Remember October 4th, 2008? It marked a significant milestone. This was the 50th anniversary of the creation of the smoot. We are standing before the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of The Smoot Plaque.
The smoot is a nonstandard unit of length. It came about because of an MIT fraternity pledge. Oliver R. Smoot lay down on the Harvard Bridge. This happened in October 1958. His fraternity brothers from Lambda Chi Alpha used his height to measure the bridge.
One smoot equals Oliver Smoot’s height. At that time, he was 5 feet 7 inches tall. The bridge measured 364.4 smoots. That’s 2,035 feet or 620.1 meters give or take an ear. The plus or minus indicates measurement uncertainty. The epsilon spelling further suggests possible error.
Oliver R. Smoot was chosen for a specific reason. His pledgemaster deemed him shortest. Measuring the bridge would be most labor intensive this way. He was also considered the most scientifically named. Smoot lay down repeatedly. His companions marked his position with chalk or paint. He got tired and was carried.
Smoot graduated from MIT in 1962. Later, he became chairman of the American National Standards Institute. He also served as president of the International Organization for Standardization. Neither organization has standardized the smoot.
Holiday magazine investigated the marks on the bridge. They published an interview with Smoot. The prank’s 50th anniversary was a big celebration. It was Smoot Celebration Day at MIT. Smoot himself attended.
The bridge has markings. They show how many smoots from the Boston side of the Charles River. Marks appear every ten smoots. Lambda Chi Alpha members repainted these marks. This was done each semester by the associate member class. Alumni and current students maintain the markings now.
Other marks appear between the tens. The 70-smoot mark has a 69 mark nearby. At 182.2 smoots, you will see Halfway to Hell. An arrow points towards MIT.
During bridge renovations in the 1980s, the police requested the marks be restored. They used them in police reports. The renovators scored the sidewalk at 5-foot-7-inch intervals. This matched the smoot. Lambda Zeta chapter still repaints the markings. They do this once or twice a year.
Google Earth allowed measuring distance in smoots starting in 2011. Google Search also provides values in smoots. Smoot was added to The American Heritage Dictionary. A book on measurement history is titled Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity. MIT’s radio station WMBR uses smoots for its wavelength. It broadcasts at two smoots. That’s 88.1 MHz.
The Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of The Smoot Plaque honors this unique legacy. It reminds us of a lighthearted prank. This prank has become a lasting part of MIT’s culture.