Talk:Harvard Bridge

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[edit] Smoots

smoots are not appropriate on wikipedia. this encyclopedia is written for a general audience. please convert the units to SI. thanks. —ptk✰fgs 17:24, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

The smoots have been a celebrated part of the history of Boston for half a century and are the only notable thing about this bridge. SI units are given as well in the article.--agr 02:26, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

The Smoots article is absolutely necessary on Wikipedia. It [Wikipedia] is here to have definitions and explanations of all sorts of things. Especially the random, weird, different ones. HobbesPDX 22:22, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Looks like someone has a problem with the Smoots again. How can we clarify this situation such that people will understand that there are exceptions to rules? The "tone" of the article is fine, so that banner should be removed as well. - Denimadept 18:25, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fire

On the pamorama one of the Cambridge building looks like it on fire. This winter the building in back of that building had a fire. both buildings are residential and office space buildings.

If I remember correctly, that's normal for that building. It's the heating/AC system. It gives off mist in the winter. Denimadept 03:12, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Accuracy

There are four digits of smoot precision! Depending on the length of "and one ear", I'm not sure how you can round up a whole 5 decimeters, and call it only 3 digits of precision for that matter. Are you saying Mr. Smoot has big ears? Or are you saying that MIT students don't know how to measure precisely? Does anyone know how big Mr. Smoot's ears are? Or how drunk frat boys at MIT could get in 1958? Denimadept 14:37, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Greetings, Denimadept. As your comments appear to be directed at me, I hasten to be the first to respond. I'm not saying any of the things you question, nor rounding up 0.5 m. As a defender of the smoot, you will know that 5' 7" is the primary figure, as the Smoot page makes clear. Multiplying 67 inches (only two significant figures there) by 364.4, and converting, gives us 620.14 m. Regardless of ear size, it does not seem a stretch to express this as "about 620" - in fact rounding down a bit. Further decimals might not be justified. Cheers, Hertz1888 15:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

It seems that my math was off. Now I'm trying to figure out how 619.5 got there. If I use the figure in the smoot article of 1.702 m, I get 620.21 m. If I use 67in × 2.54 cm/inch then multiply by 364.4 smoots, I get your figure. I humbly beg pardon! But then I'm not an MIT grad. :-D Denimadept 15:35, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Neither am I, and no apologies needed. It's kind of refreshing (as a respite from more serious pursuits) to be "worrying" about differences of less than one walking pace in the length of a sidewalk spanning the Charles. Thanks for your many contributions to the development of the page. Hertz1888 16:20, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Before I got a GPS a few weeks ago, I used to laugh at 8 digits of precision. I didn't have a good grasp on how inaccurate that was. I thought it was more. Now that I see how useful those 8 digits can be, I've stopped laughing and gotten appreciative. Less than one walking pace is nicely precise. When I make my trip to the Charles River (Real Soon Now) to take pictures of this and other crossings in the Basin, I'll be sure to cover this bridge really well. And the GPS has been very useful for finding bridges so I can take pictures. That's mostly what I bought it for. But Connecticut River first! The Charles and the Taunton can wait. Denimadept 19:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)