Posted on 02/19/2014 4:32:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Earth circles the sun once every year, but a startling 26% of Americans get this simple fact backward. They think that the sun orbits around the Earth. This shocking finding comes from a survey of more than 2,200 people in the United States, conducted by the National Science Foundation in 2012. The survey, done every two years, tests the public's knowledge of basic facts in the physical and biological sciences.
The survey is included in a major federal report, Science and Engineering Indicators, prepared for the president and Congress.
In 2012, Americans answered an average of 5.8 out of the survey's 9 questions correctly. That's a score of 65% — barely a passing grade.
All of the questions on the survey are listed below. Take the quiz, then see how you compare to your fellow compatriots.
Questions:
1. The center of the Earth is very hot. True or false?
2. The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move. True or false?
3. Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?
4. All radioactivity is man-made. True or false?
5. Electrons are smaller than atoms. True or false?
6. Lasers work by focusing sound waves. True or false?
7. The universe began with a huge explosion. True or false?
8. It's the father's gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or girl. True or false?
9. Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. True or false?
10. Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals. True or false?
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I knew the answers they wanted on all 10. In fact it was one of the easier tests of this type I have seen.
Now I personally don’t think they know 7 and 10 at all. I don’t even think 7 is accepted by a large majority of physicists, probably most but not all by any means.
LOL, exactly what I wrote on a friend's facebook page who posted this survey! I also contest them treating human evolution (especially from other species) as fact, as well as the Big Bang. I don't have any counter-evidence against the Big Bang, but the pro- evidence I've seen isn't overwhelming and the fact is, no one was there and they can't reproduce it.
The follow up paragraphs at the end of the quiz semi-addressed that issue, but in a way that made clear that if you believed the "right" answers, you were "knowledgeable" and if not, you were a "believer".
No one knows for sure. That is only the current prevailing theory.
"Yup...that's our girl", he said. "She missed 9 out of 10."
RE; 7 hasn’t been proven yet. Big Bang is just a theory. I’m a “recycling Universe” type.
Prominent British Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle would get number 7 wrong.
He rejected the Big Bang Theory.
See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle#Rejection_of_the_Big_Bang
What is truly amazing is how well the US did compared to people from China, the EU, etc.
2(1.25) + 2(1.25) = 5!
No, the wording is intentional. At the end of the quiz, they talk about how different the answers are if you change those questions into ones about the EXISTENCE of those ideas, rather than their absolute truthfulness. They admit people then agree with the statements, but put the discrepancy down to ignorance on the part of the respondents. Declining to share their beliefs takes on the mantle of heresy. [eyeroll]
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Actually, 5! = 120
Originally we were all the same sex.
Then due to a rare mutation, another sex happened.
Then you missed 7 & 10
It seems to me that Business Week gets No. 8 wrong because they use the word “gene” incorrectly. Yes, it is sperm cell that determines the sex of the baby. The sperm cell has 23 chromosomes, all of which contain genes. One of the chromosomes is either an X or a Y, which determines the sex.
5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120
Just saying...
Whoops, forgot to carry the !
When two people love each other very much.....
LOL
What???
n! (factorial) = n x n-1 x n-2 x ... x 3 x 2
101! I mean LOL!
There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who don’t.
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