Self-study
Support Certain methods of creating high-quality counterfeit banknotes involve making accurate measurements of the images printed on genuine banknotes. ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████████
Summary
To stop the production of counterfeit bills, it’s necessary that at least some images on real bills be hard to measure accurately. This is because accurate measurements are involved in at least some counterfeiting methods.
Missing Connection
The conclusion is that interfering with measurement is necessary to stop counterfeiting. But the premise just tells us that measurements can be involved in the process, without saying how important those measurements actually are. That’s not good enough to reach such a strong conclusion. Couldn’t there be other ways to stop counterfeiting besides dealing with the measurement issue?
If we knew that making accurate measurements was sufficient, all on its own, for counterfeiting, then the conclusion would properly follow. In that case, dealing with the measurement issue would have to be part of counterfeit prevention!
14.
The argument's conclusion can be ████████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
Today's copying technology ██ █████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████████
This doesn’t explain why measurement is so important to the counterfeiting process. We still have no reason to think that interfering with measurement is the only way to stop counterfeiting.
b
Once the images ███████ ██ █ ████████ ████ ████ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ███████ ███████████
This says that being able to make accurate measurements is sufficient to be able to counterfeit a bill. This is simply the contrapositive of the conclusion! So assuming (B) guarantees that the conclusion follows.
c
Governments have better ████████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████████ ███
This doesn’t explain why measurement is so important to the counterfeiting process. We still have no reason to think that interfering with measurement is the only way to stop counterfeiting.
d
Few countries produce █████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███████ ███████████
What countries actually do is irrelevant. The conclusion is conditional, meaning it’s entirely hypothetical: if counterfeiting is to be stopped, then images must be hard to measure. Whether any countries happen to follow that advice has no effect on the validity of that advice.
e
New designs in █████████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████████████
This doesn’t explain why measurement is so important to the counterfeiting process. We still have no reason to think that interfering with measurement is the only way to stop counterfeiting.