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Hi avigutman - i selected (A). Quick question on (E).

When i read the argument, essentially the argument is saying : divide the the Green (Numerator) / Blue (Denominator) : You will get the age of the river.

Question on (E).

I did not select (E) because i thought (E) was baked into to the calculations of the green (numerator) to begin with.

Question - is (E) baked into the calculation of
(i) BOTH, the green and the blue
or
(ii) just the blue only
or
(iii) just the green only

As long as (E) is baked into one of these three options - we can eliminate (E) but i was curious
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jabhatta2
Hi avigutman - i selected (A). Quick question on (E).

When i read the argument, essentially the argument is saying : divide the the Green (Numerator) / Blue (Denominator) : You will get the age of the river.

Question on (E).

I did not select (E) because i thought (E) was baked into to the calculations of the green (numerator) to begin with.

Question - is (E) baked into the calculation of
(i) BOTH, the green and the blue
or
(ii) just the blue only
or
(iii) just the green only

As long as (E) is baked into one of these three options - we can eliminate (E) but i was curious
We can eliminate (E) because it's "baked in" to both the green and the blue. If it were only "baked in" to one of them, that would be a problem. We need the consistency in order for the calculation to be meaningful, jabhatta2.
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Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) The quantities of dissolved salts deposited by rivers in the Earth’s oceans have not been unusually large during the past hundred years.
(B) At any given time, all the Earth’s rivers have about the same salt levels.
(C) There are salts that leach into the Earth’s oceans directly from the ocean floor.
(D) There is no method superior to that based on salt levels for estimating the maximum age of the Earth’s oceans.
(E) None of the salts carried into the Earth’s oceans by rivers are used up by biological activity in the oceans.
i was a difficult choice between a and e.
I eliminated E with the foll. reasoning.
If at the beginning of the last century,the ocean contained x kgs of salt.
If in the last 100 years , 100 kgs of ice was dropped into the ocean by the rivers.
and suppose that in the past 100 yrs 5 kgs of salt was used up by the ocean because of its biological activity.
then 95 kgs was dropped in the last century.
So the level becomes x + 95
still we can find out the age of the ocean by taking 95 kgs as the average increase in 1 century.

But the option does not say in the last 100 years. It could be any of the set of 100 years and can change average salt in that particular slot of 100 years. How does it not affect the amount of the salt/100 years?
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Pre-thinking - We assume that the deposition of salts has been pretty consistent. What if in the last 100 years, the deposition of slats was extremely high say because of industrial activity then the maximum age of Earth's oceans can't be accurately estimated.

(A) The quantities of dissolved salts deposited by rivers in the Earth’s oceans have not been unusually large during the past hundred years. - in line with our pre-thinking.

(B) At any given time, all the Earth’s rivers have about the same salt levels. - Doesn't matter. Irrelevant.

(C) There are salts that leach into the Earth’s oceans directly from the ocean floor. - At best, a weakener.

(D) There is no method superior to that based on salt levels for estimating the maximum age of the Earth’s oceans. - Not an assumption. The argument doesn't say that this is the superior method.

(E) None of the salts carried into the Earth’s oceans by rivers are used up by biological activity in the oceans. - At best, it's a strengthener. But it is not a necessary condition. Say we negate this - Some (at least 2 - say 2 kgs, for example) of salts ....are used for biological activity...does it even matter? No.
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I got that the answer is A but everyone is ignoring D. I wanted to understand why?
Lets say There is a superior method than the current method to determine the ocean's age, it means that the earlier method that has been used for the same is inaccurate because we have a better method to ensure accuracy?
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anikpait17
I got that the answer is A but everyone is ignoring D. I wanted to understand why?

Lets say There is a superior method than the current method to determine the ocean's age, it means that the earlier method that has been used for the same is inaccurate because we have a better method to ensure accuracy?
Having a "superior" method doesn't necessarily mean that the inferior method is inaccurate -- both methods could be quite accurate, but if one is slightly better, you'd have to call that one superior.

The superior method might also be superior for other reasons aside from accuracy -- maybe that method is easier, faster, or cheaper, for example.

Having a superior method wouldn't necessarily invalidate the argument, so (D) is not a required assumption.

I hope that helps!
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