Self-study
Commercial passenger airplanes can be equipped with a collision-avoidance radar system that provides pilots with information about the proximity of other airplanes. ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ █ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████
Summary
The argument concludes that passengers are safer on airplanes with a collision-evasion system equipped, even though the system frequently warns pilots of phantom airplanes. This is supported by the premise that the system warns pilots to evade possible collisions.
Notable Assumptions
The argument assumes that the phantom warnings don’t create more danger than the system prevents. For example, that pilots don’t take dangerous evasion maneuvers in response to phantom warnings.
It also assumes that pilots actually respond to the system’s warnings frequently enough to avoid possible collisions. Otherwise, the system’s presence wouldn’t make much difference to safety at all.
10.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
Passengers feel no █████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██ █████████
Whether or not passengers feel safer isn’t important to determining whether or not they are safer—in fact, it’s not relevant at all.
b
Warnings given by █ ███████████████████ ██████ █████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ ████████
The possible cause of phantom airplane warnings doesn’t make any difference to the argument, so can’t be necessary.
c
The frequency of ███████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ █████████
For the argument to make sense, pilots have to actually act on the system’s warnings—otherwise the system would make no difference. If we negated this, meaning pilots just ignored the warnings, that would leave the conclusion unsupported.
d
Commercial passenger airplanes ███ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ █ ███████████████████ ███████
Whether or not the system can be equipped on other types of planes is irrelevant to whether it makes commercial air passengers safer.
e
The greatest safety ████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██████████
The argument just claims that passengers are safer with the system than without it. Whether that means they’re a lot safer or a little safer doesn’t really matter, so this isn’t a necessary assumption.