Anew surveyof general scientific knowledge among the American universe , design byPew Research Center , found that just 6 % of participant mark 100 % . How well can you do ?
American readers will be pleased to hump that , in ecumenical , respondents did n’t completely let the squad down . The vast legal age of participant , add up 3,278 adult , were capable to answer the leisurely questions like the core is Earth ’s blistering layer ( 86 % ) and correctly identifying a comet ( 78 % ) . And it ’s in spades a relief to cognize that 73 % knew the difference between astronomy , the legitimate field of battle of science , and star divination – star sign and all that woo . Overall , answerer gave more right answers than incorrect . Well done .
The two questions respondent struggled the most with were how high altitude affects water boiling ( only 34 % guessed right ) , and what determines loudness in a soundwave ( 35 % , and it ’s amplitude by the way ) .
Unsurprisingly , those with a postgrad degree did the best , while those only educated to high school layer or less did the worst . The 12 - part quiz also play up gender differences whereby human outperformed women overall , even when differences in breeding were take aim into account . But before anyone go call out that this shows men know more about skill than women , Pew points out that the majority of the questions were about physical sciences , rather than life science , and research has evince that these subject tend to reveal the biggest discrepancies between men and women .
It ’s hard to draw too many conclusions from such a short quiz , which does n’t even scratch the airfoil of such a broad and complex subject , but perhaps the fact that only 6 % of respondents generate a perfect mark does highlight that general science knowledge may be lacking in the U.S. population . So peradventure it ’s time to put the smartphone down for an hour a Clarence Day and pick up a copy of National Geographic .
If the quiz wo n’t lade for you , you’re able to take ithere .
