Pretzels can cause cavities. Interestingly, the longer that a pretzel remains in contact with the teeth when it is be...

Max-Youngquist on September 1, 2018

@smilde11 the passage states that the longer a pretzel remains in contact with teeth, the higher the likelihood of cavities. In other words, longer durations of pretzel to tooth contact are correlated with higher cavity rates. It then says that what is true of pretzels in that regard is true of caramels. In other words, longer durations of caramel to tooth contact are correlated with higher cavity rates.

The argument does NOT say anything about how the cavity rates from pretzel contact compare to caramel contact. It only says the correlation exists within each category. So even if caramels dissolve more quickly, we are not able to say anything about how the resulting cavity rate compares to pretzel cavity rates. Think about it this way: even if caramels dissolved twice as fast, what if they caused cavities at 10 times the rate of pretzels? Since we don't know the rates compare ACROSS CATEGORIES, we can't reach that conclusion. (A) describes that exact flaw in the argument. I hope that helps!