Gmatprep CR - fullerenes

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Gmatprep CR - fullerenes

by jayhawk2001 » Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:39 pm
Answers with explanation please. OA after a few reply.

Although fullerenes--spherical molecules made entirely of carbon--were first found in the laboratory, they have since been found in nature, formed in fissures of the rare mineral shungite. Since laboratory synthesis of fullerenes requires distinctive conditions of temperature and pressure, this discovery should give geologists a test case for evaluating hypotheses about the state of the Earth's crust at the time these naturally occurring fullerenes were formed.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?

A) confirming that the shungite genuinely contained fullerenes took careful experimentation

B) some fullerenes have also been found on the remains of a small meteorite that collided with a spacecraft

C)The mineral shungite itself contains large amounts of carbon, from which the fullerenes apparantly formed

D) The naturally occurring fullerenes are arranged in a previously unknown crystalline structure

E) Shungite itself is formed only under distinctive conditions

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by rocky » Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:38 pm
Clearly B
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by jayhawk2001 » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:32 am
OA from GMATprep is D.

I chose B as well and thought it was a slam dunk but was surprised to
see the answer as D.

I still don't fully understand how it can be D.

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by rocky » Sun Jun 10, 2007 9:31 pm
Got it jayhawk !
The D can also be xplained as follows (I guess b is a trap)
Since crystalline structure of fulllerness is a recent discover but previuos experiments are done when this was not known therefore the previous experiments cannot help us here ..hence D
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by erjamit » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:06 am
Hi,

I was also fooled by B :(.

After re-reading the argument again and again, this is what I deduce.

Fullerenes that were found in the lab - spherical molecules.

Fullernes that were found in nature - unknown structure.

Thus, it implies naturally found Fullernes are different in their molecular structure from those that are found in lab.

I hope my analysis is correct.

Amit

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by gogetter08 » Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:32 pm
Thanks Amit, you nailed it!

I was fooled by B too.

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by khanshainur » Wed May 11, 2016 12:31 am
Option B looks good than other answers