Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Dave Killoran]

Setup and Rule Diagram Explanation

This is a Grouping: Defined-Fixed, Unbalanced: Underfunded, Numerical Distribution game.

The scenario and rules give us a very basic setup:

O93_Game_#1_setup_diagram 1.png

The game scenario contains a condition that partially controls the number of each type of flower. If each type must be represented, and the number of roses is at least twice the number of orchids, then the following possibilities exist for just the roses and orchids:

O93_Game_#1_setup_diagram 2.png

The presence of “at least” in the game scenario makes the number of distributions more difficult to determine. Had the condition specified “exactly” instead of “at least,” the distributions could have been quickly and easily fixed (2-1 and 4-2). From the above, the minimum combined number of roses and orchids is three, and the maximum combined number of roses and orchids is seven (which leaves one gardenia and one violet in a 5-2-1-1 overall distribution). The table also reveals that the maximum number of orchids that can be used is two, and the minimum number of roses that must be used is two. The maximum number of roses that can be used is six, a fact that is tested in question #2.

Of course, when the gardenias and violets are added into the above distributions, the number of distributions grows rapidly. Because there are so many possibilities, the questions often specify further conditions so you can narrow the range of possible distributions in each question.

Note also that the second and third rules state “at least as many,” and not “exactly.”

[reop6780]

I struggle with time constraint with LG.

The first set of LR was too much time consuming for me since i started with numerical distribution first and i came up with 5 different possibilities.

The only question that i could solve instantly due to numerical distribution was #2.

Still i like solving grouping - unbalanced questions starting with numerical distribution.

How do i reduce time to solve this kind of game set?

What i did.

1. Numerical distribution

1116. 1125. 1134. 1224 1233.

2.

-- -- --

-- -- --

-- R G

1 2 3

no O

[Jacques Lamothe]

Hi reop6780,

At first glance, this game looks like it would be productive to identify the possible numerical distributions. You are distributing 4 types of flowers over only 3 corsages and you have a rule that gives you a fixed relationship between two of those variables "At least twice as many roses as orchids must be used." But in this case, a couple factors diminish the usefulness of spending a lot of time identifying each possible distribution.

One difficulty is that the distributions you identify only give you information about the total number of flowers that will be used in the corsages. It does not help you to determine how those flowers will be distributed into corsages. In fact, the numerical distribution of flowers into corsages is already given to you in the game's scenario. Exactly 3 flowers are put into each corsage so the distribution has to be 3-3-3. That is why the distributions that you identify are only helpful in Question 2. Question 2 focuses on the total number of roses and not the way in which those roses are distributed into corsages. For the other questions that require you to consider which flowers are distributed into which corsages, knowing possible distributions of the total number of flowers is far less helpful.

Another difficulty seems to come from the clue that establishes a relationship between the number of orchids and the number of roses. Since the clue uses the phrase "at least," merely knowing the number of orchids or roses does not let you determine the number of the other flower. For instance, if you know that there are 4 roses, there could be either 2 orchids or 1. This makes the process of constructing possible numerical distributions much more time consuming. It also ends up producing so many possible distributions, that knowing them all isn't very useful when you start answering questions.

In this case, I think the problem was time consuming because you focused on finding a type of distribution that can only help you on a small set of question types. When you encounter games that give you a fixed numerical distribution between the variable being distributed (flowers) and the receiver variable (corsages), it is usually unhelpful to identify all possible combinations of the types of variables being distributed (Gardenias, Orchids, Roses, and Violets) before getting to a question that requires you to do so. Even in the case of this game's second question, it would probably take less time to identify a possible total combination of 6 Roses and 1 of each other flower when you reach the question than to identify all possible combinations of flower types before you start looking at answers.

I hope that this explanation is helpful! If anything is unclear please let me know. Thanks for posting!

Jacques

[reop6780]

I see your point that it is not necessarily helpful to spend time on numerical distribution when available spots are fixed.

Thanks, your explanation helped me a lot!

[LSAT2018]

Hey Powerscore,
I think you have the wrong diagram for this one, since the diagram above is from a game in Practice Test 6. Do you mind replacing it with the diagram for the corsage flowers game? Thank you very much!

[Administrator]

Hi!

Our apologies! That has been corrected. Thank you for pointing that out!

[yusrak]

Hi powerscore,

In my initial set up I actually inferred that V does not have to be used. My reasoning:

The scenario states that the 9 flowers used in the corsages must include at least 1 flower from each of the 4 types. So I understood this as, of the 9 flowers that are distributed among the 3 corsages, there must be at least 1 flower that is 1 of the 4 given variables (G O R V) in each corsage.

I reasoned that Corsage 2 and Corsage 3 already meet this requirement (with R and G respectively), this shows that R and G are definitely used in the game. Since corsage 1 must contain exactly two types of flowers, then it can have the following possible pairs: GO, OR, RV, GR, GV. Also, since the 9 flowers used in the corsages must include at least twice as many roses as orchids, then O must definitely be used in the game. This means that V does not have to be used as Corsage 1 can have GO or OR and and Corsage 2 and 3 can be filled only using G O R.

Can you please help me find what I am overlooking? I re-read this several times and I don't see where it says that all 4 variables have to be used. I realized that this is key to Question #2, I incorrectly chose choice E based on the reasoning I used.

Thanks in advance, love you guys!
Yusra

[Adam Tyson]

The nine flowers used in the corsages must include at least one flower from each of the four types,

That language in the scenario about including at least one of each type means exactly that, Yusra. We are using 9 flowers, and all four types have to be included. It's not that the corsages must include at least one of those types (although of course they do, because those are the only types of flowers being used) - it is that the collection of 9 flowers must include all four types.