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Are You Scientifically Literate? Take This Quiz, Then Lie About Your Score.
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1. Composing about 78 percent of the air at sea level, what is the most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere?
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2. The Austrian monk Gregor Mendel's observations of what organism formed the basis for the science of genetics?
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3. What term, which means the maximum absolute value of a periodically varying quantity, does the "A" in AM radio broadcasting stand for?
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4. In 1989, the US postal service drew criticism from paleontologists for releasing a stamp with what obsolete genus name, which translates from Greek as "Thunder Lizard"?
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5. Organic chemistry is the study of compounds that contain what element?
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6. How many nanometers are there in a centimeter?
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7. In physics, what letter is used to represent the speed of light in a vacuum?
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8. The only two known planets in our solar system that lack any moons are Venus and what other planet?
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9. What is the heaviest noble gas?
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10. Approximately how old is the Earth?
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11. Newton's First Law of Motion describes what phenomenon?
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12. Mars is often described as the "Red Planet" because of the prevalence of what element mixed with oxygen on its surface?
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13. What combustible compound, the principal component of natural gas, has the chemical formula CH4?
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14. What word, which comes from a Greek term meaning "good kernel," describes an organism whose cells contain chromosomes inside a nucleus bounded by a membrane, as distinguished from bacterial forms of life?
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15. Named for a 19th century English physicist, what unit of measurement is defined as the energy exerted by the force of one newton acting to move an object through a distance of one meter?
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16. The lowercase of what letter of the Greek alphabet is used to denote diverse phenomena such as the photon, the third angle in a triangle, the heat capacity ratio in thermodynamics, a type of high frequency electromagnetic radiation?
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17. What element, whose atomic number is 8, is the most abundant element in the earth's crust, making up almost half the crust's total weight?
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18. DNA contains adenine, cytosine, guanine, and what other nucleotide base, which is not found in RNA?
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19. What is the electrical resistance offered by a current-carrying element that produces a drop of one volt when a current of one ampere is flowing through it?
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20. The letter K stands for what element on the periodic table?
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21. What term describes the single initial cell of a new organism that has been produced by means of sexual reproduction?
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22. If you were to apply a net force of one Newton on a 200 gram object, what would be the acceleration of the object?
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23. Noting how light from objects that are moving away from the observer tend to shift to the red end of the spectrum, what scientist first established that the universe is expanding?
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24. A temperature interval of one degree Fahrenheit is equal to an interval of 5/9ths of a degree Celsius. At about what temperature do the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales converge?
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25. The genus Australopithecus, one species of which was an ancestor of modern humans, first evolved on what continent?
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26. According to Bernoulli's Principle, an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in what?
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27. What is the name for the chemical compound that dentists use as "laughing gas" and that engineers and mechanics use as an oxidizer in rocketry and in motor racing?
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28. Geologists categorize rocks into three types: Igneous, sedimentary, and what?
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29. Two planets in our solar system are tied for having the lowest surface gravity – on each one you would weigh only about 38 percent of what you weigh on Earth. One of these planets is Mercury. What is the other one?
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30. What moon, the largest moon orbiting Saturn, is the only known object in the solar system other than Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface?
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31. The 2006 demotion of Pluto to the status of dwarf planet was precipitated by the discovery of what object orbiting beyond Pluto, believed to be 27 percent more massive than Pluto and named for the Greek goddess of strife and discord?
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32. In classical mechanics, what is defined as the product of an object's mass and velocity?
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33. What word, which comes from Ancient Greek words meaning "entire" and "Earth," describes a supercontinent thought to have existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, about 250 million years ago?
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34. What term for an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter gets its name from a line in James Joyce's 1939 novel "Finnegans Wake"?
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35. The mathematical constant e is defined as the base of the natural system of logarithms, having a numerical value of approximately (3 decimals) what?
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36. Protium, which consists of a single proton and no neutrons, is the most common isotope of what element?
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37. The lowercase version of what Greek letter is used to symbolize the coefficient of friction in classical physics?
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38. What type of cell division in eukaryotic cells is divided into prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase?
