Re: [Phys-l] innumeracy

[Brian Whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net>]

Reading John's  note reminded me of another test I looked at last century.
 Perhaps it was the General Intelligence
 section of LSAT or GRE Science or Eng or some such....

It was intended to be a sort of IQ test.     One question went
something like this:   It is the top of the ninth, and there are
 three players on base. How many points can a good strike count for?

[I am doubtless making a nonsense out of it - because it is as
exotic to me now , as it was at that time.] A test that does not call on
general resources is  not likely to be generally applicable.

On this topic, I notice that people often cannot  compare
 nano-units against milli-units    but I certainly do not ascribe
this to innumeracy.

Brian W

At 09:27 AM 2/29/2008, John C., you wrote:
> This question is not a test of innumeracy, except possibly at the ends
> of the spectrum.  It is a test of crystallized knowledge.  A real test
> for numeracy is to have people compare numbers like 0.5 and 3/8.  ....
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX



> > Here is my example.  1st day of my gen-ed Energy class, I give a
> >little quiz  to see what they know (very little).
> >...of the U.S. and the approximate population of
> >the  world.  Here is a list of the answers I got this year.
> >
> > 500 million, 45 billion....

> > Rick


Brian Whatcott    Altus OK    Eureka!