The higher the altitude, the thinner the air. Since Mexico City's alti

Question

The higher the altitude, the thinner the air. Since Mexico City's altitude is higher than that of Panama City, the air must be thinner in Mexico City than in Panama City.

Which of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the above argument?

(A) As one gets older, one gets wiser. Since Henrietta is older than her daughter, Henrietta must be wiser than her daughter

(B) The more eggs used and the longer they are beaten, the fluffier the meringue. Since Lydia used more egg whites in her meringue, than Joseph used in his, Lydia's meringue must be fluffier than Joseph's.

(C) The people who run fastest marathons these days are faster than the people who ran the fastest marathons ten years ago. Charles is a marathon runner. So Charles must run faster marathons these days than he did ten years ago.

(D) The older a tree, the more rings it has. The tree in Lou's yard is older than the tree in Theresa's yard. Therefore, the tree in Lou's yard must have more rings than does the tree in Theresa's yard.

(E) The bigger the vocabulary a language has,the harder it is to learn. English is harder to learn than Italian. Therefore, English must have a bigger vocabulary than Italian.

Source: LSAT

nightblade354 · Accepted Answer

Hi  aghosh54 ,

Here is an explanation from Powerscore for (A):

The problem with (A) is in the premise "As one gets older, one gets wiser." There is correlation between age and wisdom, but they are both qualities of the same person: the older you get (relative to yourself), the wiser you get (relative to yourself). The conclusion in (A) does not reflect the comparison in this premise, because Henrietta's being older than her daughter does not mean that she is wiser than her daughter.

Let's say the daughter is 21 years old, and Henrietta is 41. Maybe during these 21 years the daughter got wiser a lot faster than Henrietta did, whose wisdom increased only incrementally in the course of 41 years. So, it is possible that today they can be equally wise, or that the daughter is even wiser than her mom. In other words, because the premise establishes a positive correlation between two qualities relative to the same person, the rate at which they increased will also be subjective. This does not allow us to compare how wise one person is to another: it only justifies a comparison between how wise that person is today vs. how wise she herself was in the past.

The premise in answer choice (A) should have said "The older one is, the wiser one is." This would have established an absolute, across the board correlation between age and wisdom that would have allowed us to compare the wisdom of one person to the wisdom of another based on their age.

nightblade354 · Answer

If anyone needs the OE for the other options, please post below and I will update accordingly!

US09 · Answer

IMO D.

The question stem talks about comparable quantitative values. The altitude and air density both are measurable. Hence, between A and D, D talks about comparable values too - number of years of age, number of rings. Therefore, much more closer to the question stem.

sharathshaddy · Answer

In D, the trees that are being compared can be completely different in their physical characteristics, how can we be sure in this case that the rings formed will be at an equal rate over the same period of time. Also please post the OE for E.

nightblade354 · Answer

The reason (E) is not a viable solution is because it reverses the reasoning of the original argument. See here: https://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewtopic.php?t=4839 and https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... t4640.html

Thekingmaker · Answer

it was a tug of war between A and D my reasoning was that trees being part of nature and also it has a healthy one state reasoning and between 2 things but still a tough call . IG D and oohlo it's correct

unraveled · Answer

The higher the altitude, the thinner the air. Since Mexico City's altitude is higher than that of Panama City, the air must be thinner in Mexico City than in Panama City.

Which of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the above argument?

(A) As one gets older, one gets wiser. Since Henrietta is older than her daughter,  Henrietta must be wiser than her daughter  - WRONG. Two problems - one that Henrietta must be wiser as she was earlier and other that the case where her daughter might be wiser than she is is also a possibility.

(B) The more eggs used and the longer they are beaten, the fluffier the meringue. Since Lydia  used more egg whites in her meringue , than Joseph used in his, Lydia's meringue must be fluffier than Joseph's. - WRONG. Nothing about beating it.

(C) The people who run fastest marathons these days are faster than the people who ran the fastest marathons ten years ago. Charles is a marathon runner. So  Charles must run faster marathons these days  than he did ten years ago. - WRONG. Charles age factor too might play a role here. People in general might be faster but not necessarily Charles.

(D) The older a tree, the more rings it has. The tree in Lou's yard is older than the tree in Theresa's yard. Therefore, the tree in Lou's yard  must have more rings than  does the tree in Theresa's yard. - CORRECT. Assumption being that tree are of same species. This hold true just like passage's logic is.

(E) The bigger the vocabulary a language has,the harder it is to learn. English is harder to learn than Italian. Therefore,  English must have a bigger vocabulary than Italian . - WRONG. Situation reversal sort of but additional problem of English being difficult in general.

Answer D.

rishabhj197 · Answer

Had the option choice said – As one gets older, one gets wiser. Therefore, henrietta is wiser now than she was 10 years ago. – Would this be correct, given if the attribute is of the same person then the comparison of the same person is valid. I realise that this option would still not be correct with respect to the question since it compares two different entities, but is it consistent with the logic?

VerbalBot · Answer

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The higher the altitude, the thinner the air. Since Mexico City's alti

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The higher the altitude, the thinner the air. Since Mexico City's alti

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