I took this fun science literacy quiz, and got 47 out of 50 questions correct.
The ones I missed were all in biology and life sciences, my weakest subject. Since so many of the angroids label climate skeptics as “scientifically illiterate”, and because climate change is specifically mentioned, I thought it would be fun to share and to have readers post their scores. Many of the questions are simple, like the first one:
Then there’s some tougher ones, like about Planck’s constant and some that require some simple physics math, F=ma and stuff like that. There’s a bit of irony in whose website the poll is on.
The Christian Science Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1209/Are-you-scientifically-literate-Take-our-quiz/
Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single question about climate change, even though they mention it. If you feel like taking it, don’t succumb to the temptation to look up everything on the Internet…there’s no sport in perfect scores.
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Anthony, this test fits in perfectly with a very recent study showing that it is not the less educated persons but the more educated ones (at least among conservatives) whose trust in science has declined over the past 20 years. The data are very solid, coming from a well-respected survey that is repeated every year or two since the 70s. I posted this in Tips and NOtes a day or two ago:
Today’s AAAS Policy Alert referred to a study showing a decline of trust in science:
“Trust in science has declined sharply among conservatives since 1974, according to a study published last week in the American Sociological Review(PDF). According to Inside Higher Education, the study found that just over 34% of conservatives had confidence in science as an institution in 2010, compared to 48% in 1974. Study author Gordon Gauchat of the University of North Carolina found that it is the better-educated conservatives who have changed attitudes.”
I was wondering whether the “climate science” war had had a noticeable effect, but the authors find the decline to be spread across the full 36 years rather than sharply associated with the Reagan or Bush administrations.
The article, which I thought well done, can be found here, and is not behind a paywall:
http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/asr/Apr12ASRFeature.pdf
41 out of 50.
I’m a little disappointed in myself.
My raw score was OK but then later, after adjustments to account for various factors too complicated to discuss here, my projected score went up to about 65 out of 50.
Better than we thought!
I took it the other day and got 41/50. Not too bad, in my opinion. Most of the ones I missed were the life sciences. Figures, since I’m a Mechanical Engineer.
Anthony, this is a great site and I have enjoyed following it for the past 2 years. Please keep up the good work.
There’s a bit of irony in whose website the poll is on.
They did give as choices of the age of the Earth and the Universe the interesting number 6015 years.
42 and 8…not bad for an engineer who turned to the dark side….
23. Georges Lemaître
What a wonderful thing she is doing with her career. http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2011/harbronff.php
On behalf of my two daughters I appreciate her interest in advocating science to our young women.
I got 41 correct out of 50. It’s late, I should have gotten 45 out of 50.
Well, 49 out of 50. But then, I have a degree in Science – if Climate Science (capitalized) still counts as science. I missed the DNA question, apparently due to the misplaced X chromosomes that Algore says we skeptics are hampered with.
37…
Then I tried again and scored 29!
45 and a half
Blew four including that thunder lizard one (borderline trick question?), and got the object orbiting outside of Pluto with a WAG, so scored that a half.
Wonder how many Al Gore scored – 12.5 or less ??
Ugh… 36 out of 50 (72%). Brought back some memories.
I’m hideously ashamed of myself….36 correct….There is AGW after all……
My background is medical science if that’s any consolation? ‘Woolier’ thinkers maybe……
REPLY: There’s no shame in honesty. – Anthony
44 out of 50. A couple wrong because last time I did physics, we weren’t using Newtons, but the c.g.s system. Some of the answers I might not have got had they not provided the English meaning of Greek-originated terms – which made those questions more about knowledge of classical languages than science. I do have a science degree (zoology), though.
46/50, or 92%. Forgive me for being rather proud of that – I am an autodidact.
49 of 50, but four were good guesses. I missed zygote.
REPLY: I missed zygote as well. – Anthony
Leif says: “They did give as choices of the age of the Earth and the Universe the interesting number 6015 years.”
I imagine you already know this corresponds to Bishop Usher’s estimate.
It has been ridiculed, of course, but if one begins with the once generally accepted postulate that the Bible is literally true then the calculation is a rational approach. At least it yields something that is falsifiable which is not always the case with religion.
46 out of 50
I modeled the test and got 57 out of 50 with a 95% confidence level 19 times out of 20 by 2050.
(48/50 actually)
45. Anthony beat me by two.
Dammit!
27. Nailed all the solar system stuff though.
Andrew30 says:
April 7, 2012 at 9:41 pm
I modeled the test and got 57 out of 50
Presumably a projection.?
49 of 50 — forgot the name of a triangle with all unequal sides.
I got 31 out of 50, but I had a double major in History and English. I took a course called Chem/Phys as a freshman and passed, but dropped out of Calculus after finding it impenetrable (or perhaps it was me that was impenetrable.) That was the extent of my science and math study.
Mr. Watts! Excellent work.
Not so good here at 34 of 50. (Red faced.) I blame the damn planet questions.☺ And some of that stuff was not even discovered way back when I went to school! ☺ So I get a senior’s bye.
I bet Al Gore would score not much more than 20 .. and that gives him 12 freebies just by chance. So he’d get a few because he actually knew them.