficiency than directly burning fossil fuel to run the older machines. Kind of like how an electric train is more fuel efficient than an old steam engine. This will be true even if the power plant of the electric train is thermal!

DexDee, what you are saying is that using electricity is more efficient than burning fossil fuel. But I don't think that this is what they are saying. What they are saying is simply that:

(1) They used to have machinery powered by fossil fuel
(2) Some industries have switched, at least partly, to powering their machines by electricity

and as a result:

(3) Less fossil fuel is being used

Where do they talk about efficiency?

Please explain.

Thanks a lot.

The question has been tagged as a question from the OG.

I am sure everyone already knows this but just want to restate the fact:

OFFICIAL GUIDE ANSWERS ARE NEVER WRONG !!!

Understanding the logic behind the OA is the only possible way to improve. Challenging the OA from GMAC is PURE WASTE OF TIME !!!

The answer to this question is indeed E. The logic behind it has already been explained above.

Let me try to help those, who might need some sort of support in understanding why B is wrong whereas E is the OA.
B. B talks about those machineries , which will be used to employ the new technology, would need less FF to get manufactured. Are we talking about the machine and machineries that we may need in our actual operation that is being discussed? No. B talks about some something that we don't know Can't say.
E. FF--> EP << FF itself. This is what was asked to strengthen if we look into the conclusion.
In case you need further help , feel free to share your line of thought

Two questions:-
1. What is EP
2. Why C cant be the answer

Hey Nilabh,

Ep is eletric powered.
C says,
More electricity is used to by those industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies than by those industries that have not switched.
here the author says Electric consumption has risen, but here there is no hints given for the FF. Does only EP matters to us?
Hope that helps.

I got struck between B and E.

I chose B thinking getting into the trap that it specifies less fossil is needed now thereby strngthening the conclusion.
But B speaks about fossil fuel used in production of machinery needed for the industry and not on fossil fuel required/used in operation of industry/machinery.

Hope this helps someone.

The correct answer is E

PREMISE 1:- Old technology uses more fossil fuel
PREMISE 2- New technology is powered by electricity

CONCLUSION :- New technology use less fossil fuel

Can you see the gap :-Old technology use fossil fuel, New technology uses Electricity and suddenly the conclusion is made that new technology uses less fossil fuel.
SO the missing link is that somehow fossil fuel should figure in relation to new technology.


For example see this argument
Bob can solve 12 questions in one minute
John can eat 15 donuts in one minute
Therefore John is more talented than Bob


Does this comparison makes sense.. "NO" ==> Eating donuts and solving questions are two different talents and thus cannot be compared.
So to strengthen the conclusion that John (donut eating kid) is more talented, we have to show something John can solve questions also. Then only a logical comparison between Him and bob will be established. So in this the correct strengthen will be :- When Bob solve questions while eating donuts , his error rate is 58 %, whereas John can eat donuts and solve same number of question with only 10 percent error rate.

Applying this same principle in the given question we can see that somehow we need to correlate Old technology, New Technology, electricity and fossil fuels to make sense of the relationship between them.

Only option E does it perfectly
E) The amount of fossil fuel used to generate the electricity needed to power the new technologies is less than amount that would have been uesed to power the older technologies --> Yup. correct tells that what is the relation ship between fossil fuel and technology and electricity ; thus now the comparison of old and new technology is valid and the conclusion is supported

B is just re statement of the last line of the argument.

If you can find better strengthner than B , then that choice is the answer.

E strenthens more than B

mikemcgarry sayantanc2k

As per the premise it is mentioned that the usage of FF will be minimised or the usage will decline,
I was stuck between B and E and in the end chose the wrong option B, however, Can we eliminate option B on the basis of the word :Manufacturing: as the premise is talking about the usage of the FF and not about the where the FF was used to manufacture?

ARGUMENT CONSTRUCTION:
Shift in technology happens from Older to Newer but not in all of the factory rather in phases.
This **** is quite intresting because , there is also shift of power source for the new technology.
So in all less fossil fuel is burned compared to situation when the technology was old.

Conclusion, precisely is that
Hey u know because of advancement in technology powered by alternate source of energy , Comp are burning less fossil fuel

When can we say somegting is less than the other thing. Only if we can know their quantities. So

Assumption: The amt of fossil fuel burnt before the new tech was introduced is more than the amt of fossil fuel burnt after the new tech was introduced.



Answer Choice Analysis:

(A) Many of the industries that have switched to at least partly to new technologies have increased their output.

If the O/p is increased then net effect of saving fossil fuel is vanished,
So , Incorrect

(B) Less fossil fuel was used to manufacture the machinery employed in the new technologies than was originally used to manufacture the machinery employed in the older technologies.

First, the argument is concerned with industries that have switched their technology and amount of fossil fuel burnt by them before and after the switch.
This option talks about new tech machinery vs old tech machine employed in such industries( where change took place). All we know is the fossil fuel used to manufacture was less. But does it give us any idea of how much fossil fuel is saved or burnt to run this machine where this machine is installed. No

It could be that to power new tech we many need to burn more or same fossil fuel.

So incorrect

(C) More electricity is used to by those industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies than by those industries that have not switched.

