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.
Missed nimbus and Planck’s constant.
BFL
Ugh. 43/50. Oh,well.
Not so bad since I NEVER took a biology class.
Been since 1989 since I graduated.
78% - not bad for an English major. My engineer husband did help with a couple of questions though.
I got 48 out of 50. Missed #38 on cell division ( I thought that was a lot harder than most of them, ) and then #47 on “nimbus”. That one shocked me. The answer is right in the dictionary ( as indeed is the answer to #38, for that matter, ) but I guess I just never knew the actual definition.
It took me over two hours to plug through it because of my browser, I guess. They way it was set up, it repainted the page, along with all the ads and so on, twice for each question. Evidently it was caching all this stuff, as it got slower and slower as the quiz went on. Then at the end when I clicked “How does your score compare” I couldn’t see anything except the big recap of my answers. Tried it twice.
I felt a little better when they expressed that as 72% but there were at least three I should have just thought a little harder on. The web page was quite annoying with the constantly moving drop-downs and other distractions. I guess that substitutes for the pressure of a stern-faced proctor pacing back and forth regularly checking his watch.
I got 78% right. For a liberal arts major, I think that’s pretty darn good.
I am embarassed that I got two wrong, that I should have gotten correct.
I am embarassed that I got two wrong, that I should have gotten correct.
44/50
47/50
40/50 with only HS physics and biology from before Gagarin.
39 out of 50.
did much better than me
Minutes ago, President Obama called a press conference, at which he announced his score on the scientific literacy quiz: A perfect 57.
41 - mostly chemical ones wrong
That was pretty hard, but a good quiz. I only go 52% right and I could really kick myself because on about 5 or 6 questions I didn’t go with my first guess and so got it wrong.
Because I was mostly just guessing (well, somewhat educated guesses I did take a lot a science in HS and I do sometimes read about it) and the rule is ALWAYS go with your first guess.
Of course, of the many I got wrong, most of those were my first guess too!
Thanks for posting this, it’s much better than the world politics quiz that was posted here the other day. That one was too easy.
I also liked how this showed you the answer right away.
Oh for Pete’s sake! This is rigged to get hits to the website!
Skipped out on the test...