[Closed] Thursday Science Quiz: Can you do science better than 93% of Americans?

well all your fuel will burn better but with large amount of hydrogen in there, the air itself would burn...no?

Not much hydrogen would get to burn. It would run out of oxygen.

13/13 for me, I had to think for more than a second about the Nitrogen one - I can actually recall being taught that and my younger self thinking "why don't we all suffocate if there's so little oxygen?"

Not much hydrogen would get to burn. It would run out of oxygen.

if so then we are arguing semantics, something the internet was created for 🙂

well, I knew hydrogen was quite reactive but then I thought nitrogen was too because they make bombs out of it.

[i]Agreed. Not ideal conditions.[/i]

Phone Jamie now, see if he does any better (or worse).

13/13
Didn't read the thread first, and was unsure about the nitrogen thing, but had an inkling that was the way to go.

but then I thought nitrogen was too because they make bombs out of it.

Do you mean "bombs" or "beer" ?

[img] [/img]

100%! Which is about the first time I've scored 100% in anything in recent times.

wwaswas - Member
well, I knew hydrogen was quite reactive but then I thought nitrogen was too because they make bombs out of it.

I think you may still be slightly confused 🙂

Phone Jamie now

I just did but all he was interested in was the usual phone sex.

I think you may still be slightly confused

I think he might be talking about nitrogen fertilizer bombs 🙂

ernie has it.

Maybe they use fortified nitrogen in fertiliser 😉

And on questions like continental drift- you can know the answer but disagree with it on principle.

erm.....

[i]I just did but all he was interested in was the usual phone sex.[/i]

*nods* .. distractions.

And on questions like continental drift- you can know the answer but disagree with it on principle.

I don't have many principles but I stick to them damnit!

I take a principled stand against Britain getting closer to Europe.

If you get my drift.

Inflammable means flammable? What a country!

13/13

Awesumz.

Makes you wonder how they ever managed to land a man on the moon.

Or did they ?

Wasn't that largely down to the Germans?

As for the Nitrogen, I'm amazed that so many people got that wrong. Getting the third most common gas in the atmosphere wrong I can understand (it's Argon) but the first two?

5thElefant - Member

And on questions like continental drift- you can know the answer but disagree with it on principle.

That's awesome. Taking a principled stand against geological processes.

I for one would like to see a facebook campagin organised against those nasty pyroclastic flows

gonefishin - Member

As for the Nitrogen, I'm amazed that so many people got that wrong. Getting the third most common gas in the atmosphere wrong I can understand (it's Argon) but the first two?

Water Vapourist!!!

Wasn't that largely down to the Germans?

Yes of course it was. The Germans probably also showed those daft Americans who know bugger all about science, or even how to spell the word "maths", how to build nuclear weapons.

100%. GO me.

Not exactly hard questions though 🙂

Yes of course it was. The Germans probably also showed those daft Americans who know bugger all about science, or even how to spell the word "maths", how to build nuclear weapons.

You mean no indigenous american was involved ?

No wonder they were slaughtered.

Genuinely shocked that so many folk on here are not getting 13/13. 😯
This is mostly basic highschool stuff (and a bit of current affairs).

Sadly, I shall no longer be able to place the absolute confidence that I previously did in the all-knowing oracle that is the STW forum. 😐

No-one pointed out the bad grammar in some of those questions then?

You mean no indigenous american was involved ?

No wonder they were slaughtered.

I don't think any native americans were involved.

[i]This is mostly basic highschool stuff[/i]

That's the problem - we don't have "High Schools" here.

Inflammable means flammable? What a country!

Inflammable is correct, from the Latin root [i]in[/i] ("in", "on") and [i]flamma[/i] ("flame")

But apparently too many people (understandably) misinterpret inflammable to be the opposite of flammable. Which has fairly dire consequences!

So these days we mostly just say flammable.

Sadly, I shall no longer be able to place the absolute confidence that I previously did in the all-knowing oracle that is the STW forum.

Hey the world needs artists as well as scientists.

.

(well, when I say "world", I mainly mean McDonalds 🙂 )

Hey the world needs artists as well as scientists.

Hope this is the right video (can't play it on this computer)

Phew, 13/13 and I only did one science O level. Thank goodness for opportunity to supervise GCSE revision - especially the electrons!!

That is a worrying survey!!

Bit late to the party but a respectable 13/13 here. What's the prize?

Chuffed with my 13 out of 13!

A long time since I got 100% in a test.

13 here, phew!

much laughs at dinosaur 'science' paper

What's the prize?

The prize is that you can smugly declare how daft the Americans are.

Despite the fact that they tell us what to do, and we do exactly what they tell us. It's called the 'Special Relationship'.

13/13 Wot skillz! Shove over Prof Cox! 😀

13/13

anything less would have been embarrassing

think I got the demographic ones at the end right, too

Have to ask ernie_lynch - did you actually do the test??

Yes I did, thanks for asking.

eh ? 1% out of 1006 got them all wrong 😯

My pleasure.

1% out of 1006 got them all wrong

They probably didn't answer the phone 🙂

Yeah, a German Jewish fella.

But the guy who showed them how to build space rockets was a German war criminal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

If my maths was right earlier on you'd expect 2 people out of 1000 to get them all wrong if everyone was guessing.

