Saturday, December 30, 2006
The Flatness of the Pancake
Looking over my Kansas pictures I remembered a serious scientific investigation of the question of whether Kansas is flatter than a pancake or not. Turns out my memory was not entirely accurate: published in the Annals of Improbable Research (vol 9:3), the investigation was perhaps semi-serious. There was real science and math in the measurements, and a serious consideration by Fonstad, Pugatch, and Vogt (the authors) of ways to compare the flatness of two disparately sized objects: “Barring the acquisition of either a Kansas-sized pancake or a pancake-sized Kansas, mathematical techniques are needed to do a proper comparison.”
Their conclusion that Kansas is indeed flatter than a pancake, predictably, raised some ire in Kansas. First of all, noted one Kansas geologist, the researchers included the edges of the pancake, which adds to the variation of elevation considerably. Second, there are many other means of measuring flatness, other than the “flattening ratio” employed by Fonstad, Pugatch, and Vogt. For example, if you measure flatness by comparing highest to lowest elevations, Kansas – which goes from about 400 feet above sea level in the east to 4000 in the west – ranks only 23nd among the states, Florida being the flattest.
Before I realized the research was done in pursuit of an Ig Noble Prize, I was prepared to take a lot more umbrage at those who might, in the style of the late Sen. William Proxmire and his Golden Fleece awards, inveigh against this frivolous misuse of research funds. Still, even granting its tongue-in-cheekness, the research highlights some interesting and potentially issues: surely, as fabrication technologies approach atomic scale, it might be useful to think through what we really mean when we say “flat.”
Their conclusion that Kansas is indeed flatter than a pancake, predictably, raised some ire in Kansas. First of all, noted one Kansas geologist, the researchers included the edges of the pancake, which adds to the variation of elevation considerably. Second, there are many other means of measuring flatness, other than the “flattening ratio” employed by Fonstad, Pugatch, and Vogt. For example, if you measure flatness by comparing highest to lowest elevations, Kansas – which goes from about 400 feet above sea level in the east to 4000 in the west – ranks only 23nd among the states, Florida being the flattest.
Before I realized the research was done in pursuit of an Ig Noble Prize, I was prepared to take a lot more umbrage at those who might, in the style of the late Sen. William Proxmire and his Golden Fleece awards, inveigh against this frivolous misuse of research funds. Still, even granting its tongue-in-cheekness, the research highlights some interesting and potentially issues: surely, as fabrication technologies approach atomic scale, it might be useful to think through what we really mean when we say “flat.”
