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Smoot

January 01, 1970

This article is about the non-standard unit of measure. For other uses, see Smoot (disambiguation).

The smoot /ˈsmuːt/ is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha by Oliver R. Smoot, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.[1]

Smoot
"364.4 smoots ± 1 ear" painted on the Harvard Bridge sidewalk in Cambridge, Massachusetts
General information
Named afterOliver R. Smoot
Conversions
1 smoot in ...... is equal to ...
   imperial/US units   5 ft 7 in
   SI units   1.702 m

Description edit

One smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot's height at the time of the prank, 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m). The bridge's length was measured to be 364.4 smoots (2,035 ft; 620.1 m) "± 1 εar" with the "±" showing measurement uncertainty and spelled with an epsilon to further indicate possible error in the measurement.[2][3] Over the years the "±" portion and "ε" spelling have gone astray in many citations, including some markings at the site itself, but the "±" is recorded on a 50th-anniversary plaque at the bridge's end.[4]

History edit

Measuring distances by the repeated prostration of one's body, moving forward each time only to the length marked by one's outstretched fingers, is an ancient religious practice in Tibet.[5] In My Life As an Explorer Sven Hedin mentioned that it also could be a form of punishment in this region, with criminals forced to traverse very significant areas in this fashion.

Further information: Oliver R. Smoot
 
A plaque on Harvard Bridge on the history of the smoot

Oliver R. Smoot was selected by his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity pledgemaster because he was deemed shortest—which made measuring the bridge the most labor-intensive—and he was the "most scientifically named".[2][6] To implement his use as a unit of measure, Smoot repeatedly lay down on the bridge, let his companions mark his new position in chalk or paint, and then got up again. Eventually, he got tired from so much exercise and was carried thereafter by the fraternity brothers to each new position.[7][8]

Smoot graduated from MIT in 1962, and then attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he obtained his Juris Doctor. He served as chairman of the American National Standards Institute from 2001 to 2002,[9] and then as president of the International Organization for Standardization from 2003 to 2004.[1][10] He is a distant relative of Nobel Prize in Physics winner George Smoot.[11][12]

Public knowledge and interest in the story began when Holiday investigated the marks on the bridge years later, and published an interview with Smoot.[6] The prank's fiftieth anniversary was commemorated on October 4, 2008, as Smoot Celebration Day at MIT, which Smoot attended.[8]

In 2011, smoot was one of the 10,000 new words added to the fifth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary.[13][14]

A 2016 April Fools' Day article by the MIT Alumni Association announced that MIT would recalibrate the smoot to 65.7500 inches (1.67005 m) and the ear to 2.48031 inches (62.999874 mm), and the bridge would thus be 372 smoots give or take 11 ears.[15]

 
100-smoot mark with the Charles River and Cambridge, Massachusetts in the background

On May 7, 2016, Smoot served as Grand Marshal of the alumni parade across the bridge, celebrating the 100th anniversary of MIT's move from Boston to Cambridge.[16]

Practical use edit

The bridge is marked with painted markings indicating how many smoots there are from where the sidewalk begins on the Charles River bank in Boston, with a number every ten smoots.[17] The marks were repainted each semester by the incoming associate member class (similar to pledge class) of Lambda Chi Alpha before they were suspended due to repeated infractions of MIT's alcohol rules.[18][19][20] Lambda Chi Alpha alumni, along with current students of MIT, have maintained the markings.[21][22]

Markings typically appear every 10 smoots (56 ft; 17 m), but additional marks appear at other numbers in between. For example, the 70-smoot (390 ft; 120 m) mark is accompanied by a mark for 69. The 182.2-smoot (1,017 ft 3 in; 310.1 m) mark is accompanied by the words "Halfway to Hell" and an arrow pointing towards MIT.

