Pew Research Centre - Science Knowledge Quiz
http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/
I got 12/12.
It's scary how few of the people surveyed got them all right.
10/12
That's a great link
I got 12/12 however I did take umbrage a the question about Astrology..... It may purport to understand people according to what celestial bodies do, but that doesn't mean it does...
Having encountered undergrads in the classroom, I'm not surprised people don't know this. Any time I would try to make an analogy to some historical thing by reference to my predominantly high school science, students would fail to understand. Not one person in a class of undergrads at the U of Wisconsin knew what the word "symbiotic" meant. When I said "Didn't you take high school biology?" a student replied, "Yeah, but that was like three years ago."
I said, "Well I remember it from high school bio and in my case that was sixteen years ago."
He said, "Dude! You're ancient!" (I was 32 at the time).
Interesting stats....
Men beat women on every single question. The one where women come closest is about astrology, so we can throw that out. This is staggering when you consider that for many years now girls have outperformed boys in school and have gone to college in greater numbers. Why are they performing lower than men?
Worst performance was for boiling temp of water.... not sure what to make of that. I bet the scores were higher in Denver than LA ;-)
Age cohorts.
Some are predictable - the 65+ cohort nails the polio question.
On most questions younger people do better than older people. So much for "youth today". On the one hand they are closer to their school years. On the other hand they've had less time to learn.
Education
It's staggering that almost one in every five adults with a college or graduate degree has no clue what drives the communication device that most of them have in their pocket!
Race
The gap between white and black is also staggering and reflects much about race and class in America.
11/12 and now I'm pissed at myself for missing the first one, if I just slowed down and thought about it for a second I would have gotten it right. That's what I get for rushing a quiz at work!
>boiling temp of water
I actually knew that from my days of wanting to be a mechanic in my youth -- before I realized that there are way more easier ways to make a living. A pressurized cooling system has a higher boiling point.
Quote from: littleman on September 15, 2015, 03:37:12 PM
11/12 and now I'm pissed at myself for missing the first one, if I just slowed down and thought about it for a second I would have gotten it right. That's what I get for rushing a quiz at work!
Same here but the magnifying glass question got me.
Got the polio one by deduction.
Quote from: BoL on September 15, 2015, 05:12:18 PM
Got the polio one by deduction.
Interesting. Sad actually.
Not long ago, Salk was a name in the pantheon as recognizable as Einstein and Newton and probably more recognizable than Pasteur or Curie. Much, much better known than Bohr or Oppenheimer. He was a cultural hero that inspired kids to go into science and inspired people in general to work on audacious and great things for the good of all people.
The vaccine changed the world - people lived in fear of death or a life of disability and it infected massive numbers of people, ruining literally millions of lives. It was one of the great fears that parents faced, of a type that we have all but forgotten in the Western world in terms of frequency and severity.
QuoteAccording to a 2009 PBS documentary, "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio."
Salk campaigned for mandatory vaccination, claiming that public health should be considered a "moral commitment."[5] His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When asked who owned the patent to it, Salk said, "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"
Salk preferred not to have his career as a scientist affected by too much personal attention, as he had always tried to remain independent and private in his research and life, but this proved to be impossible. "Young man, a great tragedy has befallen you—you've lost your anonymity", the television personality Ed Murrow said to Salk shortly after the onslaught of media attention.[54]
Author Jon Cohen noted, "Jonas Salk made scientists and journalists alike go goofy. As one of the only living scientists whose face was known the world over, Salk, in the public's eye, had a superstar aura. Airplane pilots would announce that he was on board and passengers would burst into applause. Hotels routinely would upgrade him into their penthouse suites. A meal at a restaurant inevitably meant an interruption from an admirer, and scientists approached him with drop-jawed wonder as though some of the stardust might rub off."[67]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk#Becoming_a_public_figure
True greatness that should never be forgotten as long as human beings walk the planet on polio-free legs and aspire to greatness themselves.
I can't recall Salk being mentioned in the high school curriculum. The others you mention I've heard of all of them. Mendel, Darwin and Pasteur were definitely taught, and you can't grow up in Scotland without knowing about Alexander Fleming (because the Scots invented everything, you know).
You learn something every day.
I think the thing is that Mendel and Darwin are pedagogically important - you cover them to cover a concept in genetics or evolution. Pasteur also. To some extent same with Newton, Harvey, etc.
Flemming and Salk are more historically important - inventors of something that radically changed the world. One might say more radically than anything Edison did.... and yet
I don't know of Flemming's bio, but Salk is an inspiring figure not so much for his manifest brilliance, but for his humility and humanity. In that sense I see him perhaps more like the science nerd Ghandi than the vaccine Newton.
12 but I only got Salk because of this thread (or perhaps I might have managed it anyway - hard to tell when you know the answer!). I also don't know if I would have got the raido waves one. What can I say... radios don't work at my house but mobiles do (sort of) - makes you doubt yourself!
women/men - I can't find the figures for number of respondents by gender but I wonder if that may be in part because (making massive generalisations) men will tend to take a quiz only if relatively interested in the subject and/or not bother to share their demographic data at the end, especially if they don't feel like bragging, while women are more likely to see a link and just take it anyway? At least that's how the more lightweight quizzes tend to play out for us.
The amps results surprised me most - thats the one you need least scientific knowledge for I would think, yet it had the worst results of the lot.
Astrology, what the hell is that to do with science apart from a semi trick question
Quote from: Gurtie on September 16, 2015, 06:51:40 AM
I wonder if that may be in part because (making massive generalisations) men will tend to take a quiz only if relatively interested in the subject and/or not bother to share their demographic data at the end, especially if they don't feel like bragging, while women are more likely to see a link and just take it anyway? At least that's how the more lightweight quizzes tend to play out for us.
Nope. The notes say specifically that the numbers do not include online respondents, but only the original scientifically selected 3000 or so test takers.
The results show when you finish the test. Or did for me. Right below the histogram that shows what percentile you're in.
>polio
Polio vaccine announcement from 1955
https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/rs2vx9/polio_vaccine_announcement_from_1955/