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Question

Difficulty: MediumMust Be True / Most Strongly Supported

Marine archaeologists preserving waterlogged wooden artifacts adhere to several strict conservation protocols:

- Any waterlogged artifact recovered from a marine environment that contains iron fasteners undergoes chemical desulfurization before polyethylene glycol (PEG) impregnation.
- A waterlogged artifact is freeze-dried only if it has successfully completed PEG impregnation.
- Every artifact that undergoes chemical desulfurization is treated with an alkaline neutralizing bath.
- No artifact recovered from a marine environment that is treated with an alkaline neutralizing bath exhibits post-drying structural warping.

If the statements above are true, which of the following statements must also be true? (Select all that apply.)

  1. Any waterlogged artifact recovered from a marine environment that contains iron fasteners does not exhibit post-drying structural warping.Answer
  2. B
    Any waterlogged marine artifact that does not exhibit post-drying structural warping must contain iron fasteners.
  3. Any waterlogged marine artifact that exhibits post-drying structural warping does not contain iron fasteners.Answer
  4. D
    Every waterlogged artifact that successfully completes PEG impregnation is eventually freeze-dried.
  5. E
    Any waterlogged marine artifact that does not undergo chemical desulfurization will inevitably exhibit post-drying structural warping.

Answer

The statements guaranteeing that a waterlogged marine artifact with iron fasteners does not exhibit post-drying structural warping, and that any waterlogged marine artifact exhibiting post-drying structural warping does not contain iron fasteners, must both be true.
The premises form an unbroken deductive chain: any marine artifact with iron fasteners must undergo desulfurization, every desulfurized artifact receives an alkaline bath, and no marine artifact receiving an alkaline bath exhibits warping. Thus, such an artifact cannot warp. By contrapositive logic, if a marine artifact does warp, it cannot have had iron fasteners.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Symbolize the conditional relationships established in the stimulus.
(Marine and Iron) implies Desulfurization; Freeze-dried implies Completed PEG; Desulfurization implies Alkaline Bath; (Marine and Alkaline Bath) implies No Warping.
Formalizing the premises clarifies the multi-step conditional pathways.
2
Chain the relevant conditional statements together.
(Marine and Iron) leads to Desulfurization, which leads to Alkaline Bath, which in a marine artifact ensures No Warping. Therefore, (Marine and Iron) implies No Warping.
Connecting sufficient and necessary links yields a valid composite deduction.
3
Derive the contrapositive of the valid chain.
The contrapositive of '(Marine and Iron) implies No Warping' is '(Marine and Warping) implies Not Iron'.
The contrapositive of any valid conditional statement is always logically equivalent and must also be true.

Key Concept

Conditional Chaining and Contrapositive Deduction
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Must Be True / Most Strongly Supported

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