The smoot is a nonstandard,
humorous unit of length created as part of an
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
fraternity prank. It is named after
Oliver R. Smoot, a
fraternity pledge to
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...
, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the
Harvard Bridge
The Harvard Bridge (also known locally as the MIT Bridge, the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, and the "Mass. Ave." Bridge) is a steel haunched girder bridge carrying Massachusetts Avenue ( Route 2A) over the Charles River and connecting Back Bay, ...
(between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts) so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.
Description
One smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot's height at the time of the prank, . The bridge's length was measured to be "+/− 1 εar" with the "+/−" showing
measurement uncertainty and spelled with an
epsilon to further indicate possible error in the measurement.
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.
History
Oliver Smoot was selected by the fraternity pledgemaster because he was the pledge deemed shortest (thereby making measuring the bridge the most labor-intensive), and "most scientifically named."
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.
[MIT Celebrates 50th Smoot-aversary with Party, Volunteerism, & Plaque. Oct. 4, 2008]
/ref>
Oliver Smoot graduated from MIT with the class of 1962, became a lawyer, and later became chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI, 2001–02) and then, president of the International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
(ISO, 2003–04). He is a "distant relative" of Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
winner George Smoot
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the 2nd contestant to win the $1 million prize on '' Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?''. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics i ...
.
Public knowledge and interest in the story began when '' Holiday'' investigated the marks on the bridge years later, and published an interview with Smoot. The prank's fiftieth anniversary was commemorated on October 4, 2008, as Smoot Celebration Day at MIT, which Smoot attended.
In 2011, "smoot" was one of the 10,000 new words added to the fifth edition of the ''American Heritage Dictionary
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
''.
A 2016 April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
article by the MIT Alumni Association announced that MIT would recalibrate the smoot to and the ear to , and the bridge would thus be 372 smoots give or take 11 ears.
On May 7, 2016, Oliver Smoot served as Grand Marshal
Grand marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "marshal" with the first usage of the term "grand marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. The following ...
of the alumni parade across the bridge, celebrating the 100th anniversary of MIT's move from Boston to Cambridge.
Practical use
The bridge is marked with painted markings indicating how many smoots there are from where the sidewalk begins on the Boston river bank, and with a number every ten smoots. The marks are repainted each semester by the incoming associate member class (similar to pledge class) of Lambda Chi Alpha.
Markings typically appear every , but additional marks appear at other numbers in between. For example, the mark is accompanied by a mark for 69. The mark is accompanied by the words "Halfway to Hell" and an arrow pointing towards MIT. In recent years graduating classes have begun to paint a special mark for their graduating year.
The markings are recognized as milestone
A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...
s on the bridge, to the degree that during bridge renovations in the 1980s, the Cambridge police department requested that the markings be restored, as 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 intervals instead of the conventional . The Lambda Zeta (MIT) chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha, which created the smoot markings, continues to repaint the markings once or twice per year.
Starting in 2011, Google Earth enabled the ability to measure distance using smoots, with the standard length of 5 feet 7 inches.
MIT's student-run college radio station, WMBR
WMBR is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's student-run college radio station, licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and broadcasting on 88.1 FM. It is all-volunteer and funded by listener donations and MIT funds. Both students and commun ...
, broadcasts at a wavelength of , ''i.e.'' 88.1 MHz.
See also
* List of humorous units of measurement
Many people have made use of, or invented, units of measurement intended primarily for their humor
Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The ...
* List of unusual units of measurement
An unusual unit of measurement is a unit of measurement that does not form part of a coherent system of measurement, especially because its exact quantity may not be well known or because it may be an inconvenient multiple or fraction of a base ...
References
External links
The smoot as a unit of length
*
The Smoot story, in Oliver Smoot's own words
*
A December, 2005 National Public Radio Interview with Oliver Smoot upon his retirement
What's A Smoot?
NPR.org
{{MIT
Units of length
Human-based units of measurement
Massachusetts culture
Massachusetts Institute of Technology student life
Lambda Chi Alpha
Eponyms
1958 introductions
University folklore