Diagramming with Unless

Started by Francesca · started 2021-01-07 23:09 · last activity 2021-01-08 13:47 · 1 reply

Hi. I was having trouble diagramming the statement with unless in this question. Could you please break down how you get the diagrammed sentence in the explanation?

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  1. shunhe · 2021-01-08 13:47

    Hi @Francesca, Thanks for the question! So first, remember that “X unless Y” can be diagrammed in two ways (since they’re contrapositives): ~Y —> X ~X —> Y You’re probably more used to the second way, since we teach you that “unless” introduces the necessary, and you put the rest in the sufficient and negate it, so I’ll complete the rest of the diagram using this method. Here, we have the following statement: “Unless the core of such a planetary body generates enough heat to cause volcanic action, the surface of the body will not be renewed for millions of years.” So this is phrased “Unless Y, X.” Which is fine. Remember, unless introduces the necessary. So we’ll have [something] —> Core generates enough heat to cause volcanic action Now for the sufficient part. We take what’s left and negate it. ~ (surface of the body won’t be renewed for millions of years) —> Core generates enough heat to cause volcanic action Notice, however, that we have a negation and a “won’t.” That’s a double negative and kind of ugly and hard to work with. Remember, two negatives cancel each other out (like multiplying negative numbers), so we can just write Surface of the body renewed within millions of years —> Core generates enough heat to cause volcanic action And that’s the final diagram! Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

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