A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in luggage will alert the scannerandrsquo;s operator whenever the piece of luggage passing under the scanner contains an explosive. The scanner will erroneously alert the operator for only one percent of the pieces of luggage that contain no explosives. Thus in ninetynine out of a hundred alerts explosives will actually be present.The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argumenta)ignores the possibility of the scannerandrsquo;s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosiveb)draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biasedc)ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scannerandrsquo;s operator once the scanner has alerted him or herd)fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosivese)substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentageCorrect answer is option 'E'. Can you explain this answer?

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The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument

a)
ignores the possibility of the scanner’s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosive
b)
draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biased
c)
ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner’s operator once the scanner has alerted him or her
d)
fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosives
e)
substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentage

Correct answer is option 'E'. Can you explain this answer?

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A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in lu...

The argument states that a certain airport security scanner alerts the operator whenever there is an explosive in the luggage. However, the scanner also erroneously alerts the operator for 1% of the luggage that contains no explosives. The argument concludes that in 99 out of 100 alerts, explosives will actually be present.

(A) This answer choice brings up the possibility that the scanner might fail to detect explosives when they are present. However, this is not directly relevant to the flaw in the given argument, which deals with the occurrence of false positives.

(B) This answer choice suggests that the argument's conclusion is based on a biased sample. However, there is no mention of a sample being used in the argument, so this is not the flaw being targeted.

(C) This answer choice raises the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner's operator after an alert is signaled. However, this is outside the scope of the argument, which focuses on the accuracy of the scanner itself.

(D) This answer choice introduces the idea that the scanner might not be equally sensitive to all types of explosives. While this is a valid concern, it does not directly address the flaw in the argument, which is about the occurrence of false positives.

(E) This answer choice correctly identifies the flaw in the argument. The argument incorrectly substitutes one group (luggage containing no explosives) for a different group (alerts made by the scanner). The argument assumes that 99% accuracy in alerts automatically corresponds to 99% of alerts having explosives present. However, this ignores the possibility of false positives, where the scanner erroneously alerts the operator for luggage containing no explosives.

Therefore, the correct answer is (E) because it accurately identifies the flaw in the argument.

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A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in luggage will alert the scanner’s operator whenever the piece of luggage passing under the scanner contains an explosive. The scanner will erroneously alert the operator for only one percent of the pieces of luggage that contain no explosives. Thus in ninetynine out of a hundred alerts explosives will actually be present.The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argumenta)ignores the possibility of the scanner’s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosiveb)draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biasedc)ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner’s operator once the scanner has alerted him or herd)fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosivese)substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentageCorrect answer is option 'E'. Can you explain this answer?

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A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in luggage will alert the scanner’s operator whenever the piece of luggage passing under the scanner contains an explosive. The scanner will erroneously alert the operator for only one percent of the pieces of luggage that contain no explosives. Thus in ninetynine out of a hundred alerts explosives will actually be present.The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argumenta)ignores the possibility of the scanner’s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosiveb)draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biasedc)ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner’s operator once the scanner has alerted him or herd)fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosivese)substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentageCorrect answer is option 'E'. Can you explain this answer? for GMAT 2025 is part of GMAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the GMAT exam syllabus. Information about A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in luggage will alert the scanner’s operator whenever the piece of luggage passing under the scanner contains an explosive. The scanner will erroneously alert the operator for only one percent of the pieces of luggage that contain no explosives. Thus in ninetynine out of a hundred alerts explosives will actually be present.The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argumenta)ignores the possibility of the scanner’s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosiveb)draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biasedc)ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner’s operator once the scanner has alerted him or herd)fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosivese)substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentageCorrect answer is option 'E'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for GMAT 2025 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in luggage will alert the scanner’s operator whenever the piece of luggage passing under the scanner contains an explosive. The scanner will erroneously alert the operator for only one percent of the pieces of luggage that contain no explosives. Thus in ninetynine out of a hundred alerts explosives will actually be present.The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argumenta)ignores the possibility of the scanner’s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosiveb)draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biasedc)ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner’s operator once the scanner has alerted him or herd)fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosivese)substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentageCorrect answer is option 'E'. Can you explain this answer?.

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