All the Fancy Measuring Devices Used in Science Rely on Two Stone-Age Techniques
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- MIT undergraduates measured the Charles River bridge in 1958 using Oliver Smoot as a unit, reporting its length as 364.4 smoots.
- Oliver Smoot later served as head of the American National Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization.
- Smoot was revised in 2015 after photographic evidence revealed Oliver Smoot’s stature had decreased by 3 centimeters at age 75.
- Sundial, invented by the ancient Greeks, measures time by the shadow cast by a triangular gnomon moving across a dial.
- Ruler illustrates that measuring length by comparison remains the dominant method in analog devices, a technique unchanged since stone‑age tools.
Why it matters: Scientists and engineers benefit from recognizing that even cutting‑edge instruments hinge on simple comparison and counting, prompting clearer standards and potentially reducing design complexity across industries.
