This version of the process does not guarantee success, even if only one option remains, since it eliminates possibilities merely as improbable.
In this case one can find the answers which one cannot eliminate by eliminating any other answers and test them alone – the others are eliminated as a logical consequence; this is the idea behind optimizations for computerized searches when the input is sorted – as, for instance, in binary search.
A process of elimination can be used to reach a diagnosis of exclusion.
It is an underlying method in performing a differential diagnosis.
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