Measuring Up: How Oliver Smoot Became a Standard Unit of Measurement

Could you be the next smoot? One MIT student’s diminutive height becomes his mathematical superpower—and claim to fame—in a true story that’s entertaining and inspiring in equal measure.

When the five-foot-seven-inch Oliver Smoot and his friends at MIT decided to play a practical joke, he drew the short straw—and was selected to be the measurement device to carry it out. The task? Measuring the length of a bridge, one lying-down Oliver Smoot at a time. Author Jenny Lacika playfully introduc...