Bothun version of a science literacy quiz designed to test relations and quantitative thinking. Some questions are better than others and some may still be more in the science knowledge arena. Also note that some of the distractors are purposefuly longer than others to test the bias that people think science is complicated so the longer answer must be correct.

  1. Organic chemistry is the study of compounds containing which element?

    • Oxygen
    • Nitrogen
    • Carbon
    • Methane
    • Iron












  2. The reason that your weight is less on the moon than on the Earth is

    • becuase the moon has a smaller radius than the Earth
    • because the moon has a smaller mass than the Earth
    • because the moon has a smaller surface gravity
    • Your still the same size as before so your weight is not changed


  3. A doctor tells a couple that their genetic makeup means that they've got one in four chances of having a child with an inherited illness.

    • If their first three children are healthy, the fourth will have the illness.
    • If their first child has the illness, the next three will not.
    • Each of the couple's children will have the same risk of suffering from the illness.
    • If they have only three children, none will have the illness.


  4. The following is a data table for X and Y; X is measured in Days and Y is the number of insects observed at that day 
    X           Y
2           7
4           16
8           50
10          123


    Which graph, A,B,C,D best represents this data?





  5. A hurricane wiped out 40% of the wild rats in a coastal city. Then, a disease spread through stagnant water killing 40% of the rats that survived the hurricane. What percentage of the original population of rats is left after these 2 events?

    • 20%
    • 36%
    • 48%
    • 80%
    • Cannot be calculated without knowing the original number of rats




  6. You touch the inside of a window with a wooden frame on a cold day and find that the glass feels colder than the wood. This is because

    • The glass is at a lower temperature
    • The glass is closer to the outside cold air than the wood frame
    • The wood frame absorbs more heat from the inside than the glass does and is therefore warmer
    • Wood is a poorer heat conductor than glass
    • None of the above; the first law of thermodynamics states they must be the same temperature




  • Sphere A has a mass of 1 Kg and a radius of 30 centimeters. Sphere B gas a mass of 2 KG and a radius of 60 centimeters. The density of Sphere B compared to Sphere A is

    • 4 times higher
    • 2 times higher
    • the density of both spheres are the same since they are spheres
    • 2 times lower
    • 4 times lower