An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth.

Question

An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth. Rather, it heats water on clothes, thereby saving electricity and protecting delicate fibers by operating at a lower temperature. Microwaves are waves that usually heat metal objects, but developers of a microwave dryer are perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects such as hairpins from heating up and burning clothes.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the process, when perfected, will be insufficient to make the dryer readily marketable?

(A) Metal snap fasteners on clothes that are commonly put into drying machines are about the same thickness as most hairpins.

(B) Many clothes that are currently placed into mechanical dryers are not placed there along with hairpins or other thin metal objects.

(C) The experimental microwave dryer uses more electricity than future, improved models would be expected to use.

(D) Drying clothes with the process would not cause more shrinkage than the currently used mechanical drying process causes.

(E) Many clothes that are frequently machine-dried by prospective customers incorporate thick metal parts such as decorative brass studs or buttons.

banerjeea_98 · Accepted Answer

E ....noone knows how the machine will behave with thick metals, we only know abt thin metals

Vithal · Answer

OA is E!

I read B and then thought, if people do not leave hairpins etc then the whole research is readily doomed and the product would become unmarketable - hence I chose B.

But now I realise my mistake! - If people do not include hairpins, then, as the new dryers comsume less electricity and protect delicate fibers - they would definitely become more marketable then the existing mech. dryers!
:wall

ashkg · Answer

A. These snaps will be taken care of after process are perfected. Dryer is marketable
B. Supports that fact that dryers are less likely to have thin metals in it - Dryer is marketable
C. Electricty might be saved in future models, but the current model might still be using less than the other models. Dryer is marketable
D. Not cause more shrinkage - means dryer is marketable
E. Passage gives no idea of the effect on thick metals. Assuming things on our own is out of scope. Best answer.

ywilfred · Answer

1) An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth. 

2) Rather, it heats water on clothes, thereby saving electricity and protecting delicate fibers by operating at a lower temperature. 

3) Microwaves are waves that usually heat metal objects, but developers of a microwave dryer are perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects such as hairpins from heating up and burning clothes. 

Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the process, when perfected, will be insufficient to make the dryer readily marketable? 

(A) Metal snap fasteners on clothes that are commonly put into drying machines are about the same thickness as most hairpins. 
- if so, then the dryer would be marketable when the process is perfected

(B) Many clothes that are currently placed into mechanical dryers are not placed there along with hairpins or other thin metal objects. 
- if so, then it's not a problem even when the process is not perfected

(C) The experimental microwave dryer uses more electricity than future, improved models would be expected to use. 
- it doesn't matter if the dryer uses more electricity than future models. The end point is, even with this current model, it already uses less electricity than conventional dryers. Thus, it would still be more efficient and economical.

(D) Drying clothes with the process would not cause more shrinkage than the currently used mechanical drying process causes. 
- This only states that no performance is sacrificed in the new dryer. A plus point, in fact for making the dryer marketable.

(E) Many clothes that are frequently machine-dried by prospective customers incorporate thick metal parts such as decorative brass studs or buttons.

I'll go with E. The process only involves not heating up thin metal objects. No mention is made of thick metal parts, so we do not know how the dryer will behave when such metal objects are thrown in along with the clothes.

srikanth9502 · Answer

Can you please explain why option C is incorrect.If the microwave uses more amount of electricity than used by the advanced models, it definitely is not on par with the available models in the maket and hence is not marketable. On the otherhand option E states that the clothes include thick metal parts, if the microwave is able to handle thin metal parts, it obviously can handle thick metal parts as well.However, I do agree that we cannot make such assumptions in CR. If so, we even cannot assume that the presence of thick metal parts poses a problem. So how can option E present the sound basis to doubt the marketability of microwave.

GMATNinja · Answer

Choice (C) does not compare the experimental microwave dryer to existing conventional dryers. Rather, choice (C) compares the experimental microwave dryer (i.e. the prototype) to  future  improved microwave models. In other words, they currently have an experimental prototype, and the new, improved models will use less electricity than the experimental version. That information does NOT allow us to compare the electricity usage of the microwave dryers to that of the conventional dryers on the market today. Thus, (C) should be eliminated.

As for choice (E), just because it can handle thin metal does NOT mean it can handle thick metal. For example, I have a pair of scissors that can cut thin pieces of cardboard. Does that mean that the scissors can cut THICK cardboard? ... not necessarily.

