To honor National Pancake Day, a February 22, 2006 Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World report remindingly raises and answers the baseline question:
How flat?: Research completed in 2003 proved what U.S. Interstate 70 drivers have suspected all along ? that Kansas is flatter than a pancake.
Researchers from Southwest Texas State and Arizona State universities analyzed the ups and downs of a flapjack and compared them with those of the state. The results were published in the Annals of Improbable Research.