A company that manufactures sports equipment has received complaints

Question

A company that manufactures sports equipment has received complaints that their portable basketball hoop, which is mounted on a pole attached to a weighted base, overturns too easily. They therefore started making larger, heavier bases, but have surprisingly received just as many complaints about overturned hoops as before.

Which of the following, if true, would best explain why the change to the base did not have its intended effect?

(A) Frequently, buyers of the hoop with the newer base reported that they found installing the equipment more time-consuming than they expected.
(B) The increase in the cost of the hoop with the larger base has led to a 15% reduction in sales.
(C) Promotional materials that emphasized the hoop’s stability led buyers to locate the hoop on surfaces that were too steep.
(D) The new hoop has a backboard that breaks more easily than the one that came with the older hoop.
(E) Even with the larger base, wind and rain can overturn the hoop.

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Question 51: Portable Basketball Hoops

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winterschool · Answer

A company that manufactures sports equipment has received complaints that their portable basketball hoop, which is mounted on a pole attached to a weighted base, overturns too easily. They therefore started making larger, heavier bases, but have surprisingly received just as many complaints about overturned hoops as before.

Which of the following, if true, would best explain why the change to the base did not have its intended effect?

(A) Frequently, buyers of the hoop with the newer base reported that they found installing the equipment more time-consuming than they expected.  Incorrect

it explains new complaint

(B) The increase in the cost of the hoop with the larger base has led to a 15% reduction in sales.  Incorrect

not related with complaints

(C) Promotional materials that emphasized the hoop’s stability led buyers to locate the hoop on surfaces that were too steep.  Incorrect

it cant explain why overturned hoops still continues

(D) The new hoop has a backboard that breaks more easily than the one that came with the older hoop.  Incorrect

that doesnt meant hoop overturn because of this

(E) Even with the larger base, wind and rain can overturn the hoop.  Correct

shows new cause why overturn the hoop still continues

Sumi1010 · Answer

The company started making larger, heavier bases, but surprisingly received just as many  complaints about overturned hoops  as before.

What could be the reason? We need to pick the choice that can explain this discrepancy. 
  Prethink  - The factor has to be closely related to new hoops and should not be just the impact of something common with earlier and newer hoops.

(A) Frequently, buyers of the hoop with the newer base reported that they found installing the equipment more time-consuming than they expected.
 The time is not the concern, the overturning hoop is. If time were the concern, the complaints would not have been related to overturned hoops.  
(B) The increase in the cost of the hoop with the larger base has led to a 15% reduction in sales.
 The company got the complaints about overturned hoops from those who used the new ones.Thus, they must have bought the hoops even if it went costlier and did not complain about the cost. This does not explain the intact complaints about overturned hoops. 
(C) Promotional materials that emphasized the hoop’s stability led buyers to locate the hoop on surfaces that were too steep.
 If the hoop is located on the surface that is too steep, the chances of getting it overturn is more with larger base, keeping the number of complaints unchanged. 
(D) The new hoop has a backboard that breaks more easily than the one that came with the older hoop.
 First of all, we don't know if the company makes the backboard too. Even if it does so, the complaints should not come about overturned hoops, but about broken backboard. This information does not explain the gap. 
(E) Even with the larger base, wind and rain  can  overturn the hoop.
 The argument is not about the impossibility of overturning the hoops. Wind and rain or any other factor can overturn the hoops as they could do to earlier hoops, but the possibility may differ. The possibility cannot be nullified no matter how heavy and big the hoop is. Does not explain the gap.

C

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation:

A company that manufactures sports equipment has received complaints that their portable basketball hoop, which is mounted on a pole attached to a weighted base, overturns too easily. They therefore started making larger, heavier bases, but have surprisingly received just as many complaints about overturned hoops as before.
 
 Which of the following, if true, would best explain why the change to the base did not have its intended effect? 
 
 (A) Frequently, buyers of the hoop with the newer base reported that they found installing the equipment more time-consuming than they expected. 
 (B) The increase in the cost of the hoop with the larger base has led to a 15% reduction in sales. 
 (C) Promotional materials that emphasized the hoop’s stability led buyers to locate the hoop on surfaces that were too steep. 
 (D) The new hoop has a backboard that breaks more easily than the one that came with the older hoop. 
 (E) Even with the larger base, wind and rain can overturn the hoop.

Question Type:   Resolve Paradox / Explain
  Boil It Down:   A company which makes basketball hoops got complaints that it overturned too easily. To fix this problem, they made the base heavier. Surprisingly, the complaints about the hoops did not change. This was unexpected.
  Goal:    Find the option that best explains why the problem still exists, in spite of the changes already made.

Analysis:

Because this is a paradox question, we aren’t incredibly concerned with figuring out the assumption of the prompt. Our focus should first be the paradox itself. What is the paradox here? In my own words, I think here is our problem: Hoops were falling over, they added a heavier base to make them stop falling over, but they continued to fall over at the same pace. Our paradox is exactly what the question asks, “why did the change in the base not have it’s intended effect?” One would expect that adding a heavier base would mean it tips over less. But in this case, it did not seem to have an impact.

