We're Not in Kansas Any Longer but is...

Kansas Flatter Than a Pancake?

In this report, we apply basic scientific techniques to answer the question "Is Kansas as flat as a pancake?

While driving across the American Midwest, it is common to hear travelers remark, "This state is as flat as a pancake." To the authors, this adage seems to qualitatively capture some characteristic of a topographic geodetic survey

This obvious question "how flat is a pancake" spurned our analytical interest, and we set out to find the "flatness" of both a pancake and one particular state: Kansas.

For the startling answer and the methodology used to arrive at it, please refer to the house scientists at The Annals of Improbable Research.

Figure 1. (a)A well-cooked pancake; and (b)Kansas.

Posted by Van der Leun at August 20, 2003 7:32 AM