Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Speed of Dark

How do people form decisions on subjects of science in their lives? I was puzzled by this, so I conducted a personal survey/quiz of friends and associates with 10 simple scientific questions. I mean simple. Yes, it was kind of like the "smarter than a lousy 5th grader" show - except it was more like a 4th graders science. Almost everyone I quized had earned College Degrees. One was a recent high school graduate. Everyone, except one, did very poorly on the quiz, including the recent H.S. gradutate who was said to be very good at science.
I will give you an example of one question: What is the boiling point of water? -answer in fahrenheit or celsius acceptable. Results, almost no one got it right. This was just a typical question and result.

I quickly became embarassed. Most of them said they would just "Google" this information. Yes and you can also just U-Tube your politics.

I was inspired to do this quiz while watching NBC News and I heard their Science Reporter get the Speed of Light WRONG. Not just kind of wrong - very wrong. And he gave the speed in Miles Per Hour! This is very basic science, and he was NBC's science reporter. This may seem petty, but it is like an artist with a College Degree in Art History saying that Picasso painted the Mona Lisa.
The reporter then proceeds to lecture the viewers on some vast life altering scientific concept, accompanied by an inset of a nodding Anchorman.

And I have a question for the Anchorman; Who is the Prime Minister of Canada? He will probably say "Let me Google that'.

2 Comments:

Blogger Raw Bob said...

273.15

2:43 PM  
Blogger Raw Bob said...

(K)


oh, and 3.0 x 10^8 m/s

I'll be cycling tomorrow too. (Found your blog when googling Tour de Tonka.)

2:45 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Ã