Phew 13/13. that desmond did me proud

Now I'm depressed, we are being told what to do by the thick bully in the playground, who'd a thunk it?

Yawn. Think you would find exactly the same (if not probably worse) in the UK to be honest with the poor level of science teaching in british schools.

Talking to my wife about this.. it seems that in US education they still do a certain amount of drilling of a selection of facts, which isn't really popular here. So the function of red blood cells is subject to drilling, but the composition of the atmosphere is not. So the former becomes something that 'everyone knows'. The stats for the respective questions back that up.

I got 13/13, but I teach A level physics and have taught GCSE Science, so you'd hope that I would 🙂

Yawn. Think you would find exactly the same (if not probably worse) in the UK to be honest with the poor level of science teaching in british schools.

Anyone passing GCSE Science [s]would[/s] [i]should[/i] know the answers to all 13 questions. Do you have any evidence for alleged poor level of science teaching in the UK? (Better evidence than for Diet Coke being bad for you, obviously.)

Disagree with poor science teaching argument. I reckon:

Common Entrance science covers 1,4,5,7,10,12
GSCE 2,8,9
Inbetween/common sense 3,6,11,13

School kids should be able to score well but parents may have "forgotten" some of it!!!

Edit: (oops wrong thread)

Edit for edit!!

13/13 not hard if you have done some science

13/13 here
Mostly just general knowledge though surely?

Apparently the nitrogen thing is not general knowledge. Unless you're a science geek like me, in which case it is along with other facts like why the sky is blue and how long it takes sunlight to get to the earth.

LHS, read this recently? I think you'd enjoy it.

[img] [/img]

So does that mean that we of STW forum are the 7%?

I am not a number!!!!!!!!

And I thought 13 looked like this....

[IMG] [/IMG]

Apparently the nitrogen thing is not general knowledge.

I'd agree that it's not something everyone would immediately know; but in the multiple guess question posed I'd have thought most people sciency enough to be doing a science quiz in the first place would quickly reject the other three.

(oh, a smug 13 here too, btw)

[b]Question 14: What is the probability of someone guessing incorrectly 13 times?[/b]
I *think* about 0.21%, but probability was never my strong point...

0.22% I make it (based on 5 questions with 2 answers, 3 questions with 3 answers, 5 questions with 4 answers) - I guess you have rounding errors 😉 I got 5 right selecting randomly in order to check the number of answers.

Though looking at those results, some of them are worse than you'd expect from randomly guessing (e.g. only 48% get the True/False one about lasers correct, and only 47% get a True/False on atoms correct)

It's even worse if you select subsets of the demographic - only 27% of over 65s got the laser one correct. The nitrogen question also has worse stats than you'd expect from random guessing, should be 25% and those who didn't go to college only got 12%!

Which does bring up the idea of an interesting experiment. Over 65 women who didn't go to college in one room, trained monkeys in the other. Cherry pick the questions to prove just how much more intelligent the monkeys are 🙂

Interestingly men seem to do better than women on average in all of the questions except the two drugs relates ones 🙂

Over 65 women who didn't go to college in one room, trained monkeys in the other.

I think it'd be more fun to put monkeys in one room and creationists in the other 😀

11, the two I got wrong...

I didn't know about the relative sizes of atoms and electrons and guessed wrong.

Answered Oxygen for the Earth's atmosphere question, had a feeling this was wrong but couldn't remember where I'd heard it or what the actual answer was. So I just went with it...

Markie - Member

Nitrogen. Who knew.

I obviously didn't. 😳

12/13 here.

100% here 😀

That was more like a general knowledge quiz!

13. Getting a bit crowded up here on Mount Olympus.

My 17 yr old daughter got 12 (got nitrogen, but messed up with the atoms). Whats more she did it the usual teen way by seemingly concentrating on something else whilst clicking buttons at the speed of light 🙄

I'll try it on the younger one if I can prise her off her boyfriend 👿

13, I'm about to test my U.S. colleges. Update shortly, it'll be like a mini poll!

To be fair to the Americans, it would be harder to get them right over the phone - read out the options, what was the second one again? Sorry, what was the third one? Oh, the first one then, what was it again?

Much easier with the options written down in front of you imo

13/13 btw

So one got 12/13 and the other 9/13. Both wrong on the Nitrogen question, not sure of the other wrong answers.

I'm about to test my U.S. colleges

How many US colleges do you have? Did any of your colleagues go there?

😉

Younger daughter (15) got 11 - nitrogen and rusty nails fail. Still better than or equal to 85% of Americans though 😀

Room for one more up on that high horse? (13/13 and pretty darn quickly as well).

How many US colleges do you have? Did any of your colleagues go there?

That was an unfortunate error, yes colleagues. Neither went to college.

I failed all my 'O' levels at school. Twice. Ended up with a few pointless CSE grade 2's and 3's in English , Maths and plant care ( Environmental Studies )
Yet , as a complete div I still managed to get 13/13 .

12/13

As soon as I hit hydrogen I knew it was wrong. Numpty

13, but theres no pride in that.
12 year old daughter got 12/13 (man made radiation), 15 year old son got 13 on threat of PC removal if he scored less....he has triple GCSE science next year, failure will not be tolerated. 🙂