11/12... missed the Polio question.

14/14 NOT 12/12 correct.

I absolutely got the two additional questions pertaining to my age and sex correct.

12/12

12 of 12 but I LOVE science.

The post results demographics are really the interesting part.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve 22X:
14/14 NOT 12/12 correct.

I absolutely got the two additional questions pertaining to my age and sex correct.

12/14. Apparently "NoneYa" and "Yes" weren't correct on the two additional questions.

Neat test, thanks for posting it.

We oldsters had an advantage on the polio question, since when we were growing up the medication was known as the "Salk Vaccine".

It would be a hoot to see how well journalists, especially talking heads on TV could score on this. Then of course there are the know it alls like Whoopie and Ellen, wonder if they could get any of them right.

8/12 - yep, I'm the SIGvillage idiot.

I got the magnifying glass one wrong. Dang.

11/12 - I missed the water boiling question.

12/12 due to white privilege, and I used to teach science.

12/12 ==> RACISM!!!

Any question is easy if we know the answer. What I find interesting is exploring why some people know answers and others don’t.

Whether we know the answers in a test like these is usually due to education—whether it was gained in school, through self-study, or through personal observation and analysis. Someone who played with a magnifying glass and observed its shape and what it did to light rays shining through it could have answered that question regardless of whether she had ever taken a course in optics.

Intelligence is of course important as well. Not only is a certain degree of intelligence necessary to discover what happens when light rays pass through a magnifying glass, intelligence tends to be associated with a greater degree of curiosity about all things in general, and that’s often even more important. Countless scientific and quasi-scientific discoveries have been made by people who wondered, “Why is that?” Innumerable people before them had no doubt observed the same things, but never asked that question.

But education from formal schooling or cultural experience is most important for tests like these. Three hundred years ago the smartest person on the planet wouldn’t have been able to answer questions about atmospheric gasses or radioactivity. If it were possible to go back in time to 1930 and ask Einstein the cell phone question and he was told what a cell phone was and how people used them, he would probably get it right because he would have been familiar with the things that were offered as answers. The same would have been true of the question about nuclear power. On the other hand if it were possible to pose the questions to Newton, his ignorance of everything relating to the answers would have left him clueless—despite being one of the most intelligent people alive.

The education we receive is largely a matter of chance, including how intelligent we become due to our genes and upbringing.

What was most fascinating to me were the demographics of those who were able, and not able, to answer the questions. There are differences in average general intelligence or IQ among various racial and even ethnic groups, but not enough, IMO, to account for the fact that some groups were evidently unable to answer some questions better than could be achieved by blind guessing. If that’s true, what does that say about the education they receive and about why they receive that level of education? And most critical, are they being taught things that are manifestly untrue?

12/12

Pretty basic stuff.......

10/12 meh

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
I got the magnifying glass one wrong. Dang.

To be fair, it was a lousy picture. You didn't know which side the eye was on.

Bet you didn't have any problems with the radio related questions though!

11/12. Never needed to boil water in LA or Denver.

I missed the moon and tides. Damn Earth rotation.

Naw.
If you watch Sci Fi it was easy peasy.
12/12

quote:

Originally posted by was0311:
I missed the moon and tides. Damn Earth rotation.

I had to think about that one a while, because both the Sun and Moon have an effect on the tides (and both were possible answers).

I think it is interesting that when they asked me for my educational level, there were only 3 options--Post-graduate was not offered (and I qualify). (I actually went through the quiz twice, giving identical answers, just to see if I'd get offered the "Post-graduate" option--nope, didn't show up the second time, either.)

flashguy