Q25 - Although wood-burning stoves

[haeaznboiyoung]

Got it down to A and C. I wasn't too fond of A anyways but I liked it better than C. What initially turned me off was that C addressed "inside the home" where the argument only said wood-burning stoves are more "dangerous" with no implication of inside or outside. But now I'm seeing the premise of the chimney... and how it can ignite and blow up. Is that how the argument implies dangers "inside the home?"

[cyruswhittaker]

I see what you're saying about "inside the home" in choice C. But A has another issue: it makes a comparison with the "most efficient wood-burning stoves."

I think it is helpful to clearly understand the conclusion: "Wood burning stoves are more dangerous than open fireplaces."

Notice that the conclusion is discussing danger in general, so the mention of "inside the home" is still very relevant to the conclusion. Of course, there's all kinds of danger, and perhaps many that are not being discussed, but the question asks for a particular piece of information that would weaken the argument, not destroy the argument in general.

Choice A on the other hand mentions "most efficient wood-burning stoves." The problem here is that the conclusion is specifically discussing the comparison of wood stoves in general to that of open fireplaces. So even if there are certain wood stoves that produce less creosote, it really doesn't weaken the conclusion that they are more dangerous overall than open stoves.

Notice that the conclusion doesn't say: "Any wood-burning stove is more dangerous than any open fireplace."

"Inside it" is specicifically referring to the location in which a fire might start in the chimney itself, so it wouldn't relate to inside the home necessarily.

[yama_sekander]

i was also wondering about B. if the amount of creosote is determined also by how often one uses the stove, if wood burning stoves are more efficient, wouldn't that also show that possibly a wood burning stove wouldn't have as much creosote as an open fire place?


or, am i just equivocating how often a stove is used with efficiency?

[chike_eze]

i was also wondering about B. if the amount of creosote is determined also by how often one uses the stove, if wood burning stoves are more efficient, wouldn't that also show that possibly a wood burning stove wouldn't have as much creosote as an open fire place?


or, am i just equivocating how often a stove is used with efficiency?

As stated earlier, the conclusion compares wood-burning stoves to open fireplaces. "wood-burning stoves" are more dangerous than "open fireplaces"

Why? Wood burning stoves release cooler smoke (than open fire places) which deposits more creosote (than open fireplaces). Dangerous because creosote can clog or ignite the chimney.

Possible Weakener: Maybe open fire places are equally dangerous albeit in a different way (not discussed in the prompt)

Correct = (C) "Open fire place... more risk of severe accidents than Wood-burning stoves" If this is true, the general statement that "wood burning stoves" are more dangerous than "open fireplaces" is weakened. Because we were only given one reason to support this assertion, but C gives us evidence in the other direction -- neutralizing (to an extent) the thrust of the initial evidence.

(A) "most efficient wood burning stoves.. less creosote than many open fireplaces" -- inadequate comparison. For all we know, this could be comparing a few wood burning stove to a few open fire place. Even if this is true, it still does not weaken the general statement in the prompt. Because most "word burning stoves" could still be more dangerous than most "open fireplaces"

(B) "frequency of use" -- well this does not even give us the difference between average use of "open fireplaces" and that of "wood-burning stoves". We would have to make some unwarranted assumptions about which one is used more than the other to make this option work.

(D) "Open fireplaces = large amount of creosote" -- So what? We still know that wood burning stoves produce more creosote than open fireplaces. Therefore, if the latter is large, then the former is larger!

(E) "Don't use fireplaces or wood-burning stoves" -- We don't care about these people. (E) also mentions "fireplaces" not "open fireplaces". Either way, this option is irrelevant.

[ptewarie]

Good answer above me.

Just to reiterate: Everything in the LSAT, especially the more challenging questions will truly come down to the SCOPE. If you can narrow it down to 1 or 2 or if you think you have the right answer, make sure you look at precisely what all can be precisely inferred.

What is the best way to narrow scope:
1. circle all Quantity words
2. circle all frequency words


Here the stimulus says:

"wood burning are more efficient than open fireplaces but also more dangerous"

Premise: Because deposits MORE creosote

thus the big difference between the open and wood-burning fire places will come down to the amount on creosote deposited.
that is the SCOPE.

A: the "most" efficient woord-burning stoves.... we have no information about the most efficient wood burning stoves.

B: even if we assume that because the wood-burning fire place is more efficient, that it will be used less, there is NOTHING in the stimulus that shows how much (quantity) is deposited per time
if in 1 time 500 grams of creosote is used for wood burning
and in 10 times total only 300 grams of creosote is used for open fire places than we can infer that open fire places are still safer.

C: if this is true, then this DEFINITELY weakens the argument.

D: Again, how much is "large amount"???


Like I said before, pay close attention to the scope. If it is NOT mentioned in the argument, we have NO WAY of knowing the exact number, this is ESPECIALLY the case in quantity/frequency ambiguities

[gaheexlee]

I selected the correct answer and generally understand why it is correct, but I do have one question that nags at me and would be grateful if anyone can answer!

Doesn't the correct answer, C, only boost the premise that wood burning stoves are more dangerous than fire places? (Sentence 1)

Or is it not considered a premise booster since C specifies the relative severity of accidents, thus providing new information that is still within scope?

Thank you!

[nmmizokami]

Just want to add my two cents about incorrect answer choice (A), which is what I originally chose, to clarify my own thoughts.

I see (A) as being wrong for one main reason:

The argument makes no indication of relative amounts of creosote. Rather, the argument's subconclusion says that smoke from wood-burning stoves moves more slowly, which allows more time for the creosote to deposit. This leaves open the possibility that, in general, wood-burning stoves (and thus the most efficient wood-burning stoves) produce less creosote than open fireplaces. Perhaps the amount of creosote produced is irrelevant (maybe open fireplaces produce more creosote but deposit none of it because the smoke moves so rapidly through the chimney).

In this sense, the only factor that matters in the deposition of creosote is the amount of time the smoke spends inside the chimney.