REALLY OT Physics formula needed

[The CDR-Ret]

Any discussion of Hartley Units makes me think of smoots - as in Olivor Smoots, a member of a MIT fraternity many years ago. After an evening of much liquid refreshment his brothers laid him end to end across the Harvard Bridge. Smoot was 5' 7", so that length is the official smoot. The fraternity brothers submitted a report to the Boston Police saying that the bridge is 364.4 smoots long. To this day the bridge is marked off in smoots, and if you get in an accident on the bridge the accident report states the location in smoots. Refer to the Wikipedia article for details and photos.

It is a Paul Harvey moment for me, as the College Board and Halliday & Resnick have a few problems using "smoots" in unit conversions and kinematic analysis. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bama fan]

Any discussion of Hartley Units makes me think of smoots - as in Olivor Smoots, a member of a MIT fraternity many years ago. After an evening of much liquid refreshment his brothers laid him end to end across the Harvard Bridge. Smoot was 5' 7", so that length is the official smoot. The fraternity brothers submitted a report to the Boston Police saying that the bridge is 364.4 smoots long. To this day the bridge is marked off in smoots, and if you get in an accident on the bridge the accident report states the location in smoots. Refer to the Wikipedia article for details and photos.

@fang, this is a perfect vignette to aid in the furtherance of an official Hartley Unit standard. If the drunken young "Chops" at MIT can force the adoption of a new standard, surely the older, perhaps less drunken Boneyarders can carry off a similar coup. Upon researching your post, I learned that the aforementioned Oliver R, Smoot was so devoted to the science of mensuration that he went on to become both the Chairman of ANSI and the president of the ISO. A lifelong fascination with quantification that all started serendipitously with a prank perpetuated by the brothers of Zeta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha. Unfortunately, and as an aside into "Smoot" research, I discovered that the famous Zeta chapter had descended into disrepute and was "decolonized" by the MIT administration in 2014. Thank you for allowing me to spend time advancing my general knowledge and passing part of another interminable day.

 

[Ozimoto]

I wouldn't assume the denizens of the Boneyard are less drunken...

 

[Bama fan]

I wouldn't assume the denizens of the Boneyard are less drunken...

More a hope than an assumption. I did use the qualifier "perhaps".

 

[The CDR-Ret]

More a hope than an assumption. I did use the qualifier "perhaps".

Roll Tide!!!