Question

As part of his work for NASA, Dr. Murdock was asked to find out what percentage of people in the continental united States saw Haley's Comet when it was last visible. He randomly selected three major cities, Seattle, Cleveland, and Boston, and polled 1000 randomly selected people from these cities. He finds that fewer than 5% of the people he interviewed saw the comet, so he concludes that fewer than 5% of people in the continental United States saw the comet.

Required:
Discuss whether Murdock is using a generalization or an analogy, name the sample and the target, and discuss whether there are any fallacies present in the argument (if so, why; if not, why not?).

Answer 1

Answer:

Please, in the Explanation section you will find the explanation of the answer.

Explanation:

The exercise shows the continental United States and 3 cities used in the study carried out by Murdock. It can be said that the sample taken is part of the objective. There are several inconsistencies in Murdock's argument: the first has to do with the fact that the sample that was taken cannot represent the entire American population. A much larger, scientifically calculated sample would be required. The second is that their study did not take into account small cities or people living in the interior of the United States.