Go to Boston, and you will near the story about how an engineering class from MIT was asked to measure the distance across a bridge without using any established unit of measure. So this picked this guy named Smoot and counted off how many Smoots the bridge were.
For some reason, they tell this story to tourists as proof of ingenuity but it was the most pointless exercise I could imagine in engineering.
The point of the lesson was to teach creative problem-solving. And a by-product of that, all measuring systems are simply arbitrary units made up by some random dude. And that in the end, no one standard is better than another. All that matters is that enough people agree upon a standard that is reproducible to a level of accuracy that is Good Enoughtm and fit for purpose.
Americans will use literally anything except the metric system 😔
Go to Boston, and you will near the story about how an engineering class from MIT was asked to measure the distance across a bridge without using any established unit of measure. So this picked this guy named Smoot and counted off how many Smoots the bridge were.
For some reason, they tell this story to tourists as proof of ingenuity but it was the most pointless exercise I could imagine in engineering.
So, how would you make that measurement?
The point of the lesson was to teach creative problem-solving. And a by-product of that, all measuring systems are simply arbitrary units made up by some random dude. And that in the end, no one standard is better than another. All that matters is that enough people agree upon a standard that is reproducible to a level of accuracy that is Good Enoughtm and fit for purpose.
I live in Boston; I am familiar with the Smoot unit lol
It’s a Canadian website.
Seems like they’re ‘Murican enough based on this article.
There is a metric. The metric is one truck!
Must’ve been writing at the same time - I checked to see if anyone had said the same thing first too.
You posted a minute earlier, but the other guy got the upvotes. Or maybe the timing is based on instance?
I’m unbothered by that - It’s lemmy, them’s the breaks sometimes 🤷♂️