Furthermore, the passage specifically tells us that microwaves usually heat metal objects. The developers are trying to perfect a process that will prevent THIN metal objects from heating up in the dryer. If they succeed, THIN metal objects in the dryer will not pose a hazard, but the process does not help with THICK pieces of metal. In other words, microwaves usually heat ALL metal objects. There might be a way to prevent that from happening with THIN pieces of metal, but that would not address the problem with THICK pieces of metal. Thus, thick metal parts would still likely heat up and burn clothes.

(E) is the best answer.

arvind910619 · Answer

The answer is E

A very good question to test inference .
From the argument we can infer that new microwaves will thin metal parts if there present with the clothes now we have to infer from this if thin metal are heated surely thick metal parts will also be heated 100% thus clothes ,which are machine dried have decorative thick metal part, will burn and therefore the microwave will not sell well.

pkshankar · Answer

We need to find an answer choice that would say that even if the developers are indeed able to develop a microwave dryer that would not end up burning clothes because of thin metal objects this product may not be readily marketable.
Option E gives us a strong enough reason to doubt the viability of marketing this product as it says that prospective clients would use clothes that have thick metal objects hence these clothes would burn when dried in the microwave dryer.

azhrhasan · Answer

Conclusion: The process when perfected will not be sufficient to make dryers marketable.

What's the process ? something preventing thin metal parts from burning the cloth.

So, We need to find a situation, even if the process of thin parts works perfectly fine, the dryer cannot be marketed. We need to find another risk in the dryer.

D & E fit the bill. Try negation test now. E clearly breaks the conclusion apart.

IMO E

gmatdordie · Answer

An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth. Rather, it heats water on clothes, thereby saving electricity and protecting delicate fibers by operating at a lower temperature. Microwaves are waves that usually heat metal objects, but developers of a microwave dryer are perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects such as hairpins from heating up and burning clothes.

will Go for E,

as argument will be weakened if we find something that will say that perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects is useless as if people are using thick metal objects with clothes ,using POE, C and D can be easily eliminated as they are out of scope.

Correct and best OA: E

Hoozan · Answer

GMATNinja  please could you help me understand why (B) is incorrect?

Thought process: whats the point of perfecting this process? If thin metal objects are not really a problem (to many) then no point in marketing a product that solves this problem.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi KellyA89.

Notice that (C) does not compare the experimental dryer with other types of dryers. Rather (C) compares the electricity use of the experimental dryer with that of future models of the same dryer. So, (C) basically implies that future models of the same dryer will use  even less  electriciy than the experimental model uses. So, (C) basically provides reason to believe that microwave dryers will be more marketable, rather than less marketable, than the characteristics of the experiemental dryer would lead one to believe.

(E) on the other hand indicates that, even if the developers of a microwave dryer succeed in perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects from heating up and burning clothes, the dryer may not be readily marketable because clothes often contain thick metal objects that will still heat up and burn clothes in a microwave dryer.

mysterymanrog · Answer

Although I am not GMATNinja, I will try:

B strengthens the argument. The author pointed out a flaw with the system, saying that if metal pieces are included with the clothes, as a result of the process, the metal pieces will become too hot and ruin the fabric. B essentially removes one component of this (there are now no small metal pieces) and by doing so, it stregthens the argument.

Hope that helps!

Posted from my mobile device

Raman109 · Answer

Option elimination- we have to find an option that'll highlight that even after perfecting the process, it'll still be inefficient to make the dryer readily available.

(A) Metal snap fasteners on clothes that are commonly put into drying machines are about the same thickness as most hairpins. - it says that'll be sufficient. We need to find the opposite.

(B) Many clothes that are currently placed into mechanical dryers are not placed there along with hairpins or other thin metal objects. - many can be at least 2. How about others? They are not designing it just for these " at least 2" clothes. Distortion.

(C) The experimental microwave dryer uses more electricity than future, improved models would be expected to use. - future? Out of scope.

(D) Drying clothes with the process would not cause more shrinkage than the currently used mechanical drying process causes. - the process we are trying to show as inefficiency doesn't involve shrinkage. At best its out of scope.

(E) Many clothes that are frequently machine-dried by prospective customers incorporate thick metal parts such as decorative brass studs or buttons. - exactly.

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An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth.

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