Are you scientifically literate?

Well, I was interested in the fact that I seemed to be the only person on the planet apparently that didn't know what a nano was, even though I'd spent several years in electrical engineering school. (This was about 30 years ago btw) But I remembered the term picofarads being used a lot. Why didn't I remember ever hearing about nanofarads, nor millifarads for that matter? So I googled it, and found a simple, yet still unexplained reason:

The PISA test does a much better job.

Outside of an autistic savant (or anyone who memorizes to memorize), anyone who finds themselves in possession of a bunch of science trivia (i.e. names of Saturn's moons) will have picked it up from sources that are just about guaranteed to also expose them to discussions of the scientific method.

- In meteorology, what does the suffix -nimbus added to the name of a cloud indicate?

86%, mostly failed astronomy questions about which moons were where and who's the brightest next to the moon, etc. And I thought nimbus meant vertically developed, not precipitating.

The millifarad is less used in practice...

I got that one wrong too.
I really had no idea,..

94%. One was the one about nimbus (just as you did,) the next was the one about Bernoulli's Principle (long story, didn't fully understand what the question was asking,) and the other one I got wrong I can't remember.

Ah, but how many actually do science as a profession?

Do you not think that people who are not science professionals should know their science facts?

Certain people do count in milliFarads. Granted, there are probably less than 10 installations of this type on the planet.

http://www.toulouse.lncmi.cnrs.fr/sp...cle=98&lang=en

48 mF capacitor bank (back-calcualted from 14 MJ stored energy at 24 kV).

I think something must be wrong there (maybe not noticing the difference beteen m for milli and M for mega?}

Milllifarad sized capacitors are common enough, though I've never seen their values given as anything except thousands of microfarads.

I found that most of my answers came from watching tv shows. Of course most of the shows I watch are science documentaries, so there are lots of answers and little of the method.

Yeah but you said you couldn't resist the urge to cheat and never posted a score anyway. I was talking about the people who scored above 90% honestly and off the top of their heads. I am sure they'd all do best on the PISA test as well.

1. Composing about 78 percent of the air at sea level, what is the most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere?
2. The Austrian monk Gregor Mendel's observations of what organism formed the basis for the science of genetics?
3. What term, which means the maximum absolute value of a periodically varying quantity, does the "A" in AM radio broadcasting stand for?
4. In 1989, the US postal service drew criticism from paleontologists for releasing a stamp with what obsolete genus name, which translates from Greek as "Thunder Lizard"?
5. Organic chemistry is the study of compounds that contain what element?
6. How many nanometers are there in a centimeter?
7. In physics, what letter is used to represent the speed of light in a vacuum?
8. The only two known planets in our solar system that lack any moons are Venus and what other planet?
9. What is the heaviest noble gas?
10. Approximately how old is the Earth?

41. After the Moon, what is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows?
42. According to the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, approximately how old is the Universe?
43. What word, which derives from a Greek term meaning "unequal" or "bent," describes a triangle whose three sides are of unequal length?
44. Over half of the world's supply of what element, which gets its name from the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, is used in catalytic converters?
45. In quantum mechanics, the physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta – denoted as h – is named after what German physicist?
46. Approximately how long does it take light from the sun to reach Earth?
47. In meteorology, what does the suffix -nimbus added to the name of a cloud indicate?
48. What element, which has the atomic number 16 and is a bright yellow crystalline solid at room temperature, is referred to in the Bible as "brimstone"?
49. The moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all orbit what planet?
50. What unit of measurement, which is equal to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, did 18th-century steam engine entrepreneur James Watt come up with?

38. What type of cell division in eukaryotic cells is divided into prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase?
meiosis
mitosis
fission
senescence
+1.2.2
reason: guessed before I saw the choices

If it were not a multiple choice question quiz, I think I would have still gotten a good score. Based on the first 10 questions anyways.



now the last 10....


I missed Nimbus also.

Didn't we all learn that in 3rd grade?

There was a question in the middle, biology!, where I had to stop and tell myself; "You will only be confused by the choices". So I picked a word from my brain, and it was the correct one!



In all truthiness, I have not a clue what any of the above means.....

1. Composing about 78 percent of the air at sea level, what is the most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere?

2. The Austrian monk Gregor Mendel's observations of what organism formed the basis for the science of genetics?

3. What term, which means the maximum absolute value of a periodically varying quantity, does the "A" in AM radio broadcasting stand for?

4. In 1989, the US postal service drew criticism from paleontologists for releasing a stamp with what obsolete genus name, which translates from Greek as "Thunder Lizard"?

5. Organic chemistry is the study of compounds that contain what element?

6. How many nanometers are there in a centimeter?

7. In physics, what letter is used to represent the speed of light in a vacuum?

8. The only two known planets in our solar system that lack any moons are Venus and what other planet?

9. What is the heaviest noble gas?

10. Approximately how old is the Earth?

41. After the Moon, what is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows?

42. According to the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, approximately how old is the Universe?

43. What word, which derives from a Greek term meaning "unequal" or "bent," describes a triangle whose three sides are of unequal length?

44. Over half of the world's supply of what element, which gets its name from the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, is used in catalytic converters?

45. In quantum mechanics, the physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta – denoted as h – is named after what German physicist?

46. Approximately how long does it take light from the sun to reach Earth?

47. In meteorology, what does the suffix -nimbus added to the name of a cloud indicate?

48. What element, which has the atomic number 16 and is a bright yellow crystalline solid at room temperature, is referred to in the Bible as "brimstone"?

49. The moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all orbit what planet?

50. What unit of measurement, which is equal to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, did 18th-century steam engine entrepreneur James Watt come up with?

38. What type of cell division in eukaryotic cells is divided into prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase?