#12 - On average, cats fed canned cat food eat fewer ounces

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[AnnBar]

Hello,

I had trouble with this question. Could someone please explain it to me. I thought I understood the stimulus but lost what little grasp I had of it when I read the answer choices.

Thank you

[Adam Tyson]

Sure thing, AnnBar. The stimulus tells us cats that eat canned food eat less than those that eat dry food, but not how much less. Right away we should be thinking about the numbers here and wary of any answer that might rely on knowing the numbers. It also tells us that the canned food has more calories than dry, but again not how much more - a second possible numbers trap. Finally, we are told that canned food costs more per day than dry.

Let's throw some numbers at this. Let's say cats eat 10 ounces of canned per day or else 20 ounces of dry. What do I know about calories? Nothing - I don't know the ratio of calories to food in either case. But I do know something about cost, because I know those 10 ounces of canned cost more than those 20 ounces of dry! If 10 ounces of canned costs $10 and 20 ounces of dry costs $5, I can calculate the per ounce cost of each ($1/ounce for canned, $.25/ounce for dry) and prove answer E to be true. Make up any numbers you like and it will always work!

Give that a try and see what happens. Good luck!

[EL16]

Hi,

I'm having a hard time understanding the difference between answer choice D and answer choice E.

D says that it costs no less for canned food per day than it costs for dry food per day. From this, we can conclude that canned food costs more than, or equal to, the cost of dry food (and that dry food costs less than, or equal to, the cost of canned food). Wouldn't this follow from the stimulus, which tell us that "typically" canned food costs more than dry food? The "typically" would explain the cases when the costs are equal to each other, and the fact that canned food "typically" costs more than dry food would also align with the stimulus.

E seems to be saying the same thing to me as D, showing that canned food costs more than dry food.

What am I missing?
Thanks,
Elana

[AthenaDalton]

Hi Elana,

Thanks for your question! I actually read answer choice (D) a bit differently.

Answer choice (D) says: On average, it costs no less to feed a cat that eats fewer ounces of food per day than it does to feed a cat that eats more ounces of food per day.

Answer choice (D) does not specify whether the cat(s) are eating dry or wet food. If we read (D) literally, it appears to be saying that a cat who consumes 4 ounces of food per day costs the same to feed as a cat who consumes 6 ounces of food per day. We really have no way of assessing whether or not this is the case unless we know what type of food each cat is getting.

By contrast, your reasoning for answer choice (E) is on point. If canned food costs more per ounce than dry food, it can still cost more to feed a cat wet food than dry food even if they consume fewer ounces of wet food.

Best of luck studying!

Athena

[EL16]

Ah, got it! Thanks Athena!

[sadisticlsat]

The post reply by Adam is incorrect in that it works with any numbers. If the cat eats 1oz of wet food or 2oz of dry food that equal the same amount of calories (this is something we can apply given that it gives no proportions or rules in the stim), then it is possible that if my cat eats two 1oz portions of wet food a day at $1 per ounce each, that is $2 per day. But if he eats 2oz of dry food at 50 cents per ounce twice a day, that is still, $2 per day. I suppose the tricky part is the stim says "typically" costs more to feed wet food so this condition will only work in "less than typical" cases I guess. This question really tricked me there because I used this exact math to rule it out, but D is definitely wrong given that it doesn't talk about specific foods as in the stim, so otherwise this question is easy to rule out all the bad answers and pick the right one even if it didn't immediately make sense.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi sadistic,

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's incorrect--rather, I'd say that Adam is only describing the "typical" situation that the stimulus discusses ("feeding a cat canned cat food typically costs more per day than does feeding it dry cat food"). The reason answer choice E is validated is that it also uses the word "typically." When something is described as "typical" on the LSAT, that doesn't mean it happens all the time. It just means that thing happens more often than not. So, there can be exceptions (like the hypothetical you sketched out). What the stimulus would not allow is for the situation you describe to be the most common one. Rather, the most common situation is the one Adam sketched out (which is effectively captured by answer choice E): that canned cat food costs "more per ounce than does dry cat food."

Answer choice E would only be wrong if it said something like "Canned cat food always (or, almost always) costs more per ounce than does dry cat food."

I hope this helps!

[relona]

Hi!


I chose (C) for this question cause I thought that if the cost of cat food is down to the calories per ounce, then canned cat food would be more expensive than dry cat food. I can see why (E) is correct, but why is it correct over (C)?

-relona

[Adam Tyson]

It's the "only" in answer C that makes it a loser, relona. We know that the cost to feed a cat depends in part on whether the food is canned or dry, and that has something to do with the calories per ounce, but we don't know that that is the only thing that impacts cost. Maybe there is some variation in cost from brand to brand, like "premium" foods costing more than other brands? Maybe the size of the cat has something to do with the amount they eat, so a larger cat would cost more to feed than a smaller one? That would mean cost is affected by calories consumed per day, not just calories per ounce. And there could be many other factors in calculating the cost to feed a particular cat. Thus, it's not "only" the calories per ounce!