Its in line of the argument because new tech employed is powered by electricity so obviously we would see such increase in electricity consumption, but again do we know amount of Fossil Fuel burnt to meet the increased demand of electricity. It could be more or less .
So Incorrect

(D) Some of the industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies still use primarily technologies that are powered by fossil fuel.

If this were inference question , it would be nearly close answer. Since we are looking for a strengthener, we want some new information that would strengthen the argument..

So Incorrect.

(E) The amount of fossil fuel used to generate the electricity needed to power the new technologies is less than amount that would have been used to power the older technologies

Yes , Correct, because the only left option in the answer choices .
Logically: This option is clear mathematical term explaining inequality.

The amount of fossil fuel used to generate the electricity needed to power the new technologies <The amount of fossil fuel used to generate the energy(or if we want to think of energy as electricity) needed to power the older technology.


For some how I wanted to bring this information because this question reminds me of something that can be very helpful for those who prethink .
What are the characteristics of a strengthener.
1. New Information
and
2.this New Information must support the Conclusion
but,
3 this new information supporting the conclusion "May or may not be always be true for the conclusion to hold true"

And Option E .
Yes its a new information and yes it supports the conclusion, increasing our belief in authors argument (conclusion). But what is noteworthy here is that this New information is also an assumption that author makes to conclude his argument. This new information must always be true for the conclusion to hold true.


So Every Assumption is a strengthener but every strengthener is not an assumption.

Thanks,
Probus.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
A In an indirect way, this option slightly weakens rather than strengthens the argument. For if fossil fuels are
used to produce the electricity now used by the industries and if it is because of these newer technologies
that output has increased, the argument’s conclusion is less likely.
B It does not matter how much fossil fuel was used to manufacture the older technologies originally. That has
no bearing on whether more fossil fuel would have been expended as a result of the continued operation of
the industries if the partial switch to newer technologies had not occurred.
C This is what we would expect, but it in no way strengthens the argument.
D This may seem to weaken the argument by indicating that the switch from older technologies will have
less of an impact on fossil fuel consumption by these industries than we might have assumed. But since the
conclusion makes no claim about how much consumption has been reduced, it is not clear that this option
has any bearing on the strength of the argument one way or the other.
E Correct. This is the option that most strengthens the argument.
The correct answer is E.

Hello Experts ,
ParamjitDasGMAT generis AndrewN

Please vet my reasoning below :-

(A) Many of the industries that have switched to at least partly to new technologies have increased their output.

This Answer Choice is Out of Scope ( OFS) because the result of switching to new technologies is not our concern
-NO IMPACT TO THE ARGUMENT

(B) Less fossil fuel was used to manufacture the machinery employed in the new technologies than was originally used to manufacture the machinery employed in the older technologies.

This information is Irrelevant because the quantity of Fossil Fuels used to manufacture new vs old technologies is not our concern. Our concern is to strengthen the fact that after switching to new technologies less fossil fuel is used.

-NO IMPACT TO THE ARGUMENT

(C) More electricity is used by those industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies than by those industries that have not switched.

This is also Irrelevant information to the argument. How much electricity used is not our concern. We are concerned with usage of Fossil Fuel

-NO IMPACT TO THE ARGUMENT

(D) Some of the industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies still use primarily technologies that are powered by fossil fuel.

This in fact WEAKENS the argument

-WEAKNER


(E) The amount of fossil fuel used to generate the electricity needed to power the new technologies is less than amount that would have been used to power the older technologies.

Correct

Thanks.

The argument states that several industries have switched from fossil fuels to electricity-powered new technology, resulting in less fossil fuel usage than if they had retained their older technologies. To strengthen this argument, we need to find a statement that provides additional evidence to support this claim.

(A) Many of the industries that have switched to at least partly to new technologies have increased their output.
This statement does not strengthen the argument, as it does not provide any information about the use of fossil fuels or electricity.

(B) Less fossil fuel was used to manufacture the machinery employed in the new technologies than was originally used to manufacture the machinery employed in the older technologies.
This statement does not provide any additional evidence to support the claim that less fossil fuel is being used as a result of the operations of these industries.

(C) More electricity is used by those industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies than by those industries that have not switched.
This statement weakens the argument, as it suggests that more electricity is being used, which may still be generated from fossil fuels.

(D) Some of the industries that have switched at least partly to the new technologies still use primarily technologies that are powered by fossil fuel.
This statement weakens the argument, as it suggests that the industries are not entirely reliant on electricity-powered new technology.

(E) The amount of fossil fuel used to generate the electricity needed to power the new technologies is less than amount that would have been used to power the older technologies.
This statement strengthens the argument by providing evidence that less fossil fuel is being used overall, as the amount of fossil fuel used to generate the electricity needed to power the new technologies is less than what would have been used to power the older technologies. Therefore, (E) is correct.

The correct option of Strengthen questions should do two things-
1. Introduce a new piece of evidence to support the claim
2. If the option were to be negated, the argument should fall apart.

If you negate B --> More FF was used to manufacture Machines that use New Tech --> Okay, that just tells me about one bad thing about New Tech, maybe in the long run, as stated in the argument itself, the net consumption of FF in New Tech is less --> Argument does not fall apart.

If you negate E --> If more FF is needed to produce the electricity that the New Tech uses than the FF usage of Old Tech, it makes no sense to adapt the New Tech --> Argument falls apart.