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Here Are The Basic Science Questions That 1 In 4 Americans Got Wrong
Business Insider ^ | 02/18/2014 | Dina Spector

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 ...


TOPICS: Education; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: education; science
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To: Seaplaner

No challenge at all but look at the low percentages of right answers on some of them. Hoo boy!


41 posted on 02/19/2014 5:03:35 PM PST by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: Hieronymus
There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who don’t.

Now that's funny, I don't care WHO ya are!

42 posted on 02/19/2014 5:03:45 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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Comment #43 Removed by Moderator

To: Billthedrill

Thank you. That question had my head spinning. It seemed to be asking if a male child only had genes from the father.


44 posted on 02/19/2014 5:04:16 PM PST by grania
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To: G Larry

Nope, I got those right.


45 posted on 02/19/2014 5:04:20 PM PST by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: Scrambler Bob
Then due to a rare mutation, another sex happened.

just happened. I don't know if you forgot the /s tag or if you are an idiot.

46 posted on 02/19/2014 5:04:52 PM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: Scrambler Bob

So that’s how we got Obama?


47 posted on 02/19/2014 5:07:19 PM PST by Howie66 (John Wayne McCornyn...he's just like US! Honest!)
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To: TigersEye
Oui, my FRiend.

The NEA feels no responsibility or shame, one suspects.

48 posted on 02/19/2014 5:13:00 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: Sacajaweau
No. 7 is speculative also....but goes along with No. 10.

I meant to say #7, not #2. That was a typo.
49 posted on 02/19/2014 5:14:25 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("We are not sluts."--Sandra Fluke)
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To: Seaplaner

Shame? It’s not their fault, it’s just cause we stingy white people only give them $16K/seat/year. You can’t expect them to get anything done on that. [/s if really necessary]


50 posted on 02/19/2014 5:15:04 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: verga
When two people love each other very much.....

Funny. When did you move to San Franscisco?

51 posted on 02/19/2014 5:16:39 PM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: SeekAndFind
The authoress of this article in Business Insider is quite a global warming alarmist!

Before And After Pictures Show How Climate Change Is Destroying The Earth

52 posted on 02/19/2014 5:16:54 PM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Yep!


53 posted on 02/19/2014 5:17:19 PM PST by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
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To: FatherofFive

Male and female globs of jelly?


54 posted on 02/19/2014 5:18:30 PM PST by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

But perhaps a fortunate one. All three belong in the same category so far as I can tell. Eight and three are flawed in other ways, as pointed out elsewhere on the thread. Not a very good test.


55 posted on 02/19/2014 5:21:00 PM PST by Hieronymus ( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))
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To: Still Thinking

“/s” not needed, at least for me. It’s the equivalent of a smilie; and good writers (you included) do not need them.


56 posted on 02/19/2014 5:21:23 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: Osage Orange
Male and female globs of jelly?

Peanut butter and jelly makes more sense. But getting them together is the question.

57 posted on 02/19/2014 5:22:03 PM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: FatherofFive

10. Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals. True or false?

Can someone explain to me how 2 sexes evolved?

______________________________________________________-

Read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. There is an easy to understand explanation in the book. It happened a long time before Humans came around so our ancestors already had two sexes. Many animals still reproduce asexually, I’m glad we’re not one of them.


58 posted on 02/19/2014 5:33:25 PM PST by albionin (A gawn fit's aye gettin..)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, I got 100% correct. Yet, questions 7 & 10 are only current scientific belief, as to creation of the universe and the beginnings of the human race.

I figured that those two required a PC answer, and so that is what I gave.


59 posted on 02/19/2014 5:35:21 PM PST by Gumdrop
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To: Hieronymus

Our whole universerse was in a hot dense state.
Then nearly 14 million years ago expansion started,
Wait
The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool
neanderthals developed tools
We built a wall, we built the pyramid.
Math science history, unraveling the mystery
It all started with a big bang
BANG!


60 posted on 02/19/2014 5:36:27 PM PST by bicyclerepair (TERM LIMITS .......... TERM LIMITS .......... TERM LIMITS)
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