In the spirit of such great intellectual magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Ralph, nerdling brings you the definitive nerdiness quiz.

For each question below for which you can answer "yes" or "true", score one point. Count up the points and see how you rate as a nerd.

¤ Have you ever derived an equation you found in a science text?

¤ Do you know most of the words to "The Lumberjack Song" by Monty Python?

¤ Can you quote the permittivity of free space? (epsilon nought)

¤ Do you own a "reverse polish notation" calculator?

¤ Do you own any log or semi-log paper?

¤ Have you ever watched something and stated "that's physically impossible" (due to Newton's laws, etc.)?

¤ Do you refer to the various "Treks" as "TOS" (The Original Series), "TNG" (The Next Generation) and "DS9" (Deep Space 9) or similar?

¤ Have you ever gotten pizza delivered to the lab/office/science building?

¤ Have you ever commented: "If I drive fast enough at the red light, it'll appear green."

¤ Do you know the wavelengths in the visible spectrum?

¤ Have you ever wanted to know something for no apparent reason?

¤ Have you ever been laughed at for wanting to know something?

¤ Have you ever used a computer for more than 8 hours continuously?

¤ Have you ever used computer symbology elsewhere? (goto, *, etc.)

¤ Have you ever owned a light saber?

¤ Do you own a Rubik's cube?

¤ Have you ever tried to calculate the number of possible permutations a Rubik's Cube can have?

¤ Have you ever argued over who was a better commander of the Enterprise?

¤ Do you own any clothing with scientific knowledge printed on it? (e.g. t-shirts with Maxwell's equations)

¤ Are you planning to double-check your answers to this test?



scoring

0—2 Nerd-wannabe
3—4 Nerd-in-training
5—6 Closet nerd
7—8 You refuse to live anywhere without home pizza delivery
9—10 Your social life needs some serious help
11—13 YOU need some serious help
14—15 You probably own more surge protectors than cooking utensils
16—17 "Revenge of the Nerds" poster-child
18—19 Desperately seeking cybernetic interface implanted in your brain
20 Hail, O Nerd Master, virgin sliderulers I sacrifice unto you.