Q16 - Researchers studying artificial sweeteners

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

We know the following:

1. The fewer molecules that are required to activate a receptor, the sweeter that substance will be perceived to be.

2. The researches claim to have discovered a substance of which only one molecule is needed to activate any sweetness receptor.

If all the researchers' claims are true, then there is nothing that has fewer molecules required to activate a receptor. One is the minimum, while still having some. If nothing has fewer molecules required to activate a receptor and the fewer molecules required the sweeter the substance is, then nothing can be found that is sweeter than this particular substance. Best expressed in answer choice (C).

It's kind of like the following crude analogy. If the taller you are the better at basketball you are, and Steve is the tallest basketball player ever, then Steve must be the best basketball player ever.

(A) is out of scope. Pleasurable is unsupported.
(B) is unsupported. We don't know that any substance can activate a sweetness receptor.
(D) is not necessarily true. Other types of receptors are simply not discussed.
(E) would make sense since the fewer the receptors required, the sweeter the substance is. But it doesn't have to be true that the more receptors required, the more bitter something is. Bitterness is unsupported by the stimulus.

[redcobra21]

Hey Matt,

I was able to get the right answer through process of elimination, but do we assume that only whole numbers of molecules apply in this case? In other words, is it safe to assume that there will never be half of a molecule, which would theoretically be sweeter than one molecule?

thanks

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Interesting consideration redcobra21! But yes, we can safely assume that there are no "half-molecules" that we need to consider.

I've never heard of a half-molecule. Have you?

[hyk1310]

How is B unsupported?

second sentence says "claimed that any given individual molecule of substance can activate at most one sweetness receptor..."

B says that in sufficient quantity, the molecules of any substance can activate a sweetness receptor. Is the given molecule different from molecule from any substance? I'm confused about this distinction, if there is any.

[Btruj009]

Hyk1310,

The reason B is unsupported is because the stimulus does not allow nor ban the possibility of all substances being a trigger or that just one particuar one is a trigger.

The stimulus says that "any given individual molecule of substance can activate at most one sweetness receptor and that the fewer molecules...."

The language here does not support that any substance at all can be a trigger. It seems like they used the term "substance" as just a variable - X. They say that any amount of X can trigger receptor Y - but this does not mean that any variable can replace X, it just means that there is a substance that any amount of it can trigger receptor Y.

I do not know if I was being clear here, please advise if this makes more sense.