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39. What word, which comes from a Greek term meaning "old stone" describes the era of human history, from about 2.5 million years ago to 12,000 years ago, which was distinguished by the development of the first stone tools?
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40. With an atomic number of 9, what chemical element is the lightest element of the halogen series? It gets its name from a Latin word meaning "stream" or "move freely."
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41. After the Moon, what is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows?
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42. According to the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, approximately how old is the Universe?
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43. What word, which derives from a Greek term meaning "unequal" or "bent," describes a triangle whose three sides are of unequal length?
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44. Over half of the world's supply of what element, which gets its name from the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, is used in catalytic converters?
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45. In quantum mechanics, the physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta – denoted as h – is named after what German physicist?
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46. Approximately how long does it take light from the sun to reach Earth?
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47. In meteorology, what does the suffix -nimbus added to the name of a cloud indicate?
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48. What element, which has the atomic number 16 and is a bright yellow crystalline solid at room temperature, is referred to in the Bible as "brimstone"?
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49. The moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all orbit what planet?
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50. What unit of measurement, which is equal to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, did 18th-century steam engine entrepreneur James Watt come up with?
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-= The End =-
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A lot of these aren't necessarily "scientifically literate" questions. More like historical trivia or just plain trivia.
Also, you should focus your questions on a certain sector of "science" as opposed to a broad spectrum of sciences.
Example:
39. What word, which comes from a Greek term meaning "old stone" describes the era of human history, from about 2.5 million years ago to 12,000 years ago, which was distinguished by the development of the first stone tools?
Paleolithic
This is more of a historical trivia question rather than a science.
A lot of these aren't necessarily "scientifically literate" questions. More like historical trivia or just plain trivia.
Also, you should focus your questions on a certain sector of "science" as opposed to a broad spectrum of sciences.
Example:
39. What word, which comes from a Greek term meaning "old stone" describes the era of human history, from about 2.5 million years ago to 12,000 years ago, which was distinguished by the development of the first stone tools?
** spoiler omitted **
This is more of a historical trivia question rather than a science.
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Please show us how it should be done. You teach us.
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This is more trivial knowledge than a matter of scientific literacy.
*Edit
Woops, Pendin Fust beat me to it.
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Please show us how it should be done. You teach us.
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Man, you would think the person who came up with this quiz went to public school or something.
Please show us how it should be done. You teach us.
"Scientific literacy implies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed. A literate citizen should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it. Scientific literacy also implies the capacity to pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately. (National Science Education Standards, page 22)"
In short, it's not something you can teach by memorizing facts. It's a way of thinking, a frame of mind.
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We shall strive to be worthy of your sense of grandeur.
Also, we are waiting for you to post a 50 question quiz on scientific
literacy now. Or you are a border-line troll.
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Man, you would think the person who came up with this quiz went to public school or something.
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I know, right? I got 100, and never even read a whole question.
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The first thing I would do, high G, is determine which category of science to quiz.
I would from there start the first few questions with easy-ish difficulty, the bulk being made up of medium difficulty, and the end few being the hard difficulty questions.
I would probably focus on Chemistry, since it is somewhat central to many of the other sciences.
For example:
Easy:
What element is all Earth life based on?
Medium:
What is the definition of an ionic bond?
Hard:
Polyatomic ions containing Oxygen are called?
Easy is a question that is broader in regards to the subject or is commonly known.
Medium might focus on a topic inside of the subject.
Hard would focus on an item inside a topic of the subject.
Missed number 16. Could have done the nanometers one if i didn't have to walk across the room for crayon.
Alright, lets see, off the top of my head (spoilering so it doesn't spoilerify others):
2.- Not using Google here, so "Arbejas", since I can't remember the English translation. Those green little balls that go so well with boiled chicken.
3.- Amplitude.
4.- There is no fourth question!
5.- Carbon
6.- 1,000,000, I think
7.- C
8.- Mercury
9.- Hmm, argon? No idea, really.
10.- 4 billion years (or 4 thousand million years in the proper notation. Bloody Anglosaxon numerals eating away three 0s!)
11.- That every action has a reaction.
