Table 5.
Year 2 undergraduate medical students’ collective answers to the 10 questions in the area outside of their expertise (astronomy)*
| Question | Correct answer | Students’ collective answer (median) | Students’ collective answer (mean) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Distance Earth–Sirius (in light–years)? |
9 |
6900 |
5 800 659 084 |
| 2. Number of Saturn’s moons? |
62 |
12 |
20 |
| 3. How many times Jupiter heavier than Earth? |
318 |
811 |
5 681 716 865 |
| 4. When was Uranus first discovered? |
1781 |
1807 |
1720 |
| 5. Distance Sun–Milky Way Centre (in ly)? |
27 000 |
5 000 000 |
22 584 267 640 |
| 6. How much Sun heavier than Earth? |
332 900 |
8 000 |
8 561 716 703 |
| 7. Speed of Solar Wind (in km/h)? |
1 440 000 |
43 027 |
7 948 573 823 |
| 8. Years since comet killed off dinosaurs? |
65 000 000 |
24 564 456 |
1 396 252 256 |
| 9. Kilometres from Sun to Jupiter? |
780 000 000 |
8 728 001 |
1 239 338 648 469 |
| 10. Years since solar system created? | 4 568 000 000 | 7 119 851 052 | 721 049 090 361 |
* Number of responses N = 170.