#11 - Unlike other mechanical devices, the clock did not

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[momgoingbacktoschool]

I chose A because the last sentence says that the astronomical functions were "diminished." Therefore, this made me think that present day clocks cannot be used for astronomical things. Where did I go wrong?

Is D correct because I'm supposed to assume that since clocks did not go from simple to complex, and earlier clocks were complex, then they are now simple or at least not as complex as the ones before?

[intent228]

Hey @momgoingbacktoschool, I missed this question initially too, which infuriated me because not many people did.

Let's break the argument down ya? Hopefully I can be of assitance.

"Unlike other mechanical devices, the clock did not evolve from the simple to the complex. The earliest clocks were also the most complicated. This is because early clocks were used primarily to predict astronomical phenomena, though the mechanisms they used for this purpose incidentally enabled one to keep track of time. Gradually the timekeeping functions became more important and the astronomical ones diminished."

P - clocks aren't like other mechanical devices. Why?
P - because earliest clocks were most complicated. Why?
P - because their main purpose was to predict astronomical phenomena
P - only as an aside did they allow for time to be kept
P - as time went on we care more for the time keeping function and less for the astronomical one

This is a straight fact set, there is nothing the author is trying to convince us of, so we should expect a Must Be True or Most Strongly Supported question stem and that's precisely what we get! So, for our prephrase, we should ask ourselves "what can we know from this?"

I feel that there's actually some causality that is the key to this problem.

Why were early clocks so complicated? Because their purpose was to predict adstronomical phenomenoa. This function caused them to be so complicated.

So then, what can we know? The reason for their complexity has diminished over time, and what's a logical inference from that? Then some modern clocks are sure to be less complicated.

At least, that's how I saw it, and I hope it helps!

[JocelynL]

can some elaborate between B and D?
Is B wrong because the stimulus doesn't say anything about more recent mechanisms used to predict astronomical phenomena?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Jocelyn,

Yes, that's exactly right! The portion of answer choice B that cannot be proved is, as you noted, "more recent mechanisms used for this function." "This function" = predicting astronomical phenomena, and the stimulus never discusses what recent mechanisms used to predict astronomical phenomena are like.

Nice job!

[christinecwt]

Hi Team - can anyone explain why Answer Choice E is incorrect given that the last sentence of the stimulus stating that "the timekeeping functions became more important...diminished."

Grateful if you can explain? Many thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for the question, christinecwt! The problem with answer E is that there is no evidence that interest in predicting astronomical phenomena has diminished, only that clocks are no longer primarily used for that purpose. It's entirely possible that there is just as much interest as there ever was, but nowadays other devices - like computers, perhaps - are the primary tools for making those predictions.

[Bmas123]

hi! I was between A and D and ended up picking D only because I thought the wording was too strong. However, I am not super confident in that being my reasoning for future questions like this, so would someone be able to explain why D was right and A was wrong? Thanks!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi Bmas123!

Happy to address answer choices (A) and (D).

Answer choice (A) states, "Present-day clocks are of no use in the prediction of astronomical phenomena." Since this is a must be true question, the mention of "present-day clocks" should raise a flag, as the stimulus does not explicitly mention present-day clocks. Still, we can at least infer that present-day clocks became more important for time-keeping than for predicting astrological phenomena, in comparison with early clocks. But beyond that, we don't know much about present-day clocks. We don't know from the stimulus whether or not they can be of use in predicting astrological phenomena, making (A) incorrect.

Answer choice (D) states, "The mechanisms that the earliest clocks used to predict astronomical phenomena were more complicated than the mechanisms used for timekeeping functions in some more recent clocks." We can again get at what must be true in terms of comparison--we're told that the "earliest clocks were also the most complicated." This means that more recent ones generally are less mechanically complicated. This is reflected in answer choice (D).