The Facts Everyone Should Know Test

[Evo]

Not an idiot

You scored 100% not an idiot! Yay! You got them all right. You may not be a genius, but at least you won't show up on "Jay Walking" any time soon.

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=17467732079199013753

 

[Alkatran]

When he says US centered he's not kidding! I also did badly on the literature questions... this is physics forums after all.

 

[twisting_edge]

When he says US centered he's not kidding!

Out of curiosity, what did you find US-centric about it? George Washington and George Bush were both on the test, but I think most would know those two.

The others were all people from other places.

I suppose, in theory, that a US citizen might be more aware that Germany (for example) is not a US state, but I would also suspect the Germans would be even more aware of it. Frankly, given the specifics of that question, I think more non-US citizens would get the answer right than US citizens. The particular country involved has something of an identity crisis in that regard.

 

[Danger]

Mediocre
You scored 95% not an idiot!
Ok, I think everyone should be able to get every question right. You came close, but you missed one or two. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you just clicked wrong or something.




My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Culturedness

It didn't tell me which ones I got wrong. (But I assume that the civil war thing was one of them.)

 

[Evo]

It didn't tell me which ones I got wrong. (But I assume that the civil war thing was one of them.)

I hate it when they don't tell you. Ok, the Civil War one I wouldn't have known if I wasn't in the US.

 

[twisting_edge]

Mediocre
You scored 95% not an idiot! <snip>
My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Culturedness

Boy, are there ever some idiots in your demographic. I scored 100% (all right), and I was only 54% for my age and gender.

Of course, you might have been the only one in your demographic to take that particular test.

 

[Hurkyl]

100% too.

I don't actually remember seeing the famous communist, except on Simpsons!

 

[russ_watters]

95% for me too and I'm not sure what I got wrong...

I'm thinking either "Who did Abraham almost kill?" or "Who was the goddess of knowledge?"

 

[Danger]

I didn't really find that to be Yankeecentric, but most people from other hemispheres probably would. Unlike the Yank education system, wherein apparently the US is the only country on the planet, we are taught history of all major civilizations (but I can't remember when the Civil War started; I went with 1820's on that, based upon the firearms in service).
Given that Alkatran is a fellow Canuk, I can only assume that the educational establishment has shifted its focus since I got out of school over 30 years ago.

 

[0rthodontist]

I notice he misspelled "gandhi" and "odyssey." I got the Christopher Colombus one wrong (95%, 99th percentile).

 

[Danger]

Do I even want to know what your signature is about?

 

[0rthodontist]

It's a Dilbert cartoon--little ceramic puppies that fit in your nose.

 

[0rthodontist]

It was part of a joke about people selling useless things.

 

[turbo]

I didn't really find that to be Yankeecentric, but most people from other hemispheres probably would. Unlike the Yank education system, wherein apparently the US is the only country on the planet, we are taught history of all major civilizations (but I can't remember when the Civil War started; I went with 1820's on that, based upon the firearms in service).
Given that Alkatran is a fellow Canuk, I can only assume that the educational establishment has shifted its focus since I got out of school over 30 years ago.

It was 1860's. In the 1820's flintlocks were in service, and it wasn't until the 1840's that percussion-cap ignition became prevalent, and it wasn't until the 1860's that cartridge rifles became widely available.

I got exactly the same score that you did. I'm assuming I missed the Greek goddess of knowledge and maybe counted Canada as a US state.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I got 100%, but then they did ask me if the Pope was Catholic.

 

[arildno]

I got 91% right (mediocre). That would be wrong on the US president picture (I thought it was John Adams??), and one other US-centred question, I believe.

Probably, it was the "It's a wonderful life" question.
I answered Humphrey Bogart, but when I changed that to Jimmy Stewart, my score went up to 95% (keeping John Adams).