The markings are recognized as milestones on the bridge, to the degree that during bridge renovations in the 1980s, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police department requested that the markings be restored, since they were routinely used in police reports to identify locations on the bridge. The renovators at the Massachusetts Highway Department also scored the concrete surface of the sidewalk on the bridge at 5-foot-7-inch (1.70 m) intervals instead of the conventional 6 feet (1.83 m).[23] The Lambda Zeta (MIT) chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha, which created the smoot markings, continues to repaint the markings once or twice per year.[24]

Starting in 2011, Google Earth enabled the ability to measure distance using smoots, with the standard length of 5 feet 7 inches.[25]

MIT's student-run college radio station WMBR broadcasts at a wavelength of two smoots (3.40 m), i.e. 88.1 MHz.[26]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Curran, Susan. . Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on June 20, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Durant, Elizabeth (June 23, 2008). "Smoot's Legacy". MIT Technology Review. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... so they added the plus or minus, and wrote the e in ear as an epsilon. 'The epsilon referred in a cutesy way to this error measurement,' [Smoot] says. And therein lies another detail that has evolved over time: the epsilon has been lost from written accounts of the story, Smoot says, and the minus sign is often omitted as well.
  3. ^ Tavernor, Robert (2007). "Preface". Smoot's Ear: The Measure of Humanity. Yale University Press. pp. xi–xvi. ISBN 978-0-300-12492-7.
  4. ^ "Smoot in Stone". MIT News. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. June 4, 2009. Retrieved July 20, 2010. Specifically noting the bridge's length of 364.4 Smoots (+/− 1 ear), the plaque, a gift of the MIT Class of 1962, honors the prank's 50th anniversary.
  5. ^ Distance & Destiny
  6. ^ a b Gillooly, Patrick (September 24, 2008), Smoot reflects on his measurement feat as 50th anniversary nears, Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office, retrieved July 10, 2020
  7. ^ Kostoulas, Andy (October 12, 1999). . The Tech. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
  8. ^ a b MIT Celebrates 50th Smoot-aversary with Party, Volunteerism, & Plaque. Oct. 4, 2008
  9. ^ Speakers Bureau: Oliver R. Smoot, American National Standards Institute, retrieved July 10, 2020
  10. ^ ANSI Reception Honoring Oliver R. Smoot as ISO President (PDF), February 26, 2003
  11. ^ "At MIT, future Nobelist not above a prank or two - the Boston Globe".
  12. ^ Smoot, Oliver. "The SMOOT as unit of Length". Smoot Group Astrophysics and Cosmology. Laurence Berkeley Labs. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  13. ^ Cornish, Audie (November 13, 2011). "Looking Up Words In A Book Not So Strange Yet". National Public Radio. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  14. ^ "American Heritage Dictionary entry". American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  15. ^ London, Jay (April 1, 2016), "MIT to Recalibrate the Smoot", Slice of MIT, MIT Alumni Association, retrieved July 10, 2020
  16. ^ Fleming, Nicole (May 7, 2016). "By land and by water, MIT celebrates 100 years in Cambridge". Boston Globe. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  17. ^ , MIT Museum, archived from the original on August 6, 1997, retrieved July 10, 2020
  18. ^ "Lambda Chi Alpha national suspends MIT chapter for at least five years". MIT News. October 30, 2014.
  19. ^ "LCA banned five years, brothers move out Sunday".
  20. ^ Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) (1987). Harvard Bridge, Spanning Charles River at Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Suffolk County, MA. Philadelphia: Department of the Interior. p. 5. Retrieved May 12, 2009.
  21. ^ "Repainting the Smoots". MIT Admissions. October 27, 2023. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  22. ^ "Uncovering The 'Smoots' on Harvard Bridge". NBC Boston. September 20, 2021. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  23. ^ Fahrenthold, David A. "The Measure of This Man Is in the Smoot". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  24. ^ Keyser describes his top five hacks - MIT News Office
  25. ^ "Google Earth backs Smoots as measurement standard | Blue Mass Group". bluemassgroup.com. October 10, 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
  26. ^ Wolfram|Alpha Can't [@wacnt] (June 14, 2017). "W|A can: WMBR frequency * smoot / speed of light" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harvard Bridge Smoot measurements.
  • The smoot as a unit of length
  • "smoot". Sizes.com. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
  • at the Wayback Machine (archived August 6, 1997)
  • A December, 2005 National Public Radio Interview with Oliver Smoot upon his retirement
  • What's A Smoot? NPR.org

