How good is your general Science Knowledge?

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#1166154 31-Oct-2014 21:18

Me: 12/13
15 yo son, currently year 11, enough credits for NCEA L1 at achieved: 10/13
17yo daughter, currently year 13, enough credits for NCEA L3 at excellence: 13/13
wife: not attempted

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

gzt

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#1166160 31-Oct-2014 21:26

The worst score in the result list - only 27% of 65+ know what a laser does. I'll take that as a warning.

floydbloke

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#1166164 31-Oct-2014 21:43

gzt: The worst score in the result list - only 27% of 65+ know what a laser does. I'll take that as a warning.

That's most bizarre. Given that it's a true/false question, by guessing alone 50% should get it right. You would think that pretty much everyone at some stage in their life would have seen a sci-fi movie with a laser beam, and of course for those who know what the acronym stands for the answer is blatantly obvious.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

Fred99

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#1166176 31-Oct-2014 22:04

floydbloke:
gzt: The worst score in the result list - only 27% of 65+ know what a laser does. I'll take that as a warning.

That's most bizarre. Given that it's a true/false question, by guessing alone 50% should get it right. You would think that pretty much everyone at some stage in their life would have seen a sci-fi movie with a laser beam, and of course for those who know what the acronym stands for the answer is blatantly obvious.

Lasers in sci-fi movies tend to make loud noises - even in the (near) vacuum of space.
Anyway, for over 65s, light amplification superseded "unplugged", but preceded heavy metal.
It was a trick question.

floydbloke

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#1166178 31-Oct-2014 22:08

Fred99:
floydbloke:
gzt: The worst score in the result list - only 27% of 65+ know what a laser does. I'll take that as a warning.

That's most bizarre. Given that it's a true/false question, by guessing alone 50% should get it right. You would think that pretty much everyone at some stage in their life would have seen a sci-fi movie with a laser beam, and of course for those who know what the acronym stands for the answer is blatantly obvious.

Lasers in sci-fi movies tend to make loud noises - even in the (near) vacuum of space.
Anyway, for over 65s, light amplification superseded "unplugged", but preceded heavy metal.
It was a trick question.

Ah yes, of course, that explains it.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

Batman

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#1166204 31-Oct-2014 22:48

I guess even fewer people knew that LASER is a pnemonic

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Geektastic

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#1166209 31-Oct-2014 23:02

Aredwood: After seeing This thread in the "Health and fitness" forum about a politician who signed a pro homoeopathy online petition. It Got me thinking "there needs to be some sort of min standard that politicians should have to pass". Before they can get into Parliament.

So here is an online test of 13 multichoice questions about scientific concepts.

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/

Hoping that most Geekzoners get full marks or close. You will see why I picked this particular test. Due to 1 of the questions it asks.

Good lord. I could have passed that when I was about 10. Only 7% got all the questions right in the original survey? We're doomed.

Geektastic

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#1166210 31-Oct-2014 23:04

joker97: I guess even fewer people knew that LASER is a pnemonic

And fewer still that technically it is an acronym. Also, Radar is as well.

A mnemonic would be

Tommy On A Ship Of His Caught A Herring

which we were taught in maths aged about 11 or 12 when we were studying trigonometry. It helps remember the various functions:

Tommy On A = Tan: Opposite/Adjacent

Ship Of His - Sin: Opposite/Hypotenuse

Caught A Herring - Cos: Adjacent/Hypotenuse

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#1166222 31-Oct-2014 23:44

Fred99

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#1166337 1-Nov-2014 09:59

Geektastic:
Good lord. I could have passed that when I was about 10.

When I was 10, I would have needed to guess on a few of the questions:
Plate tectonics wasn't a well accepted theory. Global warming / CO2, fracking, and antibiotic resistance wasn't in the news.
Nanotechnology existed as a concept, but the word to define it didn't.

PhantomNVD

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#1166352 1-Nov-2014 10:29

As a primary (y6) science teacher, I can attest ALL of those are covered by the Cambridge curriculum by y6, though to be fair, not every child 'retains' everything they learn, especially if it's not a real interest, or a part of their later life.

I'd expect that people here who class THEMSELVES as 'geeks' in a science related area, would have both those criteria, and thus be 'more able' to recall these even longer after leaving school?

I DO think that politicians should need to pass something like the UK Citizenship test. So they actuall know where we've come from, and what has Not worked before... At least to learn from the other idiots mistakes?

FYI 13/13

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#1166373 1-Nov-2014 11:05

Fred99:
Geektastic:
Good lord. I could have passed that when I was about 10.

When I was 10, I would have needed to guess on a few of the questions:
Plate tectonics wasn't a well accepted theory. Global warming / CO2, fracking, and antibiotic resistance wasn't in the news.
Nanotechnology existed as a concept, but the word to define it didn't.

I suppose that depends on when you were 10...!!

Sideface

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#1166381 1-Nov-2014 11:23

gzt: The worst score in the result list - only 27% of 65+ know what a laser does. I'll take that as a warning.

When somebody now aged 65 was 10 years old, the terms "continental drift", "plate tectonics", "global warming", "nanotechnology", "fracking" and "laser" had not yet been invented.

Antiobiotics were new and wonderful, and nobody used sunscreen.

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Fred99

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#1166387 1-Nov-2014 11:28

One MP being a "believer" in something as ridiculous as homeopathy doesn't bother me much. It is a bit of an issue for the Green Party, as they'd like to believe that their (environmental) policies are determined by evidence-based science. Somewhat perversely though, I'd wager that believers in homeopathy would tend to be Green voters. That's a bit of a conundrum. Colin Craig had a related problem - clearly understanding that some of his support came from the lunatic fringe (even more lunatic than regular christian fundamentalists or homeopaths) - so a definitive comment from him rejecting belief in chemtrails, faked moon landings etc would have potentially lost him support. John Banks is another fundie, disbeliever in evolution, age the the Earth etc. - as such was a baffling choice for an ACT candidate.
Plenty of MPs from the left and the right are strong believers in an assortment of unproven social and economic theories - and worse, they campaign strongly on policies which have never worked here or anywhere else - and they know it. Politics is a popularity contest - not an IQ test.
If MPs are supposed to reflect/represent the electorate, I'd say that having less than 1% of MPs exposed as a "true believer" in homeopathy probably indicates that they're under-represented.

Rikkitic

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#1166440 1-Nov-2014 13:54

13/13. I thought the questions were pretty simple, and I am 70/F/no formal education. And who here knows what the letters in LASER actually stand for? Clue: The first one means Light.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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