A three-year study by the Mathematics Department has just been completed.  The study has yielded this graph, which once and for all proves that math is really boring.  “Heading in, we weren’t quite sure what we would discover.  We obviously aren’t happy with the results, but the data do not lie”, commented a senior member of the committee who conducted the experiment.  “At first we thought, ‘this can’t be.’  But we re-checked the numbers several times to be certain.”  And it turns out that math is really boring.

Stacey Gilbertson, a junior mathematics major, was particularly intrigued by the results of the study.  “We discovered a direct relationship between interest in math, and classroom attendance.  However, we discovered an indirect relationship between those two variables and our third variable “In-Class Sleeping”.  We’re not exactly sure what that means yet, but we’re doing more Chi-Square tests to try and figure it out.”  The report published by the Mathematics Department states “…with a margin of error of only 3 percent, we can be certain that this study proves that mathematics is soul-crushing and dull….”

“The sudden rise in classroom attendance was due to an exam being held on that day”, alleged Gilbertson.  “This may have skewed the data slightly in our favor, but this will not affect the integrity of the study.”