A technology company plans to develop a prototype laptop that uses iri

Question

A technology company plans to develop a prototype laptop that uses iris scanners that can distinguish one user from another. The inventor of this laptop claims that it will reduce insurance and security costs at offices, as only authorized users will be able to turn on the laptop, making it a less appealing target for thieves.

Which of the following, if true, most supports the company's implementing its plan to develop the prototype?

A. There is considerable variation in the color and patterns present in most people's irises.
B. The size of people's irises tends to change noticeably over the course of the day.
C. In-person security services will not suffer from technological glitches when allowing access to laptops.
D. Colored contacts allow people to change their eye color, without altering any of the other characteristics of their iris.
E. Insurance and security companies provide other services to companies in addition to protecting laptops.

IanStewart · Accepted Answer

The stem tells us as a factual premise that iris scanners "can distinguish one user from another", so all answer A does is restate a premise we already know to be true (or more precisely, it tells us why that premise might be true, but it's the premise that we care about here). Answer A has no effect on the argument, and it can't possibly support it. So this is a flawed question if the "OA" is A. There's a universe where D is a good answer here -- a universe where the company needs the iris scanner to work for employees who wear coloured contact lenses, and where we know in advance that this iris scanner relies on iris characteristics besides colour to distinguish one iris from another. But we don't know those things, so D isn't a good answer here either.

The question seems to be a close copy of this official problem, but of course the official version doesn't have the logical issues the prep company version has.

The question seems to be a close copy of  this official problem , but of course the official version doesn't have the logical issues the prep company version has.

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Hi expert, what you said is very reasonable, so could C be a better choice?

IanStewart · Answer

Yes, you might be right - I dismissed C because I couldn't understand what it meant. I'm not sure what "in-person security services" could mean in this context (presumably it's an IT service, not a security service, that would help an employee access a laptop if there's a problem), for one thing. So I find it hard to tell what effect C has on the argument, but if you read it to mean "there won't be any tech issues with the new system", then it's a better answer than the rest.

kungfury42 · Answer

IanStewart first of all thank you so much for sharing the link to the official question on which this question is based. As a beginner it totally amazes me how deep you are into GMAT coaching that you can easily remember the official questions from over the years.

Secondly, I believe that option D here actually has a flaw in it and shouldn't be the answer. Human irises have colors and patterns, the combination of which distinguishes irises from one another. If however there are contact lenses available in the market that allow people to change the color of their iris, it allows them to manipulate the combination of their iris color and pattern and hack into somebody else's laptop, and this substantially weakens company's plans.

Say for ex: IanStewart and Kungfury42 share the same iris pattern but IanStewart has green colored iris and Kungfury42 has black colored iris. Kungfury42 can possibly hack into IanStewart's computer if he wears green colored contact lenses that help him manipulate his iris's color and this should weaken the company's plan to start building prototypes based on this security feature.

Do let me know what you think?

Posted from my mobile device

IanStewart · Answer

I honestly only vaguely recalled the outline of a similar official question when I first read this one, but then I saw the list gmatclub provides of 'related questions', and the specific official question I was trying to remember was in that list, so I had some help.

I agree that there's an issue with D -- we don't know what the scanner uses to distinguish one iris from another, so there's no way to tell if D is useful here. If colour is important to the scanner, then the existence of coloured contact lenses defeats the entire system, at least if any employees sometimes wear them. If the scanner doesn't use colour at all, though, then D is important information -- answer D then says that the system will still work even when employees sometimes wear coloured contacts. But we don't know if colour even matters, so there's no way to even evaluate the significance of answer D.

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Thanks for your fast response expert! I think “in-person security services" means biological recognition, and yes this is the way I understand C— —"there won't be any tech issues with the new system"

Bunuel · Answer

Magoosh Official Explanation:

Answer = (A).

The conclusion here belongs to the inventor: companies that use the new computer will run fewer security risks. Her evidence is that it uses iris scanners so that only authorized users can use it. To strengthen the connection between reduced security risks and only selected individuals accessing computers, we have to make the assumption that irises can be distinguished from one another with some degree of precision. (A) provides us with this answer in slightly different words.

Because the system is meant to allow only certain individuals to access the machines, changing irises (B) might actually present a problem for the system, if the system were incapable of accounting for this change. If this were the case, this choice would weaken, not strengthen, the company’s case for developing this prototype. It may be iris size makes no difference, in which case this choice is irrelevant, or it may make a difference, in which case this choice is a weakener. Either way, it's not a strengthener.

It's not clear how relevant choice (C) is. First of all, the company is not developing the laptop in tandem with in-person security services—or if it is, the passage does not mention it; thus, this choice may or may not be directly relevant. Furthermore, there's something eerily unrealistic about this option: what technology on Earth suffers from zero glitches?? Even if there is a small glitch rate, say under 1% of the time, that would be an annoyance, but not enough to impact overall sales and the success of the product. Thus, choice (C) does not have to be strictly true.

People might change their eye color, even users of these machines (D), but we aren’t told how this would affect their access to the machines, or how the machines would deal with this additional factor. Nevertheless, if anything, this would weaken the case for the company to develop these computers, so it’s not what we’re looking for.

We’re not concerned with what other companies do (E); this question is only asking us about this company, in particular. It’s possible that the development of this product would affect other companies, or the consumer’s use of other companies, but it’s not necessary to consider this to identify and strengthen the conclusion in this argument.

VerbalBot · Answer

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A technology company plans to develop a prototype laptop that uses iri

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A technology company plans to develop a prototype laptop that uses iri

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