Posted on 12/10/2011 7:19:01 PM PST by chessplayer
You may have an opinion on climate change, evolution education, stem-cell research, and science funding. But do you have the facts to back up your opinion? This quiz will test your basic scientific literacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
42 of 50, including the Finnegan’s Wake question (which was easy.)
Mark
I missed 4.
The question about cell division, the question about cloud types/nomenclature, the coefficient of friction, and the one about the object beyond Pluto.
Schucks!! I’m downright humbled!!
Good job.
I have never read Finnegan’s Wake, but I have read descriptions of Gell Mann’s choice of the word from a quote, “three quarks for muster mark,” which is the only line in the book that I know. But it’s enough for the question.
Joyce’s book is strictly experimental literature. It is an unreadable slog, deliberately so.
My process of elimination elimated me. :-(
40/50. Although I missed the friction coefficient. I thought it was nu, not mu.
I quit after 4 questions.
ADD kicking in?
I didn't know the answer, but I knew what all the other things were. And they weren't it.
So I did learn something tonight.
I just wish things stuck longer like they did when I was in 4th grade.
/johnny
FWIW Funny you would say that about the fairness of the question regarding the term “quark” coming from “Finnegan’s Wake,” by James Joyce. I have never read that book, and until last night I would have agreed with you. But, last night I started a book called “Stephen Hawking’s Universe,” by John Boslough.
On page nine, Boslough writes about Murray Gell-Mann’s reference to Joyce’s book in naming quarks. The specific line in “Finnegan’s Wake” was “Three quarks for Muster Mark.”
I did not know that, and the fact that I read it last night and I read your comment tonight seems mighty coincidental, even a little odd.
I thought the test was very difficult, probably because I did know many answers (ha) - I got 35 right and guessed on about 20% of those.
I got quite a few because I memorized the order do most of the elements in the Periodis Table. Still remembered me mnemonic from 40 years ago.
I got quite a few because I memorized the order do most of the elements in the Periodis Table. Still remembered me mnemonic from 40 years ago.
Missed nimbus and Planck’s constant.
BFL
I was busy studying practical biology when that class was going on. Sigh... (Mary Sue) And that was just the begining of the troubles... If I had to raise me, I'd send me to VMI for school. And keep me away from girls until I was 20. Because they were VERY distracting in 7th/8th grade... up through age 40.
/johnny
In my last sentence, I should have written “did not know many answers.” I need to study the science of proofreading - or maybe it’s the Warsteiner (a tasty German beer). Yeah, that’s it.
Ugh. 43/50. Oh,well.
Not so bad since I NEVER took a biology class.
Been since 1989 since I graduated.
I got that one right. I knew it was less than 2.somethingorother or e.
And it's greater than 1.
That left one choice.
K. for a cook, I have weird knowledge. I read a lot of sci-fi.
/johnny
78% - not bad for an English major. My engineer husband did help with a couple of questions though.
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