January 01, 1970
smoot, this, article, about, standard, unit, measure, other, uses, disambiguation, smoot, nonstandard, humorous, unit, length, created, part, fraternity, pledge, lambda, alpha, oliver, october, 1958, down, repeatedly, harvard, bridge, between, boston, cambridg. This article is about the non standard unit of measure For other uses see Smoot disambiguation The smoot ˈ s m uː t is a nonstandard humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha by Oliver R Smoot who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge Massachusetts so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge 1 Smoot 364 4 smoots 1 ear painted on the Harvard Bridge sidewalk in Cambridge MassachusettsGeneral informationNamed afterOliver R SmootConversions1 smoot in is equal to imperial US units 5 ft 7 in SI units 1 702 m Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 Practical use 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksDescription editOne smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot s height at the time of the prank 5 feet 7 inches 1 70 m The bridge s length was measured to be 364 4 smoots 2 035 ft 620 1 m 1 ear with the showing measurement uncertainty and spelled with an epsilon to further indicate possible error in the measurement 2 3 Over the years the portion and e spelling have gone astray in many citations including some markings at the site itself but the is recorded on a 50th anniversary plaque at the bridge s end 4 History editMeasuring distances by the repeated prostration of one s body moving forward each time only to the length marked by one s outstretched fingers is an ancient religious practice in Tibet 5 In My Life As an Explorer Sven Hedin mentioned that it also could be a form of punishment in this region with criminals forced to traverse very significant areas in this fashion Further information Oliver R Smoot nbsp A plaque on Harvard Bridge on the history of the smoot Oliver R Smoot was selected by his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity pledgemaster because he was deemed shortest which made measuring the bridge the most labor intensive and he was the most scientifically named 2 6 To implement his use as a unit of measure Smoot repeatedly lay down on the bridge let his companions mark his new position in chalk or paint and then got up again Eventually he got tired from so much exercise and was carried thereafter by the fraternity brothers to each new position 7 8 Smoot graduated from MIT in 1962 and then attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D C where he obtained his Juris Doctor He served as chairman of the American National Standards Institute from 2001 to 2002 9 and then as president of the International Organization for Standardization from 2003 to 2004 1 10 He is a distant relative of Nobel Prize in Physics winner George Smoot 11 12 Public knowledge and interest in the story began when Holiday investigated the marks on the bridge years later and published an interview with Smoot 6 The prank s fiftieth anniversary was commemorated on October 4 2008 as Smoot Celebration Day at MIT which Smoot attended 8 In 2011 smoot was one of the 10 000 new words added to the fifth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary 13 14 A 2016 April Fools Day article by the MIT Alumni Association announced that MIT would recalibrate the smoot to 65 7500 inches 1 67005 m and the ear to 2 48031 inches 62 999874 mm and the bridge would thus be 372 smoots give or take 11 ears 15 nbsp 100 smoot mark with the Charles River and Cambridge Massachusetts in the background On May 7 2016 Smoot served as Grand Marshal of the alumni parade across the bridge celebrating the 100th anniversary of MIT s move from Boston to Cambridge 16 Practical use editThe bridge is marked with painted markings indicating how many smoots there are from where the sidewalk begins on the Charles River bank in Boston with a number every ten smoots 17 The marks were repainted each semester by the incoming associate member class similar to pledge class of Lambda Chi Alpha before they were suspended due to repeated infractions of MIT s alcohol rules 18 19 20 Lambda Chi Alpha alumni along with current students of MIT have maintained the markings 21 22 Markings typically appear every 10 smoots 56 ft 17 m but additional marks appear at other numbers in between For example the 70 smoot 390 ft 120 m mark is accompanied by a mark for 69 The 182 2 smoot 1 017 ft 3 in 310 1 m mark is accompanied by the words Halfway to Hell and an arrow pointing towards MIT The markings are recognized as milestones on the bridge to the degree that during bridge renovations in the 1980s the Cambridge Massachusetts police department requested that the