Imagine the size of those Blue Suede Shoes!
Now wait a minute. Thirty-nine percent of the “attentive public”–that is, of people who indicate that they are “very interested” in science and technology and that they are “very well informed” about it and that they read newspapers or “relevant” magazaines regularly–think that humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs?
I’ve got to start double-locking my doors at night.
It might be even worse, because that’s a true-false question. They don’t say whether “I don’t know” was accepted as an answer. If not, then fifty percent of people would get it right by guessing. So only 20% of “attentive” people really know this, and the rest got it right by guessing.
Also, I’m fascinated by the male/female splits. Women did better than men on only two questions, one of which concerned whether the father is responsible for the sex of the child. Is this part of folk wisdom that mothers pass on to their daughters? “Dammit, if that sleaze-ball husband of yours tries to blame you because you’re not having boys, tell him it’s his own damn fault!”
And why is the largest male/female split on the “lasers are sound waves” question? Are women confusing it with ultrasound because they’re so wired into childbirth issues? 
Thank you. I thought I was the only person who immediately had that same thought come into their mind…
I admit I’ve done poorly on some exams because I “know too much”. On my PE exam there were 2 coal combustion questions, and I could easily have nitpicked them to death and run freaking circles around the people who made the questions - so I purposefully had to “dumb myself down” (yeah, maybe not so great an effort…) in order to answer them successfully.
J.R. “Bob” Dobbs put it best:
"You know how stupid the average guy is? Well, by definition, half of them are even dumber than that!"
The idea that 25% of the American public (or, for that matter, the human race) are morons does not surprise me in the least, nor does it worry me much. It’s nothing new.
Regarding the question about the universe starting with a huge explosion, I wonder if someone answered: “FALSE. It actually started with a rapid expansion of space-time”, whether a “wrong” answer actually counts as being correct. I guess it depends on whether the poll-taker is one of the 33% that got it wrong.
You had to take an exam in PE class? All I had to do was run in freaking circles.
Good to see you’re still with us. I was concerned after that strange email from TubaDiva. 
I’ve seen studies like this and I’m kind of ambivalent about them. I remember one where hundreds of just-graduated Harvard students were asked about the cause of the seasons and the phases of the moon. Something like 60 percent got them wrong. The presenter of the results of this study seemed to think this was a horrible tragedy and that it was clear evidence the educational system was failing. Harvard, of all places, graduates were either ignorant of or just plain wrong about these two basic facts.
I was at first horrified, but then I started thinking, “You know, that’s really just trivia.” Who cares if the phases of the moon are caused by the Earth’s shadow(common misperception) or by the changing perspective as the sun-side of the moon rotates around the Earth? Who cares if it is the tilt or orbital characteristics which causes the seasons? These things are squarely in the bucket of “Stuff that will never, EVER, have an appreciable impact on your life if you’re ignorant/wrong.” Tons of stuff is in this bucket. Acceleration of falling objects(and the common misperception that everything falls at the same rate of acceleration), the order of the light spectrum, blah blah blah. Who CARES? When the rubber hits the road it is simply knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Perhaps this is better than ignorance of things one is not personally affected by, but not so much better that we should consider it a travesty.
Enjoy,
Steven
No, you really don’t have to.
Sweet Jesus. I knew that too. Hence the triple woosh. :rolleyes:
What if one is Father Mike Flanagan who says mass at 7:30 and his twin brother Father Joe Flanagan who says mass at 9:00?
I’m mostly with him on this one. I personally am highly educated (but not in the science field) and consider myself to be intelligent, however, basic science questions are something that I rarely ask myself. I would have to think very hard about whether the earth revolved around the sun or vice versa.
However this is no excuse to not know things that may have no use in your life. My scientist sister is someone to have on your trivial persuit team - there are many science questions, mostly simple ones, but if you can’t remember high school science, you can’t answer them. My subject areas are reduced to two questions and the answers are: Fraud and Margaret Meads - I always pray I get them but usually don’t.
$4,013.00? Is that your weekly compensation for being pedantic? How can I be pedantic?
Mtgman, imagine you were told that you could never, ever think of anything outside your chosen field. That every thought you ever have needs to be related directly to what you are paid to do. You would punch your boss square in the jaw and dislocate a few molars, wouldn’t you? Or at least quit and never look back.
Then why the hell do you seem willing to do it to yourself? Specialization is for insects and other machines. Human beings are capable of so much more. It is a damned shame to decide not to use as much of it as possible
At the end of the day, when you are trying to figure out what your life was worth, don’t be left with a single value.
In the context given of the test, with the single-phrase questions? Where those who might think in those terms would be aware of the epicycle problem as well? No, that is not credibly what you thought. Just as in your earlier demand that “we liberals” tolerate creationism as simply a “different opinion” from the fact of evolution, you asserted Ptolemaic geocentrism as being just a similar example of a “different opinion”. Will you now demand that “we liberals” give equal respect to believers in alchemy in high school chemistry classes?
Hah! Good post. I hate it when numbfucks always blather on about how “useful” something is, like we are robots working at maximum effiencency and such. Education has more uses than function, but trying to tell people stuck in their small lifes that is next to impossible.
I spent a year in the Philippines and one of the most common questions I got(after, “do you know so and so from the US”) was “Do they have a moon over the United States at night?” Stupid people are all over, doesn’t matter where you are.
We can’t draw any conclusion about intelligence (or stupidity) from this test but from the quality of the education the average American is receiving. What you should ask yourselves is "how would have other countries with *similar resources * fared in this test? Comparing it with the Phillipines is unfair.
About.
I previewed, really.
They are creating gaseous Oxygen (O2), although obviously not atomic Oxygen (O). Since “the Oxygen we breathe” is O2, I think they get a pass on that one.
Smoking does indeed cause most lung cancer, and therefore greatly multiplies one’s risk of getting it. I’m not sure what kind of distinction you’re trying to draw here.