A Look at What the Public Knows and Does Not Know About Science - Pew Study

Pew Research Center ^ | 09/10/15 | CARY FUNK & SARA KEHAULANI GOO

[KarlInOhio]

I missed one, I think it was the one about sound volume.

It was a bad question, or rather the correct answer was bad. In ocean waves the amplitude can be described as height, but in compression waves like sound there is no "height". Instead there is a ratio of the compressed density to the uncompressed density which determines loudness.

The loudness of a sound is determined by what property of a sound wave?

You correctly answered "Amplitude or height"

[SolidRedState]

12 of 12

Those are fairly easy questions.

[PA Engineer]

12 out of 12. I didn’t hesitate, however I need more coffee. I kept clicking on one of the photos for the selection. ugh.

[SolidRedState]

It wasn’t about whether the idea represented is correct or not, it was about what the chart was trying to represent.

:)

[PA Engineer]

Defining Astrology is considered a science question?

Yeah. That bugged me along with a few others.

[BillM]

Think ‘amplifier’. Also think waves at the shore.

[KarlInOhio]

Amplitude is right, but waves on the shore are transverse waves while sound waves are longitudinal waves. There is no "height" is sound waves.

[EXCH54FE]

I missed one, It was the one about sound volume.

[zeugma]

The only one I had to put any thought at all into is the one about the temperature of water boiling. It’s something I’ve never had to deal with, and I’m not a cook, but I figured that since water would vaporize on the moon pretty much at any temperature due to it being essentially a vacuum, that lower pressure = lower temps.

Do I get a prize for correctly answering 12 out of 12?

What I found to be most interesting is the number of people who can’t read a very simple chart.

[Farmer Dean]

Cesium will work too.

[Sergio]

Excellent analysis, have always thought of myself as just an average guy and have at time been perplexed at why some folks just don’t get it.

Your post explains it wonderfully.

12 out of 12 BTW.

[Parley Baer]

11/12, I missed the optic question. I should not have but was blowing through them to fast and missed that one.

[SoothingDave]

We do use sound waves in making cell phones work as well. But i got what they were going for.

[BlueDragon]

Let us not forget plutonium and tritium.

That plutonium stuff just ain't natural, I tells you.

There ain't even a planet Pluto any more --- wait --- now there is again, but it's just a dwarf of it's former self, with a hang-around friend.

U-238 is natural enough though, and that's the big problem.

Inside nuclear reactors, it can turn into plutonium.

Dang those neutrons, they were supposed to stay neutral, but they don't care so much who they pal around with, as long as the swarming electron police near nothingnesses are copacetic with the arrangements.

Every society needs just the right amount of coppers on the force, I suppose...

But get enough of the 238 to converted into 240 or better, and everything else *just right*, crush it down real small real fast, Big kaboom, so hot midway through it all it turns from violently splitting things up, to forcing them to fuse together BAH-KABOOM-O. Ok, so I oversimplify, leaving out the U-235 outer layer that get's to heavy-duty spitting, to get the ball rolling started blowing up...whatever.

I don't need to get those details perfect. Not my job.

What's the mathematical difference between 20 kilotons of tnt detonating all together, and 20 (or even 50 and more) megatons of tnt detonating?

Now -- solve for physical damages, alone.

go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots...

Bronco Bamma thinks its ok to misunderestimate fierce wack-job (but not entirely stupid, in fact, quite intelligent & cunning) Islamist supremacists with nu-cu-lar weapons power generation, lacking the 'ol Ronny Raygun 'trust but verify' paradigm.

U-238 can become U-240, and 242, 244, etc, although stages along the way are so highly unstable they degrade rapidly.

It's not enough to "trust", while hoping they somehow choke, and that will be the ultimate fix for how Kennebunkport vacationing Shrubbery "messed up" the World which Bronco Bamma, the majic-nificent has now done gone and fixed.

Just ask him, he'll tell you (to trust him, and nu-cu-lar Iranians) 'cuz like Barbara Boxer and Shrillary "they'll fight for you".

It's all that Shrub's fault, anyway (or so the story went), so what's the diff?

At least you have healthcare now (if you can afford the deductibles).

What's to worry, with pantsuits and ketchup millionaires having reported for duty?

And yes, I went 12 for 12 on the uber-simple test questions.

Is there anything else I've been talking about that is all that complicated?

[MosesKnows]

What the Public Knows and Does Not Know About Science

Will these results reflect the opinion some people have that a consensus of opinions equal scientific fact?

[MosesKnows]

Therefore there is another cause

It is possible that the more intelligent folks may have read more into the question than it offered.

Which of the following statements best describes the data in the graph below?

[Rebel_Ace]

“Defining Astrology is considered a science question?”

More like testing if you can identify and distinguish pseudo science, discerning “astrology” from “astronomy”.

I got 12/12 BTW. Also a 55 year old white male college grad...

[mad_as_he$$]

Oh! So it had good intentions....#chartlivesmatter.

[mad_as_he$$]

Yes, one of those feeling words.

[Rockitz]

This probably explains why the public is buying all this global warming BS.

I got 12, but I’m a rocket scientist. I should get 12.