PT23.S1.Q16

PrepTest 23 - Section 1 - Question 16

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Nuclear fusion is a process whereby the nuclei of atoms are joined, or “fused,” and in which energy is released. ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ █ ██████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████ ███████████ █████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ █████████

Argument Breakdown

The stimulus gives us some context about the process of nuclear fusion. For our purposes, the most important thing stated here is that this process produces helium-4 gas as a by-product. We're then given details about a fusion experiment. The exact details don't matter. What we're interested in is the fact that the experimenters found a measurable quantity of helium-4 gas after the experiment, and used that as evidence to claim that they had achieved fusion.

Notable Assumptions

We're trying to weaken the experimenters' argument. On the basis of finding helium-4 gas, which is a by-product of nuclear fusion, the experimenters claim to have achieved nuclear fusion. But this is a version of sufficiency/necessity confusion: just because nuclear fusion produces helium-4 gas (NF → H4) doesn't mean the presence of helium-4 is only caused by nuclear fusion, or guarantees that nuclear fusion has occurred, as the experimenters assume (H4 → NF). A good way to weaken this argument would be to target this assumption by suggesting an alternative explanation for the presence of helium-4 gas.

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16.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████████████ ███████████

a

Helium-4 was not ███ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████

b

When fusion is █████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███████ ████████████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████

c

The amount of ████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ████

d

Helium-4 gas rapidly ██████ █████ ███████ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ █ ███ ██████

e

Nuclear fusion reactions ███ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ █████

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