How much do you know about science?

[sayak83]

Take this interesting quiz and find out how you rank in scientific knowledge.
Science Knowledge Quiz

Report your score in the poll.

On a more serious note, while scientists are trusted and respected, on many scientific topics, the views of the public and the scientists differ markedly.
Public and Scientists’ Views on Science and Society

Do you think
a) Such divergent views are concerning?
b) Do you think there is a need for both people to be better informed so that their views align with scientists on important topics of science? Or are people fully justified holding beliefs on scientific topic that are contrary to what scientists actually hold.

 

[Nietzsche]

This really was not terribly difficult to anyone who even paid the slightest amount of attention through grade-school. Perfect score.

Also that lower graph is ****ing horrifying. I knew it wasn't great, but is the American public really that stupid?

 

[Sapiens]

12 of 12.

 

[sayak83]

This really was not terribly difficult to anyone who even paid the slightest amount of attention through grade-school. Perfect score.

Also that lower graph is ****ing horrifying. I knew it wasn't great, but is the American public really that stupid?

Sadly the difference is indeed concerning.

 

[Eliab ben Benjamin]

Missed the Denver LA one ..

 

[Jumi]

11. The questions were all easy (pre-high school level here), but the optics one got me.

 

[Terese]

10/12, the Denver one and the loudness of sound one

 

[SomeRandom]

Lol 9 but in fairness I am quite hungover. Also I will now and forever get the terms Astrology and Astronomy mixed up. Don't ask me why, just always have, no matter how often it's explained to me.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Everything would have been covered at school by 16 years old at most., and much was as much general knowledge, rather than science.
They were not even hard enough to have to think about.

 

[Augustus]

12/12, although I would have had no idea who invented the Polio vaccine had they not made it so easy to rule out 3 of the options.

b) Do you think there is a need for both people to be better informed so that their views align with scientists on important topics of science? Or are people fully justified holding beliefs on scientific topic that are contrary to what scientists actually hold.

That's a bit too general. It depends on the particular scientific field that is being discussed.

Retaining a healthy scepticism on certain issues surrounding nutrition and medical science where 'scientific best practice' radically changes direction at times is very different from denying evolution and the fact that the earth is more than 6000 years old. Even more so when you move into issues such as neuroscience, social psychology, etc. with a lot of chaff among the wheat.

Scientists don't have a great track record in certain fields, and, overall, the sciences are one of the major sources of false information as well as accurate information.

Whether people have justification for rejecting scientific beliefs depends on the belief in question.

 

[Darkstorn]

12 out of 12... Not terribly difficult. Actually, i was worried that some of them are deceptively easy, guess not... Technically there weren't any trick questions, but i wholly expected there to be one right until the end.

I had to think a bit about the boiling water thing, but even then it's pretty obvious when you think what happens to a human unprotected in outer space. You boil and drown to death.

But yes, definitely pre-high school stuff.

/E: I think the level of difficulty is "just" right: It'll tell exactly what it needs to: The general level of education is just terrible.

 

[bobhikes]

One Try
You answered 12 of 12 questions correctly.

I think science is necessary for scientists.

 

[Flankerl]

I am vehemently triggered by the inclusion of Astrology.

 

[ChristineM]

Simple questions but what has astrology got to do with science?

 

[savagewind]

I got the same two wrong that other people got. The boiling point of water and the loudness of sound.

The poll scale is wrong. Isn't it? I got ten so I can choose the third choice or the fourth choice. Which one should I choose in your opinion?

 

[savagewind]

Simple questions but what has astrology got to do with science?

It was because if you chose the wrong answer it would mean you do not know what astronomy is.

 

[Revoltingest]

I got a perfect score!
But there is a complication.
The quiz gives a possibly wrong answer for the graph.
There is insufficient info to conclude the relationship between sugar & cavities.
(Some of the worst blunders in science were due to turning such simple
correlations into simple cause & effect, eg, the saturated fat scare which
caused government to force food companies to use far deadlier trans fats.)

It's a judgement call.
I picked what looked like the best answer, ie, that cavities are increasing in many countries.
That seemed the best statement. Cavities would increase not just due to sugar, but also
due to highly processed food, which is also on the increase.
So I give myself a perfect score, my disagreement with the quiz on this one question notwithstanding.

Btw, I'm glad they included astrology.
Part of science is knowing when it isn't.

 

[bobhikes]

I got a perfect score!
But there is a complication.
The quiz gives a possibly wrong answer for the graph.
There is insufficient info to conclude the relationship between sugar & cavities.
(Some of the worst blunders in science were due to turning such simple
correlations into simple cause & effect, eg, the saturated fat scare which
caused government to force food companies to use far deadlier trans fats.)

It's a judgement call.
I picked what looked like the best answer, ie, that cavities are increasing in many countries.
That seemed the best statement. Cavities would increase not just due to sugar, but also
due to highly processed food, which is also on the increase.
So I give myself a perfect score, my disagreement with the quiz on this one question notwithstanding.

Btw, I'm glad they included astrology.
Part of science is knowing when it isn't.

When I looked at the chart it was the only choice that the chart could validate in some form, all the other statements include information that was not on the chart at all.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

11. The questions were all easy (pre-high school level here), but the optics one got me.

Same here. I was thinking that to magnify, the lens had to cause the light to diverge. But I should have realized that a convex lens can't do that.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Lol 9 but in fairness I am quite hungover. Also I will now and forever get the terms Astrology and Astronomy mixed up. Don't ask me why, just always have, no matter how often it's explained to me.

Maybe this will help: Astronomy almost certainly would have been called astrology instead (like geology, biology, anthropology, cardiology, etc.) if the word hadn't already been used for a different purpose. Astrology is the older one, so now you know which is which.