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  #1  
Old 09-17-2016, 11:53 AM
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Default Stupid click-bait science quiz

Just 6% Of Americans Got All Of These Basic Science Questions Right. How Well Will You Do? | IFLScience

I hate the way they capitalize every word, even 'of'. :muttercircle:

I don't know how the test knows whether or not those who take it are American as it never asks you your nationality - I suppose it could check your IP, but an American IP doesn't necessarily make you an American and vice-versa - maybe it's been run somewhere other than that website where nationality has been asked or otherwise known.

There are only 12 questions, and I'd expect most :ff: posters will get all 12, and the rest of us at least 10 or 11.

It's more interesting to criticize the badly chosen and badly worded questions though...
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  #2  
Old 09-17-2016, 12:12 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

It's interesting that for the question answered least correctly - "Denver, Colorado, is at a higher altitude than Los Angeles, California. Which of these statements is correct?" only 34% of people got the right answer. There was only 3 options, so no better than random chance really.
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Old 09-17-2016, 03:45 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

That's definitely the click-baitiest site where I've bothered to go past the first question.

12/12
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Old 09-17-2016, 05:24 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

How is this a science question?

Quote:
Which of these terms is defined as the study of how the positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior?
I guess they want to know if people know the difference between astrology and astronomy, but why ask about the pseudoscience on a science quiz?
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Old 09-17-2016, 06:09 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

Yeah, I missed that one because I stopped reading or something, I guess. I'd just woken up, saw "stars and planets" and answered astronomy.

Astronomers just pretend they meant to do something else because they suck at telling fortunes, anyway.
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Old 09-17-2016, 08:16 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

I got the Denver one wrong. I knew I was wrong almost as soon as I chose it.
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Old 09-17-2016, 09:04 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

haha i forgot the difference between an asteroid and a meteor
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Old 09-18-2016, 12:27 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

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Originally Posted by Vivisectus View Post
haha i forgot the difference between an asteroid and a meteor
Shouldn't matter as the correct answer was neither of those :P

I like the way they always sneak history questions into 'science quizzes': Which monarch gave Newton his knighthood? What was Einstein's parrot's name? - that sort of thing.
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Old 09-18-2016, 02:59 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

I got 12/12 but would count it as really 11/12 as I didn't know the inventor of the Polio vaccine, just that it wasn't any of the three other people listed.

And yeah the astrology question was extra stupid, Astrology isn't the study of how the gravity of the planets affects behavior as that would suggest there's any sort of study or experimentation going on in the first place.

Of the three questions 65+ aged people did better on than other age groups was Polio, Atomic bombs and Tides. Polio and Atomic bombs are obvious as to why, but I do wonder why older people are more likely to know the moon causes tides.
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Old 09-18-2016, 05:30 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

I got the microscope wrong, because instead of clicking the one that looked right based on the shape of the lens, I picked the one where I said "which of these sets of light rays would make the object appear bigger?"
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Old 09-18-2016, 08:06 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

The tides question is interesting. Most people know that they're caused by gravity somehow: those who know that the effect of the moon is the main one often assume that's because the moon's gravity is stronger at Earth than the sun's. But that is wrong: gravity is proportional to the mass and the inverse square of the distance, and although the sun is 400 times farther away, it's more than 400 squared times as massive - so the sun's gravity is greater at Earth than the moon's.

The explanation is that tidal forces are due to the difference in gravity at two points separated by distance - and as the gravitational force changes by the inverse square of distance that means the tidal force changes by the inverse cube.

If the sun were the main cause of tides on Earth, then the tides would be synchronised with the apparent movement of the sun, so high tide would occur at the same time every day. Since we know that the times of the tides change, that's a clue that the moon is the main driving force.

The tidal force due to the sun is about half as much as that due to the moon. When the sun and moon line up, as they do twice a month at new moon and full moon, their tidal forces add together and we get the largest, so called 'spring tides' (which have nothing to do with Spring, the season). When the sun and moon are positioned at right angles (twice a month at half moon) then the sun's tidal force cancels out about half of the moon's and we get the lowest tides, called 'neap tides'.
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  #12  
Old 09-18-2016, 10:47 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

Quote:
Originally Posted by ceptimus View Post

I Hate The Way They Capitalize Every Word, Even 'Of'. :muttercircle:
:fixed:

I :blame: thoughtless automation.
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Old 09-18-2016, 10:48 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

I want a cellphone that operates on gravity waves.
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Old 09-18-2016, 10:50 AM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

The graph of tooth decay against sugar consumption shows correlation not causation, so none of the answers are correct.
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Old 09-18-2016, 12:29 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

This graph shows...
E. "Your shotgun pulls slightly to the upper right."
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Old 09-21-2016, 10:44 PM
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Default Re: Stupid click-bait science quiz

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ari View Post
I got 12/12 but would count it as really 11/12 as I didn't know the inventor of the Polio vaccine, just that it wasn't any of the three other people listed.

And yeah the astrology question was extra stupid, Astrology isn't the study of how the gravity of the planets affects behavior as that would suggest there's any sort of study or experimentation going on in the first place.

Of the three questions 65+ aged people did better on than other age groups was Polio, Atomic bombs and Tides. Polio and Atomic bombs are obvious as to why, but I do wonder why older people are more likely to know the moon causes tides.
As someone who watches a lot of old movies, I'm fairly certain that the moon's effect on the tides was more prevalent in pop culture a couple decades or more ago. It was just considered common knowledge. Probably figured on quiz shows, too, now that I think of it.
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