As always, we should make a prediction to resolve or explain the paradox. Just using our own common sense, what could explain this discrepancy? The first thing that comes to mind is that the base, even though it was made larger and heavier, was just not made larger and heavier enough. For example, if the original base was 10 pounds, and the larger heavier base was 20 pounds, that would be irrelevant if the base needed to be at least 30 pounds to support the rest of the hoop.

Second, we could also focus on the complaints. Notice the difference between “complaints have stayed the same” and “the basketball hoops tip over at the same rate.” They are similar, but not the same. Complaints can certainly be an indicator, and are likely correlated with the hoops falling over, but complaints do not prove anything else. Perhaps complaints stayed the same because there is a backlog of complaints that haven’t been processed yet. Or perhaps there are other complaints that have to do with the hoop tipping over that have nothing to do with the weight of the base. If either of these were true, the number of complaints could have stayed the same while the hoops actually fell over less.

In sum, my predictions are for an answer choice that says either “the base was not made larger or heavier enough,” or “complaints are not indicative of how many hoops actually fall over.” Remember that predictions do not have to be – and often are not – entirely correct. They simply serve to help us understand the prompt before answering the question. The best way to set yourself up for failure is to jump right into the answer choices before thinking about the prompt. Yes, making a prediction takes up limited time, but so does debating wrong answer choices without a good understanding of the prompt. I promise that the highest scoring students will almost always have a possible answer choice in mind before they ever start reading the given answer choices.

(A) Frequently, buyers of the hoop with the newer base reported that they found installing the equipment more time-consuming than they expected.
 This answer choice is incorrect. If you picked this answer, you probably made an assumption. You saw that users reported that installing the base was more time consuming than expected, so you assumed that meant fewer people installed the base. Could this possibly be the case in real life? Absolutely. But we don’t care about possibilities. We need proof. Without making an assumption, this answer choice cannot be correct. Don’t do the answer choice’s work for it. On its own, we only know that people reported installing the base was more time consuming. Without more, this does not resolve our paradox.

(B) The increase in the cost of the hoop with the larger base has led to a 15% reduction in sales.
 We know that sales decreased 15% - so what? What correlation does fewer sales have to do with complaints about the hoop falling over? In fact, if fewer hoops were sold, isn’t it even more surprising that the same number of complaints are coming in? If there are fewer people owning the product, then that should mean there are fewer people who would complain. This would make our paradox even more paradoxical!

(C) Promotional materials that emphasized the hoop’s stability led buyers to locate the hoop on surfaces that were too steep.
 This is the correct choice. Because of the promotional materials, people started putting the hoops up on steeper surfaces, causing the hoops to tip over more – despite the heavier and larger base. Does this match our prediction? Not perfectly, no. But one could argue that the base was not heavier or larger enough to be placed on a steeper hill, which does match up with our prediction.

Sometimes, students get confused about my general rule of “don’t make assumptions in answer choices.” They might ask, here for example, “aren’t you assuming that a basketball hoop places on a steep hill will tip over?” Well, you’re technically correct – the best kind of correct I may add. Really, my advice should say “Don’t make assumptions, but if you have to, make the most minimal assumption you can.” Compared to the other options, this explanation seems to be the most logical and reasonable. Therefore, this is our correct choice.

(D) The new hoop has a backboard that breaks more easily than the one that came with the older hoop.
 This is incorrect because it’s irrelevant. Do we care about backboards at all? Maybe if the prompt said, “complaints in general stayed the same.” However, the prompt is specific: complaints about overturned hoops stayed the same. We simply don’t care about the backboard breaking.

(E) Even with the larger base, wind and rain can overturn the hoop.
 The word “can” makes this answer wrong. It proves nothing. Sure, even with the larger base the hoop can tip over in the wind or rain; but does the large base make it less likely to tip over in the rain? This answer choice does not tell us. How often is “can?” Every time in rains, or is it only in hurricane-like conditions? This answer choice could only be correct if we assume that the wind and rain knocks over the heavy and larger based hoop to the same exact extent that it knocks over the smaller and lighter based hoops. Because we don’t know whether that is the case or not, this answer choice is wrong.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

parth2424 · Answer

Which of the following, if true, would best explain why the change to the base did not have its intended effect?

(A) Frequently, buyers of the hoop with the newer base reported that they found installing the equipment more time-consuming than they expected.
(B) The increase in the cost of the hoop with the larger base has led to a 15% reduction in sales.
(C) Promotional materials that emphasized the hoop’s stability led buyers to locate the hoop on surfaces that were too steep.
(D) The new hoop has a backboard that breaks more easily than the one that came with the older hoop.
(E) Even with the larger base, wind and rain can overturn the hoop.

1) - irrelevent 
2) - irrelevant 
3) - feels good come back to it later 
4) - breaking of backboard is differernt - we need a reason why a heavier base is not making the hoop stable 
5) - wind and rain are exceptional circumstances what about normal days -> this does nothing to explain the discrepency

ans 3) - if promotional material led buyers to put hoop on a steep surface, irregardless of the weight of the base it will still not be stable. that explains why the no. of complaints would not decrease

VerbalBot · Answer

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A company that manufactures sports equipment has received complaints

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