 

[Danger]

it wasn't until the 1840's that percussion-cap ignition became prevalent

I guess what screwed me up about that was that in a show I saw about the '49 gold rush, cap-and-ball revolvers seemed common enough that I assumed they had been around for a long time.

Now I want a nose puppy.
Dilbert is about the only thing that I miss from not getting the newspaper any more. I'll have to buy some of the books.

 

[arildno]

Out of curiosity, what did you find US-centric about it? George Washington and George Bush were both on the test, but I think most would know those two.

.

About 10 question was US-related (including Columbus).
"What a wonderful life"-this is a US film, US actors
"Jesse Jackson"-US politician, US athletes.
And who knows how George Washington looked like apart from USAns??

Just to mention the 3 worst US-centrisms.

 

[mathwonk]

facts everyone should know:

what is the arabic title of "1001 nights"?

what is the "yoneda lemma?

how many simple groups have order less than 500?

why is there air?

is leoville las cases a "first growth" or "second growth"?

are e and pi algebraically independent?

who is afraid of virginia wolff?

how about them dawgs?

who recorded "transfusion"?

if a surjective group map admits a section, is the domain a semi direct product?

who directed "diabolique"?

 

[BobG]

95% for me too and I'm not sure what I got wrong...

I'm thinking either "Who did Abraham almost kill?" or "Who was the goddess of knowledge?"

Isaac

Athena

I got 100%

I got 91% right (mediocre). That would be wrong on the US president picture (I thought it was John Adams??), and one other US-centred question, I believe.

Was that just a random guess? It seems strange that a European would know John Adams was a US president, but wouldn't recognize George Washington. I don't think many Americans would recognize a picture of John Adams.

 

[Monique]

Dunce, 69%
Can you spell US-centered?

 

[arildno]

Was that just a random guess? It seems strange that a European would know John Adams was a US president,

Why? He was one of the Constitution guys wasn't he, along with G.W and Thomas Jefferson?
That's why I remember him.

but wouldn't recognize George Washington.

Okay, this was my reasoning, for what it is worth:
"Thomas Jefferson had a beard, and so had Abe Lincoln, and also a hat.
So it can't be either one of them.
Furthermore, John Adams was fat and George Washington lean, or if George Washington wasn't too lean after all, it would be too easy if it was a picture of him. Therefore, the picture is of John Adams."

Unfortunately, my "reasoning" was all wrong..

 

[Danger]

The president question sort of surprised me. The picture is obviously George Washington, but I thought that it was generally accepted that he was not the first president. There seems to be some ambiguity as to who actually deserves the title, but Washington was merely the first president under the current constitution.

edit: I just realized that this post seems to indicate that the test was asking about the first president. That's not what I meant. It just seems as if every sort of quiz about this subject involves only the 'big' presidents who are fairly easily recognized. Somebody like Fillmore would have stumped me, let alone the half-dozen or whatever that came before Washington.

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

Who the hell would have to know "Who starred in "It's a Wonderful Life?""

 

[verty]

You scored 78% not an idiot!

You probably get your news from Regis, don't you? You wouldn't be impossible to have a conversation with, but there would definitely be a few hand-on-forehead moments.

Well, history was never my thing, ever.

 

[russ_watters]

Isaac

Athena

Ok, I should have gotten both of those right. I guess I'm not sure which I got wrong then - I was reasonably certain about the rest.

 

[turbo]

The president question sort of surprised me. The picture is obviously George Washington, but I thought that it was generally accepted that he was not the first president. There seems to be some ambiguity as to who actually deserves the title, but Washington was merely the first president under the current constitution.

edit: I just realized that this post seems to indicate that the test was asking about the first president. That's not what I meant. It just seems as if every sort of quiz about this subject involves only the 'big' presidents who are fairly easily recognized. Somebody like Fillmore would have stumped me, let alone the half-dozen or whatever that came before Washington.

There were none before George Washington. What do they teach you in northern North America?

 

[mattmns]

82%

I missed the Abraham question, the Greek mythology question, and probably another one (mecca question maybe).

