"A few people say the results can't be right because a given state has such-and-such highest point and such-and-such lowest point, but that's relief, that's not flatness," says Dobson. Some people can't handle this fact and challenge the methodology. That is why many people think of Kansas as flat, he thinks, even though the state gradually rises from an elevation of 679 feet (207 meters) in the east to 4,039 feet (1,231 meters) in the west. "A general tilt of the land does not affect human perception that much, but it can skew a mathematical analysis," said Dobson. The first thing the researchers tackled was a basic question: How is flatness measured? The key problem is that there are many ways to measure that concept. If you are convinced you live in a pancake state or a triple-decker burger state, you are possibly mistaken. What the two geographers came up with is enough to make you think up is down. In 2003, a scientific "study" was published in the satirical Annals of Improbable Research that concluded that Kansas was literally flatter than a pancake.Īll the hubbub prompted Dobson to ask his graduate students to investigate precisely why people think Kansas is so flat. It's hard to change the state's topographical reputation. "The first 300 miles is hilly, and the last 150 miles is truly flat," he said, with a caveat: "You are on an interstate and highway planners tend to choose the flattest land." The inspiration for Dobson's research came as he drove across Kansas with a GPS transmitter on his dashboard. The most mountainous state? Well, it isn't Colorado. In it they listed the top five flattest states. States" in Geographical Review, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Geographical Society. candidate who is now a geographer for the State Department in Washington, D.C., published a study called "The Flatness of U.S. This week Dobson and Joshua Campbell, a Ph.D.
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