BASIC Level "Science Test"

[/DG/]

I got all of them right, except for number seven.

7. What have scientists recently discovered on Mars?

:/

 

[ed111]

I got all twelve but had to think about a couple of them: what was discovered on Mars, and whether anti-biotics can be used against viruses (then I remembered there are such things as anti-viral drugs).

I think it's acceptable that people would get a few wrong.

 

[lunalum]

12/12 Those weren't too hard, but I could see how the average person wouldn't know about these things without being interested in them first. I would have thought "basic" science questions would be more related to the main laws of Newtonian physics, limited chemistry, limited biology, and a little bit of "earth science". The sorts of things people should know about how the world works on a very basic level so that they could survive just fine on a day-to-day basis.

I would not expect the average person to know what stem cells can do, how lasers work, or how big an electron is. These are things that are interesting to know, but will not make or break your understanding of the world. That a person knows that atoms exist and they are extremely small, that cells make up your body and can be damaged, and that lasers can damage your eyes because they are very bright is good enough really.

(also got 12/12)

 

[BlueGray]

11/12 Gotta love missing the first question that 91% of people get right.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

12/12

 

[Moiety]

11


Seppuku.

 

[Take Five]

Got them all. It is really sad that people got only ten or less correct.

 

[Scott N Denver]

12/12

I was concerned about the laser and electron questions though.

Is an electron smaller than an atom???
Yes) Its a constituent or sub-part of an atom.
Yes) It's modelled by a dirac delta function, which IS a point

localization issues
No) Wave functions, look at the size of 90% probability of locating
no) wave functions, electrons move, especially free ones. throughout lattices. Electron-hole pairs anyone???

overall, yes they are smaller, but they might "seem" bigger when you try to localize them
note: I havent number crunched deltaX in HUP, so maybe deltaX is smaller than an atom, but H atom is pretty small right. also, get in a vacuum and you've got apretty long mean free path.

 

[OrionzRevenge]

12/12 ^^^ the questions were sorta grade-school so it was easy to infer that they wanted grade-school answers.

 

[Eric B]

Missed the stem cells one. Thought I had always heard one of the other choices.

 

[Fluffywolf]

11/12... I didn't know the heart medicin thingy.

Actually, when it comes to meds, I am just about clueless. I dislike medication to start with so.

 

[sofmarhof]

Very... current events focused. More bout whether you read a headline once in a while than whether you remember HS science.

 

[Blank]

I screwed up the antibiotics one, but I honestly didn't know for sure what it was.

 

[disregard]

I got 7.

 

[mcmartinez84]

12 right

 

[CyberHiker]

I got them all right as well.

And I see that the questions that the least amount of people got right were all physics based.

Lasers work by focusing sound waves. False Correct 47

and

Electrons are smaller than atoms. True Correct 46

hmmmmm.....

 

[BlueScreen]

I got them all right as well.

And I see that the questions that the least amount of people got right were all physics based.

Lasers work by focusing sound waves. False Correct 47

and

Electrons are smaller than atoms. True Correct 46

hmmmmm.....

Yeh, the fact they are physics does not make them difficult. People must just see physics questions and panic. Anyone who went to school could probably answer the second one quite easily (it's like asking is a door smaller than a house). And anyone who has ever seen a laser would guess that the bright silent beam that comes out of it is not sound.

 

[CyberHiker]

Yeh, the fact they are physics does not make them difficult. People must just see physics questions and panic. Anyone who went to school could probably answer the second one quite easily (it's like asking is a door smaller than a house). And anyone who has ever seen a laser would guess that the bright silent beam that comes out of it is not sound.

Have I stated that because they were physics based, they would be hard?

 

[Haphazard]

I got 12/12.

But this is beside the point. This seems almost like a more "current events" science knowledge test than a "general knowledge" science test. It's none of the stuff you'd learn from a science class and all of the stuff you'd get from reading the science section of your newspaper.

 

[Biaxident]

*snicker*

14 out of 12...

And Hap... You might learn most of that stuff in school, depending on how old you are, and how much they have lowered the bar in your classes.

After all, everyone is a winner, even the losers.

I learn almost everything by doing research and reading on my own. Apparently most people are comfortable going with the herd, and getting progressively dumber. Because no one should stand out, and make everyone else feel bad because they can't keep up...