markings be restored since they were routinely used in police reports to identify locations on the bridge The renovators at the Massachusetts Highway Department also scored the concrete surface of the sidewalk on the bridge at 5 foot 7 inch 1 70 m intervals instead of the conventional 6 feet 1 83 m 23 The Lambda Zeta MIT chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha which created the smoot markings continues to repaint the markings once or twice per year 24 Starting in 2011 Google Earth enabled the ability to measure distance using smoots with the standard length of 5 feet 7 inches 25 MIT s student run college radio station WMBR broadcasts at a wavelength of two smoots 3 40 m i e 88 1 MHz 26 See also edit nbsp Massachusetts portal nbsp United States portal List of unusual units of measurementReferences edit a b Curran Susan Spotlight A salute to Smoot Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archived from the original on June 20 2015 Retrieved August 13 2015 a b Durant Elizabeth June 23 2008 Smoot s Legacy MIT Technology Review Massachusetts Institute of Technology so they added the plus or minus and wrote the e in ear as an epsilon The epsilon referred in a cutesy way to this error measurement Smoot says And therein lies another detail that has evolved over time the epsilon has been lost from written accounts of the story Smoot says and the minus sign is often omitted as well Tavernor Robert 2007 Preface Smoot s Ear The Measure of Humanity Yale University Press pp xi xvi ISBN 978 0 300 12492 7 Smoot in Stone MIT News Cambridge Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 4 2009 Retrieved July 20 2010 Specifically noting the bridge s length of 364 4 Smoots 1 ear the plaque a gift of the MIT Class of 1962 honors the prank s 50th anniversary Distance amp Destiny a b Gillooly Patrick September 24 2008 Smoot reflects on his measurement feat as 50th anniversary nears Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office retrieved July 10 2020 Kostoulas Andy October 12 1999 This Month In MIT History The Tech Archived from the original on May 4 2009 Retrieved April 18 2009 a b MIT Celebrates 50th Smoot aversary with Party Volunteerism amp Plaque Oct 4 2008 Speakers Bureau Oliver R Smoot American National Standards Institute retrieved July 10 2020 ANSI Reception Honoring Oliver R Smoot as ISO President PDF February 26 2003 At MIT future Nobelist not above a prank or two the Boston Globe Smoot Oliver The SMOOT as unit of Length Smoot Group Astrophysics and Cosmology Laurence Berkeley Labs Retrieved September 27 2022 Cornish Audie November 13 2011 Looking Up Words In A Book Not So Strange Yet National Public Radio Retrieved December 10 2012 American Heritage Dictionary entry American Heritage Dictionary Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Retrieved December 10 2012 London Jay April 1 2016 MIT to Recalibrate the Smoot Slice of MIT MIT Alumni Association retrieved July 10 2020 Fleming Nicole May 7 2016 By land and by water MIT celebrates 100 years in Cambridge Boston Globe Retrieved May 9 2016 MIT Trivia Harvard Bridge MIT Museum archived from the original on August 6 1997 retrieved July 10 2020 Lambda Chi Alpha national suspends MIT chapter for at least five years MIT News October 30 2014 LCA banned five years brothers move out Sunday Historic American Engineering Record HAER 1987 Harvard Bridge Spanning Charles River at Massachusetts Avenue Boston Suffolk County MA Philadelphia Department of the Interior p 5 Retrieved May 12 2009 Repainting the Smoots MIT Admissions October 27 2023 Retrieved February 29 2024 Uncovering The Smoots on Harvard Bridge NBC Boston September 20 2021 Retrieved February 29 2024 Fahrenthold David A The Measure of This Man Is in the Smoot The Washington Post Retrieved May 23 2010 Keyser describes his top five hacks MIT News Office Google Earth backs Smoots as measurement standard Blue Mass Group bluemassgroup com October 10 2011 Retrieved April 16 2022 Wolfram Alpha Can t wacnt June 14 2017 W A can WMBR frequency smoot speed of light Tweet via Twitter External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harvard Bridge Smoot measurements The smoot as a unit of length smoot Sizes com Retrieved July 8 2010 The Smoot story in Oliver Smoot s own words MIT Museum article with photos at the Wayback Machine archived August 6 1997 A December 2005 National Public Radio Interview with Oliver Smoot upon his retirement What s A Smoot NPR org Portals nbsp Science nbsp Engineering nbsp Technology nbsp Massachusetts nbsp United States Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Smoot amp oldid 1217442408, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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