# Interesting Science Quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238 "2012-01-12T00:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/41 "2012-01-12T12:24:16Z")
38/50 I sucked on most of the physics questions and kicked ass on the chemistry, since I just finished reading _The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements_. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/42 "2012-01-12T12:44:04Z")
45 / 50. Got Watt and Joule mixed up, and hadn’t a clue on 4 others so guessed wrong. All the others I knew. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/43 "2012-01-12T13:17:41Z")
37 - biology and reading too fast did me in. Sheesh, it’s not like it’s a timed test. I have to say, I did impress myself with how much chemistry I remembered, as I hated that almost as much as I hated biology. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/44 "2012-01-12T13:33:49Z")
48/50 Not a bad test, but much of it was a test of scientific trivia rather than literacy (Mendel’s pea plants for example). Despite my high score, I’m only scientifically literate in that I have a fair understanding of principals. My actual ability to carry out scientific experiments or calculations is very limited. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/45 "2012-01-12T13:34:04Z")
I got the first four right then got fed up with the irritating website design and quit. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/46 "2012-01-12T14:00:56Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > 1. Kicking myself on some of them. Also, that’s the most annoying website ever. No kidding. I gave up after about 10 questions. It’s way too slow. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/47 "2012-01-12T14:48:00Z")
God grief that took ages, you have to load the (slow CPU sucking) page _twice_ for each question? Argh! 45/50 Who the heck knows what ‘nimbus’ means? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/48 "2012-01-12T14:54:42Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > 1. Kicking myself on some of them. Also, that’s the most annoying website ever. Seriously! having to click twice for every answer…just do them all at the end, or give the answer from the last one on the same page as the question for the next! That, letting my script-blocker “un-block” enough scripts to let me use the damn thing…seriously, there must have been two dozen different website all trying to run a script on that page! I got 47/50. The three I missed were: Heaviest noble gas The planet past Pluto (guessed Ceres.) And what Nimbus meant. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/49 "2012-01-12T14:55:03Z")
Yes, the website is pretty awful. I found loading it in Chrome made it more bearable. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/50 "2012-01-12T15:10:29Z")
35/50 I consider myself fairly smart, but I am not a science expert by a lot. I did know many of the answers I missed once the correct answer was revealed. A lot of 50/50 misses and some lazy/quick answering. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/51 "2012-01-12T16:24:01Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > It’s surprising how you forget the little things. Out of college about 5 years and I have to calculate the area of a circle. Easy, Pi\*r\*\*2. > > Then doubt sets in as I realize it’s been a while since I actually used that formula. > > Or is it 2_Pi_r\*\*2? > > Or (Pi\*r\*\*2)/2? > > Textbooks usually have formulas printed inside the covers. Other books you have in the office? Not so much. > > Now, I know it has r\*\*2, since I need an answer in square units. But the rest? I had to resort to integration to determine the answer. > > I felt stupid for not knowing, yet smart for being able to derive it. That was when calculus really started making sense to me. I realized that was where all those formulas came from and that I didn’t need to memorize them anymore. I got 43/50 but will admit I guessed right on 3 or 4 of them. Got the first one wrong by clicking the wrong line. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/52 "2012-01-12T17:22:09Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > BTW OP, did you find that quiz the same way I did, through the Google doodle? No. It was actually an interstitial link in a news article I read. J. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/53 "2012-01-12T19:12:15Z")
You guys are smart! 37/50. A few of the correct were simply guesses but I also got a couple wrong by answering too fast or by mis-clicking. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/54 "2012-01-12T19:29:03Z")
I’m surprised nimbus is the one that gave most people problems. Not eukaryote? I don’t remember ever hearing that word, but don’t TV weathermen talk about cumulonimbus clouds? (Yes, OK, I should have seen “eu” like in euphonious, means good. I didn’t think of that in time.) I was only able to get palladium by knowing Pallas was another name for Athena, so that wasn’t really about science. I did know Eris, but I would have been able to get it anyway from the “goddess of discord” hint. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/55 "2012-01-12T19:33:48Z")
I’m actually pretty proud of my 32/50 score. I did not think I would do that well. Science has never interested me and the last time I took a proper science class was junior year of high school Chemistry (1986). That being said, a number of the ones I got right are because I have a working knowledge of Greek and Latin roots. ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/56 "2012-01-12T19:41:13Z")
47 with some educated guessing. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/57 "2012-01-12T19:42:09Z")
40/50. Besides the already mentioned awful lot of clicking, I too found a lot of questions not very science-oriented - I got several with the Greek names, not by knowing the concepts. I also dislike the strong US layperson centric - billions and millions instead of the usual 10 to the power of … which is used in science for a reason. Even if the UK has now followed US usage, that still doesn’t mean billions are the same everywhere. I also didn’t know some of the derived English names (for triangles) etc. For a real test, I would want more testing whether somebody understands the concept, and not, whether he knows what lowercase greek letter is used for friction, or that quarks are related to poetry instead of milk products. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/58 "2012-01-12T19:44:00Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > I’m surprised nimbus is the one that gave most people problems. Not eukaryote? I don’t remember ever hearing that word, but don’t TV weathermen talk about cumulonimbus clouds? (Yes, OK, I should have seen “eu” like in euphonious, means good. I didn’t think of that in time.) The eukaryote question was one that I got because of the root involved. I couldn’t think of any words with similar roots or connections to nimbus and the weatherman I listen to on the radio rarely refers to types of clouds, so I had to guess and missed it. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/59 "2012-01-12T19:53:16Z")
46/50. The only one I am embarrassed to have gotten wrong is nanometers - off by an order of magnitude. (Seriously, real scientists don’t use centimeters much.) ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238/60 "2012-01-12T20:57:29Z")
1. How am I supposed to remember my greek constants after all this time? “mu” ?? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-science-quiz/609238.md?page=4)