I appreciate your article on the metric system. I learned metric early (my father was French) and I'm good at math.
The quiz, though, does not measure how well one understands the metric system. Better questions would be, for example: 1. How tall are you in millimeters? 2. How much do you weigh in kilograms? 3. What is your body mass index? 4. How many kilojoules are in a watt-hour? (The hour is in the SI brochure, so this is valid.) 5. How many kilometers per hour are in a meter per second? 6. What is the density of water in grams per liter? 7. How many grams are in a mole of carbon? 8. What is the maximum possible number of lumens per watt? 9. What is the triple point of water in degrees Celsius? 10. How long is the equator in megameters? 11. How many millimeters does light travel in a nanosecond? 12. If you paint a 20 m² wall with paint that is 0.5 mm thick before drying, how many liters of paint do you use? Answers: 1. I'm 1510 mm (the exact value depends on the time of day). 2. I'm 61 kg. 3. Divide your mass in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. For me, that's 26.8. 4. 3.6. Now you can compare your food budget with your electric bill. 5. 3.6 again. 6. 1000. 7. 12. 8. 683. I have some compact fluorescent bulbs which are rated at 1750 lm and 26 W. That's 67.3 lm/W, which is just under 10% efficient. 9. 0.01. 10. 40. 11. 300 (or to be exact, 299.792458). 12. 10. Pierre Abbat