12.- Carbon Dioxide
13.- Methane?
14.- Eukariote, I think. Eu- is Greek for Good, after all.
15.- Joule
16.- Gama
17.- Gah, I should know this, but I don't remember.
18.- The one that starts with T I can't remember right now?
19.- Ohm
20.- Kr... I don't know.
21.-
22.-
23.- Hubble
24.- Hm, if I recall correctly, XC° = (X*1.8)+32 F°, so that would mean... -40 (had to do some hand math. Hope it doesn't count as cheating)
25.- Africa
26.- Volume
27.- I know it in Castilian as "Dioxido Nitroso". So... Nitrose Dioxide or something like that?
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29.- Pluto? I think the Moon has about that gravity, but it doesn't count as a planet. Then again, neither does Pluto anymore, so I think I might be wrong.
30.- Titan
31.-
32.- Momentum
33.- Pangea
34.-
35.- 2.7
36.- Idontknowium
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38.- Mitosis. Somehow I still remember that.
39.- Paleolithic
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41.- Depends on the time of the year. Venus when it's visible.
42.- 18 billion years
43.- Is it written "escalene" in English?
44.- Palladium, like the RPG company.
45.- Planck
46.- 8 minutes
47.- Cloud
48.- Sulphur
49.- Jupiter
50.- HPs or Horse-Power
Wrong answers 18. Two or three were just because I am sleepy. A few probably missed because of language and misunderstanding question (or in case of 43 simply by virtue of the Greek name not being used here - Polish matematics just calls it different-sided triangle).
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So the questions are sourced from the "christian science monitor".
Most of the questions are pointless science themed trivia, that convay no information as to an idividuals ability to either understand scientific theory, or unravel a scientific problem. Oh, and a few of the answers appear to be incorrect on top of that.
Nice.
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Scientific literacy isn't about trivia questions. It's about critical thinking, analysis of data, open-mindedness mixed with healthy skepticism, and so forth. Rote memorization of the sort needed for your quiz is, if anything, a barrier towards actual scientific literacy.
But, but, that's not what they taught me in public school!
Generic villain raises some good points. Many of us have advanced degrees here on the boards, mine is a Masters in Natural Resource Sciences. I can barely recall many of the physics facts in that quiz, it's been so long since I needed to. I recall the chemistry better, and because I've always liked astronomy I recall that better. I'm better in biology and my specialization is ecology. I got some questions wrong (stopped counting and answering part way through). Am I scientifically illiterate because I can't recall this stuff, yet I've successfully defended my own research before my peers/superiors?
I think not.
Australopithecus evolved on Mu.
Man I suck I only got 33 right :S I actually feel sad about that......
I agree that this is just trivia. You have to actually understand why, not just what to be scientifically literate.
That said I only got three wrong. I always remember the answer to 35 because Andrew Jackson was the 7th president and was elected in 1828. Thus the beginning of e is 2.71828. I don't remember where I learned that.
I agree that this is just trivia. You have to actually understand why, not just what to be scientifically literate.
That said I only got three wrong. I always remember the answer to 35 because Andrew Jackson was the 7th president and was elected in 1828. Thus the beginning of e is 2.71828. I don't remember where I learned that.
Oh their are some definate "whats" you need to know as well.
Such as what a theory is. What the age of the universe is(So old it is difficult to imagine how old it is, will actully do for this one), and that kind of thing.
But generally how we know, why it must be so, and how to get their for your self, is what is important.
9 out of 50 with a few forehead slaps as I moaned about how I actually KNEW the answer... but had, you know, forgotten it.
9 of 50 right or 9 of 50 wrong?
Correct
1,5,12,13,19,20,21,27,41,48,49
Meh
I did not know palladium was used in catalytic converters, but knew her as Pallas Athena, and worked it out.
I almost got thrown by the wording of a few of these, but got everything except
38. What type of cell division in eukaryotic cells is divided into prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase?
I agree with the above posters that this test has flaws, but then, it is hopefully your own creation. Thank you for putting it together for us.
I did not know palladium was used in catalytic converters, but knew her as Pallas Athena, and worked it out.
