Statements: All squares are circles. No circle is cone. Some cones are…

2024

Statements: All squares are circles. No circle is cone. Some cones are spheres. Some rectangles are circles.

Conclusions:

I. All rectangles being cones is a possibility

II. All rectangles being spheres is a possibility

  1. A.

    only 1st follows

  2. B.

    only 2nd follows

  3. C.

    either 1st or 2nd

  4. D.

    neither 1st nor 2nd

Attempted by 9 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B

Concept: In syllogism 'possibility' questions, a conclusion of the form 'All A being B is a possibility' stands unless the given statements definitively rule it out. A universal negative statement (such as 'No X is Y') blocks a possibility only for the members it directly covers; it does not, by itself, restrict any set that carries no direct negative link to Y.

Application:

  1. The statements fix three links: All squares are circles (Squares are inside Circles), no circle is a cone (Circles and Cones are fully disjoint/separate), some cones are spheres (Cones and Spheres overlap partly), and some rectangles are circles (Rectangles and Circles overlap).

  2. Conclusion I asks whether all rectangles can be cones. Since some rectangles are already fixed as circles, and circles can never be cones, that overlapping portion of rectangles is barred from ever being a cone. With even part of the rectangle set excluded, all rectangles being cones cannot be a possibility.

  3. Conclusion II asks whether all rectangles can be spheres. No statement places any restriction between circles (or rectangles) and spheres - the only sphere-related statement links spheres to cones, not to circles or rectangles. So nothing given blocks the rectangles - including the ones that are circles - from also being spheres, keeping this a valid possibility.

Cross-check: Draw the regions - place Squares fully inside Circles; keep Circles and Cones as separate, non-overlapping regions; overlap Cones and Spheres partially; overlap Rectangles with Circles. Extending the entire Rectangle region into Spheres creates no contradiction with any statement. Shrinking the entire Rectangle region into Cones, however, would force its circle-overlapping part to sit inside both Circles and Cones at once - directly violating 'no circle is a cone'.

Result: Conclusion I does not follow, but Conclusion II follows as a possibility - so only the second conclusion holds.

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