After 50 years, Smoot secures a measure of history
Fifty years ago, Oliver Smoot was the shortest member of his fraternity pledge class at MIT. Despite his diminutive frame, Smoot became a part of Boston history in 1958 when his Lambda Alpha Chi brothers decided to measure the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge in 5′ 7″ increments, a unit they appropriately dubbed the “Smoot”.
To this day, Boston’s pedestrians can still gauge their progress toward Cambridge by Smoot-sized marks that are repainted every year by MIT students. After 50 years, however, MIT has decided that Smoot, who later
became chairman of the American National Standards Institute deserves a more permanent tribute. This year, a plaque will be placed on the bridge to commemorate this most unusual measurement.
To learn more about the Smoot and other unusual measurements, check out Robert Tavernor’s Smoot’s Ear, which was recently released in paperback. Tavernor argues that even common measures are based less on logical foundations than on cultural standards. In that sense, the Smoot is no less odd than the inch, though it’d make a pretty unwieldy ruler!
Hey…
I got the scholarships from MIT…I’m so glad to be the part of this university..
Anyway…Robert Tavernor’s is great persons that should to be consider, i have read his paperback. Nice..