I almost got thrown by the wording of a few of these, but got everything except38. What type of cell division in eukaryotic cells is divided into prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase?
There are two main types of cell division that were taught to me in school and I always forgot which one has which phases. I remembered names of both but I had to pick one as the right one - 50% chance. Which I failed of course.
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High G: I think the point some of your detractors are trying to make is that scientific literacy is not about knowing names. Names are important for being able to communicate scientific knowledge with one another, but they don't measure scientific literacy. Instead, any metric of scientific literacy, whether general or specific, should measure understanding of scientific principles. Some of the questions you posed are actually pretty good on this front, but many are not.
As an example, consider the following two questions on the same subject:
1. What is the name of the naturalist who famously proposed that biological species evolve over time?
OR
2. According to Charles Darwin, what is the driving mechanism for evolution of species? Explain what it means in one sentence.
Another example:
1. What instrument, whose name comes from Greek meaning "circle watcher", used conservation of angular momentum to measure the angular speed of the Earth?
OR
2. What fundamental law from physics makes it easier to balance on a moving bicycle than on one while standing still?
In any case, thanks for the distraction, it was entertaining.
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I did poorly, therefore the test must be faulty.
*shrugs* I know that I am pretty much an ignoramus concerning biology, and history of science.
6 misses...
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I got them all right. You didn't instruct me to not to look them up.
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Open-book tests are so public school.
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Open-book tests are so public school.
My favorite science project from public school was spending 1/2 the year trying to figure out how a candle works. The teacher used it to teach us the scientific method, prodding us along by showing us certain experiments to help us refine our hypothesis. 7th grade if memory serves.
One day during the project we were goofing off and he got mad. So he starts giving us this speech about responsibility or something. He liked to put classical music on the radio during class and as he's getting into a rhythm with his speech, Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss comes on the radio. Everyone broke up laughing.
I did poorly, therefore the test must be faulty.
I had the same results and objectively came to the same conclusion as you did, Tiny Coffee Golem !
I did poorly, therefore the test must be faulty.
I know, right?
14 out of 50 correct...I hang my head in shame :(
Then I go get some ice cream
The triumph of science - a kung fu interlude.Thank you for that.....love a good Jet Li beatdown.
Spoilered... cause it's a scientific fact, but not really science:
Drunken Master
Lethal Weapon 4
The Matrix
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Kill Bill (1 and 2)
Fearless
He's not just a master of crafting interesting fights, he also knows how to get the most out of the actors. So him doing a movie that focuses on Jet Li is just amazing. It was also Jet Li not long after his physical prime, he was still super fast and could compensate for his knee injuries.
The triumph of science - a kung fu interlude.Thank you for that.....love a good Jet Li beatdown.Spoilered... cause it's a scientific fact, but not really science:
** spoiler omitted **
I think it's a good way to explain the scientific concept of
Conservation of Ninjutsu.
Newton's 4th law of motion?
Yeah; he didn't know about ninjas. That was back before Chuck Norris.....when they were sekrits.
We shall strive to be worthy of your sense of grandeur.Also, we are waiting for you to post a 50 question quiz on scientific
literacy now. Or you are a border-line troll.Scientific literacy isn't about trivia questions. It's about critical thinking, analysis of data, open-mindedness mixed with healthy skepticism, and so forth. Rote memorization of the sort needed for your quiz is, if anything, a barrier towards actual scientific literacy.
Thus I have no 50 question quiz to respond with, because there is no such thing. I would rather say something along the lines of "Read this article from So-and-So Monthly and analyze the information. Respond to the author's points and make counterpoints if necessary, extrapolate the data into other aspects of the world, decide whether or not the author's points are valid, etc."
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Hahahaha. I knew I was right about you.
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The quiz is not hard, but as others have pointed out, it's not a measure of scientific literacy -- it's a measure of your memorization of random scientific facts.
A test of scientific literacy won't be a short-answer quiz. My recommendation would be a "how do you approach solving this problem?" test that really just evaluates critical thinking and an understanding of the scientific method.
it's a measure of your memorization of random scientific facts.
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Is there a name for this measure?
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