Do you know more about science and technology than the average American?

Originally posted by Ghost375
If you really want to test your basic science knowledge, here are 10 questions I think are the most important basic questions:

1. What is the general formula for carbohydrate?
2. In what form(specific, not just gas), is Oxygen most abundant in the atmosphere?
3. The property of water that makes it such a great solvent is its __________.
4. A salt is a(n) ____________ compound.
5. DNA is held together by ____________ bonds.
6. What is a ketone?
7. The 2 most abundant atoms that make up the sun are ___________ and __________________.
8. What is the general formula for gravity?
9. What is the average force of gravity here on Earth?
10. How many atoms in a mole?

edit on 3-5-2013 by Ghost375 because: clarification

1. CH2O
2. O2 oxygen gas
3. intermolecular forces
4. ionic
5. hydrogen
6. ?
7. hydrogen and helium
8. f = ma (I'm wrong, but I haven't taken physics)
9. ?
10. 6.02 x 10^23

reply to post by Surfrat


I got 12 of the questions right...I was surprised that I did!

Originally posted by InverseLookingGlass
reply to post by Ghost375

 

I'm interested in why the chemistry questions are your top 10 for basic science?

For example, why would it be important why water is a good solvent and what bonds DNA? Sure it's important to an engineer but why top 10?

I have physics and biochemistry questions there too.

Those questions represent some of the fundamental properties of the universe/life.
The properties of water are definitively the most important properties that give rise to life.
And for DNA, the bonds that hold it together are extremely important for many reasons. They're weak enough to allow it to separate for replication, yet strong enough to hold it together.

The questions they ask are miscellaneous facts. These questions reveal the properties of the universe that enable life.

I'll admit, question 10 isn't that important. Ketone may seem questionable, but it really is important. It's probably the most abundant functional group found in living cells(that's not the answer lol), besides alcohol.

reply to post by catswithbigpaws


pretty good. 3 is wrong though. same with 8 but you know that. The formula you used is often used in conjunction with it though.

reply to post by Surfrat


Not to sound too harsh or anything, but all it takes to be smarter in the sciences than the average American is possessing half a functional brain, which is not something that Americans are known for these days, sadly enough. If it makes you feel better, the amount of idiocy north of the border rivals yours, so you're not alone in that regard. Stupidity is at epidemic levels as far as I'm concerned, even among so-called educated individuals. It just goes to show...never confuse education with intelligence.

12 of 13. I feel ashamed and dumb as a rock for getting a question wrong on such an easy test...

12 out of 13 for me..i didnt get the "Which gas makes up most of the Earth's atmosphere?" right.

oh well

I got three questions right cos am aweso amazing genius person.

I don't really think quizzes like this access very much though. What you know and retain often depends on how you're using you're mind and what you're using it on. If you're doing a lot of something, you will retain information about it.

Not sure these facts are relevant to most people's daily lives.

For anyone who's interested I've done some maths on the results of the test.

Percent of questions successfully answered by age range:

18-29 = 64.6%
30-49 = 65.0%
50-64 = 64.1%
65+ = 50.2%

Percent of questions successfully answered by sex:

Male = 66%
Female = 59%

I didn't bother with averaging out the education fields as the trend was fairly evident on face value.

The results by age is interesting. Flies in the face of this baseless notion that every generation is stupider than the last. I appreciate that the over 65's may be brought down by memory problems, but there's no significant difference between any of the other age fields. With the way some on ATS carry on you'd expect the younger age group to be stupidest, with each age range there after answering more answers correctly than the one before it.

reply to post by Surfrat


13/13 here. Wow easy questions and ultimately useless trivia. Idiocracy sure seems to be the most accurate picture of the future.

Originally posted by Pinke
I got three questions right cos am aweso amazing genius person.

I don't really think quizzes like this access very much though. What you know and retain often depends on how you're using you're mind and what you're using it on. If you're doing a lot of something, you will retain information about it.

Not sure these facts are relevant to most people's daily lives.

I don't pay any real attention to science and technology, I'm only high school educated, and I managed 12 questions and kicking myself for getting one wrong.

How did you only manage 3? That means that you failed to guess 10 questions wrong, at least. That takes a certain amount of BAD luck!

Try the test again, I've got £50 says you can go better than 3 while wearing a blindfold.

Originally posted by MystikMushroom
I got 12/13

I didn't think the question about what gasses make up our atmosphere though. Just sort of clicked.

If 85% of people know less about science and technology than me (and I'm not genius) I am absolutely terrified.

This explains why some days I feel like the smartest person on the planet.

That's the one I missed but it was because I knew that oxygen is made from hydrogen. Turns out nitrogen is more plentiful.

By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium[2] and the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust, making up almost half of the crust's mass.[3] Oxygen is too chemically reactive to remain a free element in Earth's atmosphere without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms, which use the energy of sunlight to produce elemental oxygen from water.

en.wikipedia.org...

Oh well, they can't take away my IT degree.

I got them all correct.

Those were pretty easy.

I'd hate to see how the general public did if they asked hard questions.

I want you all to be on my open source research and development team!

Smarties! Come on im not joking, get over here!

Umm, now?

Honestly I think evolution has split human beings into two groups,

Group A : Actually cares about the world around them, the interactions of all around them, want's to learn and be innovative in some way that helps solve problems presented to humankind.

Group B : They don't care about anyone but themselves, are living each day as it is, Not thinking about things they think they cannot do anything about, more about being entertained than entertaining themselves.

Originally posted by Wildbob77
I got them all correct.

Those were pretty easy.

I'd hate to see how the general public did if they asked hard questions.

Yah especially the one about Climate Change

That probably comes right out of the Common Core curriculum because that is what they are teaching the kids now.

reply to post by bryanm61


The first person to strike a match would kill us all....

Originally posted by GrandStrategy
Try the test again, I've got £50 says you can go better than 3 while wearing a blindfold.

I tried this with the blindfold, and I accidentally clicked a different tab and downloaded a virus from Russia which made me have to reimage my computer.

I believe this is worse than 3 out of 13 on online test, so I would like my money now.

Originally posted by Marsupilami
This quiz has to be a joke, right?

Which gas makes up most of the Earth's atmosphere?
Male - 20
Female - 27

People don't even know what they're breathing.

But oxygen wasn't the answer. Nitrogen was. But this excerpt says Nitrogen is the fifth most abundant element in the Universe, and wiki says oxygen is the third most abundant element in the Universe, and plants make oxygen from water and sunlight.....soooo oh well
But I guess that is what makes our planet different from the others and more habitable.

Nitrogen was discovered by the Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772. It is the fifth most abundant element in the universe and makes up about 78% of the earth's atmosphere, which contains an estimated 4,000 trillion tons of the gas. Nitrogen is obtained from liquefied air through a process known as fractional distillation.

education.jlab.org...

Got 12 out of 13.

Got mixed up between CO2 and Nitrogen for the question with the gasses that fill the earths atmosphere.

Im surprised by the results of other people

reply to post by Surfrat


Got 10 out of 13

I didn't know what the english word "fracking" meant,

And I forgot that "nail" are also the name of smooth screws, not just finger nails (these usually don't rust).

As for electron, I disagree: They are smaller than atoms. They are point-like particles, while the atom is made of several protons and neutrons. They shoulda have said the "electronic cloud", not the individual electrons.

What I hated though is when they asked if I was a man or a woman. As if it was really relevant? I mean, aren't we past sexism now?