No, Bill, they weren't allowed to use calculators. Those few who knew that a
cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches presumably multiplied 12 x 144 by hand.
People seem to pride themselves on their ability to do useless arithmetic.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Hooper
> Subject: [USMA:9411] Re: American's knowledge of SI vs. WOMBAT
>
> Dennis:
>
> In your test (see excerpts below), were the test takers allowed
> to calculate
> a result (and were they allowed to use calculators)? In the case of the
> number of people who knew that a cubic foot is equal to 1728
> cubic inches, I
> was not surprised that it was so low; I was surprised that it was
> as high as
> it was.
>
> I suspect they didn't really know it, but that they could calculate it (if
> that was allowed). Compare those numbers with the number who knew
> that a US
> gallon is equal to 231 cubic inches. There, the answer cannot be found by
> calculation even with a calculator so the results were MUCH lower
> (as low as
> they could be, namely ZERO).
>
> I think the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot would have had a result
> of zero also, if the respondants had been required to know the
> answer rather
> than allowed to calculate it. (I also think the results would be lower if
> they have to hand calculate it rather than using a calculator.
> That's why I
> wonder which was the case here.)
>
> > From: "Dennis Brownridge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Subject: [USMA:9385] American's knowledge of SI vs. WOMBAT
> >
> > ...
> > 14. cubic foot = 1728 cubic inches: 14% 37%
> > ...
> > 17. U.S. gallon = 231 cubic inches: 0% 0%
> > ...
>
> Thanks, Dennis, for the fascinating and useful results.
>
> Regards,
> bill Hooper
>
>