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

There were none before George Washington. What do they teach you in northern North America?

Before the Constitution of the United States, there was another document called the Articles of Confederation. Here is a url for more information about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation
That government, was ratified in 1781 and remained in effect until 1788 when the Constitution was ratified. Under that government, there were 8 presidents of the United States:
John Hanson
Elias Boudinot
Thomas Mifflin
Richard Henry Lee
John Hancock
Nathan Gorman
Arthur St. Clair
Cyrus Griffin
However, http://www.snopes.com/history/american/hanson.htm calls this information false.

 

[turbo]

The Confederation was just that - an alliance of independent states which ceded very limited authority to the Congressional Congress. The federal government of the United States (and in fact the United States as opposed to 13 autonomous states) was not established until the ratification of the Constitution, and George Washington was the first president of that government.

 

[Danger]

Thanks, Jimmy.
The only objection that I have to your second link is the following:

A prime example of why history is best learned from history books, not comic books (or the modern equivalent, web sites of dubious validity).

It seems a bit ironic, since this is itself from a net site, but the main point is that we heard about these (alleged?) previous presidents long before the Internet even existed. I don't think that you can categorize history texts as 'comic books'. The reason that I mentioned the ambiguity is that various sources claimed anywhere from 6 to 10 POTUS's (POTi?), depending upon when the US actually came into existence.
The subject doesn't interest me enough for me to dig into it further, but it does still seem to generate debate among real historians.

 

[BobG]

Before the Constitution of the United States, there was another document called the Articles of Confederation. Here is a url for more information about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation
That government, was ratified in 1781 and remained in effect until 1788 when the Constitution was ratified. Under that government, there were 8 presidents of the United States:
John Hanson
Elias Boudinot
Thomas Mifflin
Richard Henry Lee
John Hancock
Nathan Gorman
Arthur St. Clair
Cyrus Griffin
However, http://www.snopes.com/history/american/hanson.htm calls this information false.

That's because the similarity in the title's name (President of the United States in Congress Assembled) is a lot greater than the similarity in the position's role in government. Besides, he was only the third president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation. Your list leaves out Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean (who replaced Huntington for a few months because of Huntington's ill health).

And if you consider them the nation's first leaders, then why not the President of the First Continental Congress, Peyton Randolph? Or, if the fact that we still weren't an independent nation during the First Continental Congress, how about the first President of the Second Continental Congress, which, coincedently, also happened to be Peyton Randolph? The war for independence had already started at the time, making the Second Continental Congress the first colonial government to act independently of England.

Or maybe you prefer John Hancock. He was the second President of the Second Continental Congress, but was president of congress at the time of the Declaration of Independence.

All of the above were presidents of Congress (kind of like being House Speaker), not the leader of an independent executive branch of government, which is why George Washington is considered the first President of the United States. He's the first to fill the role as it exists today.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

There seems to be a lot of debate on this issue from many angles. I have no dog in this race myself. I do note that before the ratification of the Constitution, any entity that could be called the United States is not what is meant by that term today. The urban legend page seems conflicted:

1. John Hanson was president of the United States.
2. The Articles of Confederation did not form the United States into a country, in the same sense that NATO is not a country.
3. Therefore John Hanson was not president of the United States.

?

 

[Monique]

They didn't even ask who was the first president of the US

 

[Beeza]

78% :) I am a borderline idiot.

 

[SpaceTiger]

The urban legend page seems conflicted:

1. John Hanson was president of the United States.

Where does it say that? All I see is a description of the legend, followed by a debunking, which includes the sentence:

And John Hanson couldn't possibly have been the "first president of the United States," because neither the office of President of the United States nor the nation known as the United States of America was created until after he was dead.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

This is the paragraph in the url that I referred to. Emphasis is mine

The key point here is that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation called "the United States of America." They created, as stated in the first two articles, an alliance of thirteen independent and sovereign states who had agreed to "enter into a firm league of friendship with each other" while retaining their "sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The title of the confederacy so created was designated "The United States of America," but no nation with that name was created by the Articles of Confederation, any more than the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization resulted in the establishment of a nation known as "NATO."

