Dude. Obviously you need to translate some of these question for modern times - it's hard to know who used most tea before WW2, but it's a fairly common statistic nowadays. Think about it for a second. At the time, when you actually had kerosene barrels laying around, you would know what there were made out of. There's nothing extraordinary to know where Lincoln was born. Home Sweet Home was only getting popular at the beginning of the 20th century, it's like asking somebody today whose slogan was "Change". Obviously everyone will answer Obama,but in a 100 years that will be of no meaning to anyone.
Sure, questions like the one about a lightest/heaviest wood is not so easy,but for a well educated person it should be of no issue. We have this issue nowadays where we don't remember anything - because our brains know that we don't need to. We are always a few clicks away from knowing anything we might need. We read an article and we don't actually remember any solid facts,because we know we can just come back and find them again. 100 years ago people were actually amazingly good with remembering shit, much much better than we are now. They would read something and that would stay in their brain.
WWI ended on the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. The dickhead statesmen came up with this time to make it memorable. Do you know the hour that any other war ended? Unless it was tied to a mnemonic? If you do, shut down your computer and get some fresh air.
Sure, questions like the one about a lightest/heaviest wood is not so easy,but for a well educated person it should be of no issue
Are you trolling? I'd make an honest bet that less than 1 percent of people holding masters degrees could answer this. People would just guess (incorrectly) mahogany and get on with their non-trivial business. Hell, forget 1 percent. Less than .01 percent more likely. Harvard graduates can't even tell you why we have seasons.
> Obviously you need to translate some of these question for modern times - it's hard to know who used most tea before WW2, but it's a fairly common statistic nowadays.
I was not aware that Edison survived past WW2... Maybe you need to review the facts a little more. FYI, generally, in the time period that this article was written, the war referred to the great war, aka WW1
Sure, questions like the one about a lightest/heaviest wood is not so easy,but for a well educated person it should be of no issue. We have this issue nowadays where we don't remember anything - because our brains know that we don't need to. We are always a few clicks away from knowing anything we might need. We read an article and we don't actually remember any solid facts,because we know we can just come back and find them again. 100 years ago people were actually amazingly good with remembering shit, much much better than we are now. They would read something and that would stay in their brain.