I found a test given to Americans (looks like it might be the source for some of the America by the Numbers thread stuff). It was given by the National Science Foundation. I'll put the questions here and the answers in the next post. After you see how you scored, compare your answers to the general public.

A = The center of the Earth is very hot.
B = All radioactivity is man-made.
C = The oxygen we breathe comes from plants.
D = It is the father’s gene which decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl.
E = Lasers work by focusing sound waves.
F = Electrons are smaller than atoms.
G = Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria.
H = The universe began with a huge explosion.
I = The continents on which we live have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move in the future.
J = Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.
K = Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.
L = The earliest humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.
M = Radioactive milk can be made safe by boiling it.
N = Which travels faster: light or sound?
O = Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?
P = How long does it take for the Earth to go around the Sun: one day, one month, or one year?
Q = Please tell me in your own words, what is DNA?
R = Please tell me in your own words, what is a molecule?

ANSWERS:

A=True
B=False
C=True
D=True
E=False
F=True
G=False
H=True
I=True
J=True
K=True
L=False
M=False
N=Light
O=Earth around the Sun
P=One year
(On these two, be your own judge, the test didn't provide answers)
R=Website
Q=Website

Compare Your Answers

I got B wrong. Most people got that right. Damn.

Some of those are kinda sketchy though. Cigarette smoking doesn't always cause lung cancer. They must have some sort of absolute, all or nothing complex.

Yeah, I caught that as I was typing it up. Although if someone was forced to say "yes or no" to that question. I can't imagine that they would feel confident with a "no."

And of course, notice that one didn't get picked up and forwarded to people's e-mail accounts. "Ha Ha! 6% of Americans think cigarette smoking doesn't cause cancer!"

i had d wrong, and like sub, the cigarette cause cancer one isnt neccissarily true, so im not counting that one as wrong

I got all of them right

It's really odd to see that females have better percentage of correct answers only to questions D (sex gene) and G (antibiotics) The oddest one is D, in which females are right in a 72% and males only 58%. Apparently males don't know as well as females that their X/Y gene decides the sex of their own children...

It'd like to know the results of this test in Spain... I bet there isn't too much differences (though most spaniards think that our results would be way better)

Another curiosity: Did you know that more males are born because X chromosome is heavier than Y and spermatozoids carrying the Y one have more chances to get to the ovum first?

i missed H.... can this actually be proven?... doesn't the thought process on the beginning of the universe change about every fifteen years or so?

also, my dna answer wasnt very scientific... wouldve probably gotten a at least half credit on that one though

You can still compare your thinking to other Americans. You're in the 6% wierdo minority.

That's alright, my answer was "twisty blueprint of genes," and I counted it as correct.

H & J are going to open up a whole can of worms.

I don't know. H & K may be open to some dispute, but J seems pretty solid to me.

Perhaps to most of us here, but not the entire world.

Yeah, but they're wrong.

100%.

100%

That was ridiculously easy.

The Big Bang and the evolution questions are kind of sketchy, though.

i got 100% yay.

So who passes the test is an Idiot American? I guess I'm an idiot then... and an American.