The url is correct in noting the designation. Here is the text from the document itself.

Article I. The Stile of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America."

 

[SpaceTiger]

The url is correct in noting the designation. Here is the text from the document itself.

Article I. The Stile of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America."

Where does it say he was the president? It says he was the first to preside over the Congress under the Articles of the Confederation. In fact, the article goes on to explain that although the words "United States of America" were used, it was not a nation and did not refer to the United States of America as we understand it today. How do you feel that this is conflicted?

 

[Danger]

It says he was the first to preside over the Congress under the Articles of the Confederation.

Isn't presiding what a president does?

They didn't even ask who was the first president of the US

We know that, hence the following:

this post seems to indicate that the test was asking about the first president. That's not what I meant.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Where does it say he was the president?

It is implicit in the statement that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation. Why mention it unless he was its president? Which he was. Which they did not deny. On rereading the article, I confirm my characterization of it.

 

[SpaceTiger]

It is implicit in the statement that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation. Why mention it unless he was its president? Which he was.

So you're claiming that, contrary to their statement in the first paragraph of the snopes article, an office called "President of the United States" was created by the Articles of the Confederation. Do you have a reference to back this up?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Article 9 (excerpt): The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated 'A Committee of the States', and to consist of one delegate from each State; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction -- to appoint one of their members to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years;

But this is irrelevant. Once again, the claim is implicit in the paragraph on the Urban Legend site. Why even mention the fact that the US was not a country unless it was to concede that he was its president?

 

[mathwonk]

how can anyone not know who wasin a wonderful life, donna reed, and ward bond!

 

[russ_watters]

That's because the similarity in the title's name (President of the United States in Congress Assembled) is a lot greater than the similarity in the position's role in government.

And the same goes for the name "United States of America".

Names aside, you can't consdier them the same government/country. Any question asking about the "United States of America" is at the very least implying that it is talking about the second incarnation.

One thing though, the Snopes article needs to fix the Capitalization of the Name, United states Of america in the article. It is misleading...

[edit: ehh, I should read entire threads befor posting. Already covered...]

 

[russ_watters]

Isn't presiding what a president does?

Sure, but the question is what he is presiding over.

 

[Gokul43201]

Isn't presiding what a president does?

Not over Congress. The Vice President presides over the Senate and the Speaker presides over the House.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I do note that before the ratification of the Constitution, any entity that could be called the United States is not what is meant by that term today.

I feel forced to backtrack from this. Here is the last sentence of the Constitution of the United States of America. Emphasis mine.

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names

The "twelfth" doesn't make sense if they thought they were creating a new entity called the United States of America. Here is the preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

They weren't establishing a country, they were establishing a Constitution. Not of the United States, but for it. They were not forming a new union, but rather a more perfect one. They were already the people of the United States even without ratification. How many times I have read these words without realizing what they meant.

In view of this, I would say as with Hank Arron/Babe Ruth, the asterisk is in the wrong place. George Washington was the first President of the United States of America under the Constitution.

 

[marlon]

Stupid American
You scored 86% not an idiot!
You probably get your news from Regis, don't you? You wouldn't be impossible to have a conversation with, but there would definitely be a few hand-on-forehead moments.




My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Culturedness

 

[marlon]

who is mickey mantle ?
who played in "it's a wonderful life"

who wrote moby dick

i did not know those

marlon

 

[marlon]

Was that just a random guess? It seems strange that a European would know John Adams was a US president, but wouldn't recognize George Washington. I don't think many Americans would recognize a picture of John Adams.

Most people in Europe will recognize George Washington. The other guy,John Adams that is, i never heard of.

marlon