The Researcher

A researcher was conducting an experiment with a frog for his doctorate degree.

He placed a frog on a table and said, "Jump". It jumped four feet. Then he cut off one leg of the frog and said "Jump," and the frog jumped three feet.
Then he cut off the second feet and commanded it to "Jump". The frog could jump only two feet. Then he had cut the third leg and when he said "jump", the frog could jump only one foot.

Then he cut off the fourth and the last leg and commanded it to "Jump". Now, the frog could not jump.

The researcher wrote and submitted his thesis with the conclusion:

"When a frog loses all four legs it becomes deaf".

The thesis was rejected.

The reason cited for rejection of the thesis was:

The sample size was too..o small to arrive at the conclusion!!!

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Reactions to the story has been varied ranging from "That is how research is done, Numbers are important to something more is important than logic". The best ones are:

- Men always conclude with insufficient evidence; and - Do frogs have four legs? I thought that they had only TWO!!

Published in Power Lines Volume 5 Number 55 :: 11 April 2005 :: A Bulletin of Strategic Reputation & Crisis Management Insights