November 2019 LSAT Section 2 Question 10

Toning shoes—walking shoes with a specially rounded sole—are popular with fitness enthusiasts. Research shows that th...

LAZR423 on August 11, 2021

Paradox answered by a paradox?

How can the answer be that "it's the additional exercise" when the stimulus CLEARLY states "Research shows that the major leg muscles of people walking in toning shoes RECEIVE NO MORE EXERCISE than those of people walking in ordinary walking shoes. If we are to accept premises as True, and "reseach shows" as a fact, please explain the paradox being solved by a paradox without asssuming that the reseach is flawed (ie, unrepresentative sample)?

Replies

Create a free account to read and take part in forum discussions.

Already have an account? log in

veda on August 16, 2021

Yes please, can we get an explanation

LAZR423 on October 3, 2021

...crickets....

Sebastian-Turet on October 18, 2021

I think the wording isn't the best, but what it might be trying to say is that they're all exercising for the same amount of time. But in that time, those with the tonal shoes are walking more because the shoes are more comfortable.

akhan0102 on March 3, 2022

it must be the wording because i agree 100% that I was originally going to pick the answer choice with more exercise but it didn't seem to resolve the paradox because of the keywords "no more exercise".

Emil-Kunkin on March 30, 2022

This is indeed unclear wording at first. However, it appears that the the muscles in question are being tested in two circumstances: people walking in regular shoes and people walking in toning shoes. This is to say that for a given distance walked, the shoes does not impact the exercise that muscles receive. The unit in question here is the exercise received per unit walked, although that is never explicitly spelled out.

Tyler808 on August 25, 2022

Exactly! I automatically ruled out C because of "RECEIVES NO MORE EXERCISE". How is this not A?

Emil-Kunkin on September 1, 2022

Hi Tyler808,

This is a tricky and tough one. I would argue that A is not really relevant to the paradox: we only care about leg muscles, not small muscles in the feet and ankles. While it might be possible that these small muscles in the feet somehow impact the leg muscles, that's a big assumption, and not something we can safely assume.

The passage tells us that leg muscles received no more exercise with the special shoes than they did with the regular shoes. That means that the special shoes did not make those muscles work harder for every step taken or mile walked. This is only saying that the two shows were equal in the intensity of the exercise- this says nothing about how many miles each person actually walks.