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PiyushK
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 18 Feb 2015, 12:16
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D
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35% (medium)

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68% (01:37) correct 32% (01:47) wrong based on 723 sessions

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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend almost exclusively on commercially available chemical herbicides. Such herbicides have a lethal effect only on the fully mature dandelion, but not on the seedlings of the plant, which at any given time outnumber the mature plants nearly twenty to one.

If one wished to rid one's garden completely of dandelions using only commercially available herbicides, one would most need to know the answer to which one of the following questions?
A. How long does the average fully mature dandelion live?
B. What is the length of the average life of a dandelion from seed to mature plant?
C. What percentage of dandelions in a garden are in the seedling stage?
D. Is there a period during which a dandelion is fully mature, but has not yet released its immature seeds?
E. How many seeds will the average mature dandelion produce?
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D
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 28 Dec 2016, 23:03
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Can anybody please explain why C is wrong ?
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 29 Dec 2016, 09:22
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devikeerthan
Can anybody please explain why C is wrong ?
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You are given that the ratio of young to old is 20:1, so you don't need to know the percentage.

However, I am confused on why it's not B. The artificial killers only kill adult weeds and not younger weeds, so wouldn't you need to know the time frame for whatever juvenile weeds are left to mature so that you can kill them off before they reproduce? I thought this was better than E because all of the dandelions are not the same age at any given time, so knowing at what maturity the weeds haven't given dispersed their seeds yet would still leave the problem of juvenile weeds being around and growing up.
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 30 Dec 2016, 00:32
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pafrompa
devikeerthan
Can anybody please explain why C is wrong ?


You are given that the ratio of young to old is 20:1, so you don't need to know the percentage.

However, I am confused on why it's not B. The artificial killers only kill adult weeds and not younger weeds, so wouldn't you need to know the time frame for whatever juvenile weeds are left to mature so that you can kill them off before they reproduce? I thought this was better than E because all of the dandelions are not the same age at any given time, so knowing at what maturity the weeds haven't given dispersed their seeds yet would still leave the problem of juvenile weeds being around and growing up.
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Thanks.length of the average life of a dandelion from seed to mature plant does not help us in any way. D is better.
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 01 Jan 2017, 22:37
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pafrompa
devikeerthan
Can anybody please explain why C is wrong ?


You are given that the ratio of young to old is 20:1, so you don't need to know the percentage.

However, I am confused on why it's not B. The artificial killers only kill adult weeds and not younger weeds, so wouldn't you need to know the time frame for whatever juvenile weeds are left to mature so that you can kill them off before they reproduce? I thought this was better than E because all of the dandelions are not the same age at any given time, so knowing at what maturity the weeds haven't given dispersed their seeds yet would still leave the problem of juvenile weeds being around and growing up.
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Knowing the life is not required as such. The homeowners would continue using the pesticide till all the dandelions are destroyed - knowing the answer of option D would confirm whether this approach would actually be effective. If the answer to option D is yes, then the approach would be effective; if the answer is no, then the approach would not be effective. However knowing the life of the dandelions would not help. (Nonetheless in addition to knowing the answer to question D, knowing time period during which a dandelion remains a seedling could be useful, because then the homeowners would know at most how long they would require to use the herbicide.)
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 13 Oct 2017, 23:38
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Knowing the answer to D will actually help the homeowners to decide whether the pesticides can be effective.
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 04 Jun 2021, 02:26
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Can someone please explain why is C not right ?
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend 17 Jun 2024, 08:02
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Most homeowners' efforts to rid their gardens of dandelions depend almost exclusively on commercially available chemical herbicides. Such herbicides have a lethal effect only on the fully mature dandelion, but not on the seedlings of the plant, which at any given time outnumber the mature plants nearly twenty to one.

If one wished to rid one's garden completely of dandelions using only commercially available herbicides, one would most need to know the answer to which one of the following questions?

A. How long does the average fully mature dandelion live?
Average usually can take the extremes of values. Mature dandelions can live for a day r thousands years. Or can die immediately. So, Out of scope.

B. What is the length of the average life of a dandelion from seed to mature plant?
Out of scope

C. What percentage of dandelions in a garden are in the seedling stage?
Even if we know the percentage say 20% for example. Using the herbicides leave the 20% alive. Question mentions completely get rid of - cannot be met knowing the percentages.

D. Is there a period during which a dandelion is fully mature, but has not yet released its immature seeds?
This answers our question - is there a period when the entire farm is filled with mature dandelions alone. Even the seeds are not pollinated. So using herbicides at this stage eliminates the mature dandelions completely.

E. How many seeds will the average mature dandelion produce? Out of scope.
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