Whether you've just graduated or can't even remember your school days, it's important to remember at least something you learned in science class.
We won't challenge you to list the elements, but you should at least know the answer to these 7 basic science questions. As it turns out, they all seem to give even the smartest Americans some trouble.
Unless you score 7/7 on this quiz, you're going back to school!
1. True or false: different parts of your tongue taste different flavors?
Answer: False. You never really believed that, did you? It turns out the "taste map" is based on a mis-translation, but it spread so quickly that it's still taught in school today. In fact, every part of your tongue can taste every flavor.
2. What color is blood when it's inside your body?
Answer: Hope you didn't say "blue," because of course it's red. Some of us grew up with the myth that blood inside your body is missing oxygen, so it turns from blue to red outside your body. In fact, a red protein called Hemoglobin makes blood red (wherever it is).
3. Does the earth travel around the sun, or does the sun travel around the earth?
Answer: The earth travels around the sun, but don't feel bad if you got that one wrong. A study by the National Science Foundation shows 1/4 Americans have this fact backwards. But Europeans are even worse, because 1/3 say the sun circles the Earth.
4. What's the most common element in the Earth's atmosphere?
Answer: We breathe in oxygen (which makes up 21% of the atmosphere and breathe out nitrogen (which is around 78% of the atmosphere) along with some other less common elements.
Click to the next page to try the dumb question 50% of Americans get wrong!
5. Where does chocolate milk come from?
Answer: Only about 50% of Americans knew that chocolate milk is a mix of chocolate and milk (duh) according to the Innovation Center for US Dairy. Meanwhile, 7% of the people they surveyed actually guessed that "chocolate cows" make it.
6. How many planets are in our solar system?
Answer: Your age is showing if you said 9. Pluto was taken off the list years ago for a number of reasons. Mainly because it's much smaller than other planets and doesn't behave like the other 8.
7. What creates the tides?
Answer: We'll cut you some slack, because the Earth's rotation, the sun and gravity all play a part, but you should really know that the moon pulls the tides up or down as it circles our planet.
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