You might say it is a question kindergarten kids could answer. But if a recent study is any good clue to go by, some adult Americans aren't as bright as them.
According to a study, involving a sample size of Americans, conducted by the National Science Foundation, 26 percent of the American population do not know whether it is the earth that goes round the sun or is it vice versa.
The NSF study asked the participants involved, nine questions about basic biological and physical science and what came back as answers were true shockers. On an average, only 6.5 of the questions were answered correct.
The results indicate, rather quietely curiously, that an average American person can barely pass a basic science quiz and there is a large chunk of population who do not even know how the earth travels in the space.
This may not have been too much of a surprise if it wasn't for the fact that 99 percent of the American population is literate and that they would be expected to know the basics of universal knowledge even if they didn't know the sophisticated ones.
It was a simple question asked: "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?" Twenty Six percent of the participants gave the wrong answer, which accounts for almost 1 in 4 Americans. According to PolicyMic, there were 2,200 Americans participating on this study - a sample size, any researcher would agree, is large enough to give some semblance of correct indication.
In the same quiz, 16 percent of the participants did not know that the 'center of the earth is very hot' while 17 percent did not know that the "Continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move". More interestingly, only 39 percent said it was true that the "universe began with a huge explosion".
Also, only 63 percent of them knew that "it is the father's gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl" while half of them made error while saying that antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. 52 percent did not know that human beings, as we know them today, "developed from earlier species of animals".
