Smoots
Posted by Nathaniel.
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Apparently, I don’t know enough MIT lore to know about Smoots, but there was an interesting news story yesterday discussing them.
The basic story is that, as part of a frat hazing ritual, 
measured the length of the Mass Ave bridge using their shortest pledge, Oliver Smoot. It’s 364.4 Smoots long.
The hidden gem in the article comes in the middle, “The original Smoot, who later became chairman of the American National Standards Institute…”
Did he already have an interest in measuring things or did being used for a measurement cause the interest? It’s odd serendipity.