Bunuel wrote:
Company X and Company Y have each been building a rocket ship able to travel to Mars. After five years of design and construction, the rocket ships have been unveiled to the public, which instantly notices the rocket ships are so similar in design as to be indistinguishable. Therefore, one of the companies must have had information pertaining to the design of the other rocket ship.
Which of the following, if true, would most call in to question the validity of the argument?
(A) The engineers responsible for the design and construction of the rocket ship are subjected to a rigorous vetting process.
(B) Each space ship uses a different color scheme, which matches that of each company’s logo.
(C) Several employees currently in the employ of company X were working for company Y before the construction of the rocket ship.
(D) There is only one possible design given the current materials that confers the aerodynamic requirements to reach Mars.
(E) Both companies have been highly profitable and have been heavily funded throughout the five years in which the rocket ships have been constructed.
Magoosh Official Explanation
Premise #1 – X and Y both building rocket ships that can get to Mars
Premise #2 – X and Y rockets have the exact same design
Conclusion: One of the companies copied the other.
(A) is not strong enough for us to be confident that some kind of spying wasn’t going on. Anyhow, even if the engineers remain mum, there are presumably non-engineers aware of the rocket who could share information to the other company.
(B) The focus is on how the design of the two rockets is identical. The color is irrelevant.
(C) This strengthens the conclusion, since it gives us a compelling reason how information regarding design could leak.
(D) is saying that there is only one way to build a rocket capable of mars. Therefore, the designs will inevitably converge so that they are virtually indistinguishable.
(E) does not account for how the two rockets look so similar. It only tells us that both have lots of funding.