You know the knowledge imparted by your high school chemistry teacher has disintegrated when you score, as I did, a mere 33 out of 118 on the Periodic Table. It’s one thing to miss not-named-until-after-graduation elements like dubnium, which I learned as unnilpentium. I’m even willing to forgive myself for not remembering not-so-everyday elements like scandium or ruthenium. But how embarrassed am I to miss so many obvious elements, like sulfur, lead, iodine, and nickel.
[From I Let My Fists Do the Talkin'.]
I got 42, helped out more by Tom Lehrer’s song than your post. and it helps to remember the proper names that show up, too: Curium, Einsteinium, Rutherfordium….
Comment by FelixP — April 5, 2008 @ 10:15 am
Where are your reviews? :)
Comment by Jessica — April 5, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Don’t feel bad. We did this with US states at one of the buildings I work at. One of the dipshit mechanics I work with was being especially ignorant so I decided to embarrass him. I printed out a couple blank maps of the US and we all had to fill in the states.
He got 13 right. This is a 32 year old man who has lived in NJ his whole life, and he mislabeled New York.
I wouldn’t be too upset about getting 33 elements right. Anything over 5 probably puts you in the top 1 percentile.
Comment by Chip — April 6, 2008 @ 8:04 am
[...] Apologies to Jessica, and anyone else who cares, for the delay in this month’s Roundup. Work and other assorted love songs got in the way. [...]
Pingback by Yodelling Llama » Blog Archive » Channel 101: LA Roundup (March 2008) — April 6, 2008 @ 8:58 am