CAT 2021 Slot 3 — VARC Question 6
Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.
Keeping time accurately comes with a price. The maximum accuracy of a clock is directly related to how much disorder, or entropy, it creates every time it ticks. Natalia Ares at the University of Oxford and her colleagues made this discovery using a tiny clock with an accuracy that can be controlled. The clock consists of a 50-nanometre-thick membrane of silicon nitride, vibrated by an electric current. Each time the membrane moved up and down once and then returned to its original position, the researchers counted a tick, and the regularity of the spacing between the ticks represented the accuracy of the clock. The researchers found that as they increased the clock's accuracy, the heat produced in the system grew, increasing the entropy of its surroundings by jostling nearby particles . . . "If a clock is more accurate, you are paying for it somehow," says Ares. In this case, you pay for it by pouring more ordered energy into the clock, which is then converted into entropy. "By measuring time, we are increasing the entropy of the universe," says Ares. The more entropy there is in the universe, the closer it may be to its eventual demise. "Maybe we should stop measuring time," says Ares. The scale of the additional entropy is so small, though, that there is no need to worry about its effects, she says.
The increase in entropy in timekeeping may be related to the "arrow of time", says Marcus Huber at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, who was part of the research team. It has been suggested that the reason that time only flows forward, not in reverse, is that the total amount of entropy in the universe is constantly increasing, creating disorder that cannot be put in order again.
The relationship that the researchers found is a limit on the accuracy of a clock, so it doesn't mean that a clock that creates the most possible entropy would be maximally accurate - hence a large, inefficient grandfather clock isn't more precise than an atomic clock. "It's a bit like fuel use in a car. Just because I'm using more fuel doesn't mean that I'm going faster or further," says Huber.
When the researchers compared their results with theoretical models developed for clocks that rely on quantum effects, they were surprised to find that the relationship between accuracy and entropy seemed to be the same for both. . . . We can't be sure yet that these results are actually universal, though, because there are many types of clocks for which the relationship between accuracy and entropy haven't been tested. "It's still unclear how this principle plays out in real devices such as atomic clocks, which push the ultimate quantum limits of accuracy," says Mark Mitchison at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Understanding this relationship could be helpful for designing clocks in the future, particularly those used in quantum computers and other devices where both accuracy and temperature are crucial, says Ares. This finding could also help us understand more generally how the quantum world and the classical world are similar and different in terms of thermodynamics and the passage of time.
The author makes all of the following arguments in the passage, EXCEPT that:
Answer & solution
- A
The relationship between accuracy and entropy may not apply to all clocks.
Researchers found that the heat produced in a system is the price paid for increased accuracy of measurement.
- C
There is no difference in accuracy between an inefficient grandfather clock and an atomic clock.
- D
In designing clocks for quantum computers, both precision and heat have to be taken into account.
Easy
This is an EXCEPT question: three options ARE arguments the author makes, one is not. Match each option to a specific line. The trap here is wording — check whether the option states the passage's claim precisely or twists/overstates it.
Made by the author. Paragraph 4: "We can't be sure yet that these results are actually universal... there are many types of clocks for which the relationship... haven't been tested." So the relationship may not apply to all clocks.
The stored answer (NOT made by the author). The passage says accuracy is paid for "by pouring more ordered energy into the clock, which is then converted into entropy" — entropy (disorder), not heat itself, is the stated "price." The official key treats this option as the one the author does not argue.
Caution — arguably also a misstatement. Paragraph 3 actually says a grandfather clock "isn't more precise than an atomic clock," which is not the same as "no difference in accuracy" (the atomic clock is in fact more accurate). The author makes a comparison about these two clocks, so the passage does touch this point; but if read as "they are equally accurate," it is false. See the note below.
Made by the author. Paragraph 4: clocks for "quantum computers and other devices where both accuracy and temperature are crucial" — precision and heat both matter in design.
Option B is the stored answer: the author frames the price of accuracy as entropy, not heat per se, so the "heat is the price" phrasing is treated as the statement the author does not make.
Note: this item is contested. Toprankers' own analysis argues option C is the better "EXCEPT" answer, since the passage never says the two clocks have "no difference in accuracy" (an atomic clock is more accurate). The official IIM key, which we follow here, gives B. Both B and C are defensible; the difference between "heat" and the "entropy it is converted into" is the thin reed that B rests on.