Ross Geller should have been able to read Rachel’s letter.
By: Tue Vu
Tags: Media, Friends, Pop Culture, TV Series, TV Shows

I am not here to debate whether Rachel and Ross were on a break. Nor am I advocating that Rachel was in the right for placing all the blame on Ross for the break up. I am here because Ross disrespected Rachel by falling asleep and not reading her 18-page letter regarding their relationship. In this blog post, I will prove that Ross Geller had the ability to read this letter and just choose not to.

In the Friends episode, The One with the Jellyfish (Season 4, Episode 1), Rachel wrote a letter pouring her heart out regarding how she felt about the relationship that ended between her and Ross. She must have spent hours trying to put her complex feelings for Ross into words. If you rewatch the episode, you can tell that Rachel took time and thought into writing this letter. How does Ross respond to this effort to repair their fractured relationship? Well, he falls asleep about 10 minutes into reading it.

The two excuses Ross uses are that

It was 5:30AM and he was tired. The letter was 18 pages long (front AND back)

I think these two excuses are bad given the established character of DOCTOR Ross Geller.

Ross Geller received his Ph.D in paleontology from Colombia. This is established in Season 1 and it was also established that he is 26 years old. The first season of Friends was in 1994. According to the NSF, the average of age of a physical science PhD candidate in 1994 was 31.

So, not only does he have a Ph.D from a reputable university, but he got it at a relatively young age. But that’s not the full story.

In one episode, The One in Barbados (Season 9, Episode 2), he talked about the importance of CAT scans in paleontology.

Here’s what Yale paleontologist Adam Pritchard Ph.D had to say regarding this.

“I distinctly remember an episode where he actually gave a seminar about the importance of CAT scanning to paleontology. This was in the mid-1990s, looong before CT scanning become a standard paleo-tool. So THAT ONE SCENE suggests that Ross was actually ahead of the curve on science!”

So not only did Ross get his Ph.D at a young age, he also help establish the use of new techniques and technology in his field. Maybe that was just a fluke. But wait, there’s more.

In The One with Princess Consuela, Ross is granted tenure with NYU at the age of 30.

Let’s hear from Dr. Adam Pritchard again.

“He must be writing grants constantly offscreen. He probably doesn’t sleep.”

This establishes that Ross could have powered thru and read Rachel’s letter if he really wanted to. This makes the first excuse invalid.

To prove that Ross’ second excuse was invalid we need to establish two things things.

Ross’ reading speed How many words was in Rachel’s 18 page letter?

The average adult reads at 300 wpm (words per minute). Given Ross’ academic pedigree, he should at the very least be reading at 675 wpm.

But we established that Ross is an above average professor. I would place his reading speed closer to 1000 wpm. This is the half way point between average professor speed (675 wpm) and certified speed reader (1500 wpm).

So what? Ross reads fast, it’s still a 18 page letter. And the pages were written on the front AND back. That makes the letter 36 pages! That’s an entire chapter or two in a college textbook.

Well, I don’t know about you but Rachel doesn’t seem like the person to follow APA format and probably writes larger than 12pt font. So how can we estimate how many words was in Rachel’s letter?

vLetter Inc has been doing handwritten fonts since 1988. On their site they say handwritten fonts range from 18–36pt. Let’s say Rachel has neat handwriting and writes with single spacing. On Google Docs, 18pt Arial font with single spacing, you can fit about 300 words on one page.

36 pages x 300 words = 10,800 words

Let’s round up to 11,000 words. How long should it taken Ross to read that letter?

My estimated reading speed for Ross (1000 wpm): 11 minutes

If Ross reads at the same level as an average college professor (675 wpm): 16 minutes, 17 seconds

Well, maybe Ross reads at an average pace (300 wpm): 36 minutes, 40 seconds

Ross was sleep deprived maybe he was reading the letter REALLY slow (150 wpm): 1 hour, 13 minutes, 20 seconds

Ross had the ability and time to read that letter despite it being 18 pages long. He just choose not to.