Question

1. marla sometimes stays after school to tutor classmates. if it is tuesday, then marla tutors chemistry. if marla tutors chemistry, then she arrives home at 4 p.m. today marla arrived home at 4 p.m. can it be concluded that today is tuesday? explain your reasoning.

Explanation:

We have a logical - conditional relationship: If it's Tuesday, Marla tutors chemistry, and if she tutors chemistry, she arrives home at 4 P.M. Just because she arrived home at 4 P.M., we can't reverse the conditional statements. Arriving home at 4 P.M. is the consequent of the second conditional, and we can't conclude the antecedent (it's Tuesday) from the truth of the consequent. This is a logical fallacy known as affirming the consequent.

Answer:

No. Just because Marla arrived home at 4 P.M., we cannot conclude that it is Tuesday. The fact that she arrived home at 4 P.M. is the result of tutoring chemistry, but there could be other days when she tutors chemistry or other reasons for arriving home at 4 P.M. We are affirming the consequent in the conditional statements and cannot make the conclusion that it is Tuesday.