Assignment Requirements

1. “Identifying Misleading Information in an Argument”

• Consider the following argument: There are many arguments for the elimination or modification of current U. S. drug laws, but one of the most persuasive involves what negative effects drug laws are having on society in comparison with the effects of the drugs themselves. In the past ten years, most forms of drug use have dropped significantly, especially among teens. Despite this, non-violent drug offenders accounted for 21.1 percent of the federal prison population. First time drug offenders serve, on average, a sentence three months longer than kidnappers, nine months longer than burglars, and thirty-three months longer than sex abusers. In 1992, the average cost of keeping an inmate in either state or federal prison was about $20,000 per prisoner per year. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 455 prisoners per 100,000 population. It is maintaining these prisoners at great expense in an environment where they are unlikely to develop a socially constructive attitude. Perhaps it is time that we reconsider our attitudes toward those who choose to use drugs; failure to do so may cost society even more than it already has.

o Determine whether or not the argument uses any deceptive statistics. Give your opinion on whether or not the argument has persuaded you. Explain why or why not.

o Determine the primary ways in which statistics or authority are used in your current position in developing persuasive arguments, and provide examples of such use.

2.”Understanding the Complexity in Simple Arguments”

• Consider this scenario: Your agency has completely reorganized how it delivers services to the public. This change occurred 6 months ago. The new, larger work group you now supervise is made up of your original employees from before the change, and a few others from different program specialties. You are now responsible for supervising four different programs, where only 6 months ago, you focused on just one program. A problem has come up concerning how to handle the increased workload. Your original employees are skilled in only one program area. The newer employees are also skilled in only one program area each, although their experience is in the different programs that were added 6 months ago.
Create the best solution for solving the problem. Justify your response.

• Explain the main reasons why you believe your solution would the problem. Provide a rationale for your response.

• Describe a dilemma of your own with a problem similar to the one in the above scenario

3. Consider the following quote by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who believed that thought without language was impossible: “The limits of my language are the limits of my life.” For more information on Wittgenstein and his analysis on the primacy of language, watch the video “Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) The Limits of Language”, located at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgW_PFl-Xs4. Examine whether or not it is possible to think without using language. If you believe it is possible, describe the primary ways in which a person might enact so-called “languageless” thinking. If you believe it is not possible, describe what you foresee as major problems with languageless thinking.

4.”Ethics and Trust in Critical Thinking Decisions”

• Imagine you are seeking information on a new car that you are thinking of buying. Determine the level of trust that you would place in information provided by the following: a salesman at the car lot, the dealer’s Website, social media (i.e. Facebook), an associate from work, and finally a close friend. Discuss the key factors involved in assessing the amount of trust that you put into each.

• If you were in a position to persuade another person, explain whether or not you would slant information in such a way as to make your point seem more credible if you sincerely believed that your position was correct. Discuss the primary ethical dilemmas that this scenario could cause for both you and the person whom you are trying to persuade.

Paper details: Chapter 3 and Chapter 13 Homework
Problem 03-02.
The Road King Tire Company in Birmingham wants to monitor the quality of the tires it manufactures. Each day the company quality-control manager takes a sample of 100 tires, tests them, and determines the number of defective tires. The results of 20 samples have been recorded as follows:

Sample Number of Defectives Sample Number of Defectives
1 14 11 18
2 12 12 10
3  9 13 19
4 10 14 20
5 11 15 17
6  7 16 18
7  8 17 18
8 14 18 22
9 16 19 24
10 17 20 23
Construct a -chart for this process using limits and describe the variation in the process.

Problem 03-06.
One of the stages in the process of making denim cloth at the Southern Mills Company is to spin cotton yarn onto spindles for subsequent use in the weaving process. Occasionally the yarn breaks during the spinning process, and an operator ties it back together. Some number of breaks is considered normal; however, too many breaks might mean that the yarn is of poor quality. In order to monitor this process, the quality-control manager randomly selects a spinning machine each hour and checks the number of breaks during a 15-minute period. Following is a summary of the observations for the past 20 hours:

Sample Number of Breaks Sample Number of Breaks
1 3 11 3
2 2 12 4
3 4 13 6
4 1 14 7
5 5 15 8
6 3 16 6
7 2 17 5
8 4 18 7
9 0 19 8
10 2 20 6
Construct a -chart using limits for this process and indicate if the process was out of control at any time.

Problem 13-06.
The Ambrosia Bakery makes cakes for freezing and subsequent sale. The bakery, which operates five days a week, 52 weeks a year, can produce cakes at the rate of 116 cakes per day. The bakery sets up the cake-production operation and produces until a predetermined number has been produced. When not producing cakes, the bakery uses its personnel and facilities for producing other bakery items. The setup cost for a production run of cakes is $700. The cost of holding frozen cakes in storage is $9 per cake per year. The annual demand for frozen cakes, which is constant over time, is 6000 cakes. Determine the following:

a. Optimal production run quantity (Q)
b. Total annual inventory costs
c. Optimal number of production runs per year
d. Optimal cycle time (time between run starts)
e. Run length in working days.

Problem 13-20.
Southwood Furniture Company is a U.S.-based furniture manufacturer that offshored all of its actual manufacturing operations to China about a decade ago. It set up a distribution center in Hong Kong from which the company ships its items to the United States on container ships. The company learned early on that it could not rely on local Chinese freight forwarders to arrange for sufficient containers for the company’s shipments, so it contracted to purchase containers from a Taiwanese manufacturer and then sell them to shipping companies at the U.S. ports the containers are shipped to. Southwood needs 715 containers each year. It costs $1200 to hold a container at its distribution center, and it costs $6000 to receive an order for the containers. Determine the optimal order size, minimum total annual inventory cost, number of annual orders, and time between orders.