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Author Topic:   How Scientifically Literate Are You?
ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


(1)
Message 23 of 134 (697659)
04-28-2013 3:55 PM


I had never heard of "fracking" but it was easy enough to figure out from the options given. I think I could have gotten the other 12 when I was 12.
I couldn't do a test for gender because I'm at the Public Library, so I had to go on memory.

Replies to this message:
 Message 24 by Faith, posted 04-28-2013 4:14 PM ringo has replied
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 Message 27 by NoNukes, posted 04-28-2013 10:46 PM ringo has seen this message but not replied

  
ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 25 of 134 (697662)
04-28-2013 4:23 PM
Reply to: Message 24 by Faith
04-28-2013 4:14 PM


Faith writes:
I'm sure I'd have gotten all of them when I was twelve too.
I hope you're forgetting things naturally and not deliberately unlearning them.
Faith writes:
Maybe not fracking though.
Somehow, I associated "fracking" with something plus cracking - which led me to petrochemicals.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 33 of 134 (697737)
04-29-2013 11:49 AM
Reply to: Message 30 by caffeine
04-29-2013 11:07 AM


caffeine writes:
By contrast, the one that the highest number of people got right was about sun-tan lotion protecting us from UV. Do we have advertising to thank for this?
Sun-tan lotion protects us from everything - cancer, old age, bad breath. Now with 87 per cent more snake oil.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


(2)
Message 73 of 134 (697890)
05-01-2013 12:36 PM
Reply to: Message 37 by Percy
04-29-2013 3:34 PM


Re: The Fracking Question
Percy writes:
I was expecting to see oil in the list of answers, not natural gas.
Science isn't about memorizing the "right answers". It's about being able to figure out the best approximation.
Percy writes:
I don't know what answer I might have given to some of the questions as a kid in the 1960's.
Case in point: my memory of what I knew when I was twelve might not be accurate.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 82 of 134 (697911)
05-01-2013 2:51 PM
Reply to: Message 66 by New Cat's Eye
05-01-2013 10:35 AM


Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
Catholic Scientist writes:
The metric system is just so much better than ours....
I've always argued against the metric system being "better" than another system of weights and measures. It's just different. Its only redeeming feature, as far as I'm concerned, is the fact that it is nearly universal - and here in Canada we're influenced almost as much by the American system as by "our own" anyway.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 66 by New Cat's Eye, posted 05-01-2013 10:35 AM New Cat's Eye has replied

Replies to this message:
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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 89 of 134 (697921)
05-01-2013 3:23 PM
Reply to: Message 86 by New Cat's Eye
05-01-2013 3:06 PM


Re: Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
Catholic Scientist writes:
Its obviously better to base things off of powers of 10 than some random factor. You can do the math in your head, you can convert left and right.
The other side of that coin is that it's easier to make mistakes lke dividing by a hundred instead of ten. A system that requires you to think is not "obviously" inferior.
Simpler isn't necessarily better. Every year before Christmas and Father's Day, you see those commercials for supertools that can replace a whole toolbox full of conventional tools. The trouble is that a tool that can be used for everything is seldom really good at any of them.
Edited by ringo, : Made a mistke in splling.

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Replies to this message:
 Message 92 by 1.61803, posted 05-01-2013 3:49 PM ringo has replied
 Message 111 by Dr Adequate, posted 05-02-2013 3:31 PM ringo has replied

  
ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 104 of 134 (697996)
05-02-2013 11:50 AM
Reply to: Message 92 by 1.61803
05-01-2013 3:49 PM


Re: Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
quote:
... NASA has been using the metric system predominantly since at least 1990. source
Predominantly?
If you can't make up your mind which system you're using, it doesn't matter how good the system is.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 107 of 134 (698003)
05-02-2013 12:18 PM
Reply to: Message 106 by Dr Adequate
05-02-2013 12:07 PM


Re: No Fracking Problem
Dr Adequate writes:
And the old system was so simple.
So simple a child could understand it - just like Chinese.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 121 of 134 (698157)
05-03-2013 11:46 AM
Reply to: Message 111 by Dr Adequate
05-02-2013 3:31 PM


Re: Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
Dr Adequate writes:
... it's easier to divide by a hundred and get the right answer than it is to divide by 5280 and get the right answer.
That was my point: it's too easy. It's easier to make mistakes when you don't have to think about what you're doing.
I'm not arguing that the Imperial system is better. I'm just saying that the metric system isn't intrinsically better. It may be better for some things but it isn't necessarily better across the board. That's why we still use Imperial measures for a lot of things when they're more convenient.
Dr Adequate writes:
Arguing by analogy is like using a giraffe as a can-opener.
Again you make my point. A giraffe is better for opening cans than a pillow. A stand-alone can-opener may be ideal for opening cans but it doesn't make a good pet. No single thing (or system) is all things to all men.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 111 by Dr Adequate, posted 05-02-2013 3:31 PM Dr Adequate has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 123 by NoNukes, posted 05-03-2013 1:00 PM ringo has replied

  
ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 122 of 134 (698160)
05-03-2013 11:51 AM
Reply to: Message 109 by dwise1
05-02-2013 3:07 PM


Re: Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
dwise1 writes:
... the mechanical pumps could not be set for prices higher than 99.9 cents per gallon.
I recall paying 50.9 cents per half-gallon at a lonely gas station in the Fraser Canyon. I think it was 1977.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 124 of 134 (698169)
05-03-2013 1:18 PM
Reply to: Message 123 by NoNukes
05-03-2013 1:00 PM


Re: Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
NoNukes writes:
Your argument here seems to be that finding imperial system conversion factors is difficult enough that a person who who wants to convert from feet to miles is more likely to find the correct conversion factor than when converting from, say meters to kilometers.
My argument is really from the opposite direction: that people using easy conversion factors are more likely to be careless with them.
NoNukes writes:
There is a metric unit that is conveniently sized for any task.
And yet we don't use them. Hmm....
Convenience is as convenience does.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


(2)
Message 129 of 134 (698223)
05-04-2013 11:58 AM
Reply to: Message 128 by NoNukes
05-03-2013 10:32 PM


Re: Metric System groupies and scientific literacy
NoNukes writes:
How often do you need to subdivide exactly one foot?
You can buy a metric tape measure but you can't buy a metric two-by-four to measure with it.

This message is a reply to:
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Replies to this message:
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