# Abbreviations or suffixes for linear measurements **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2024, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053 "2024-02-25T05:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/1 "2024-02-25T05:26:58Z")
For writing or typing distances in metric we use m (meter), or cm, mm, km. For English (I guess) distances we use " for inches and ’ for feet. Is there a symbol or suffix for our friend the Smoot? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/2 "2024-02-25T05:30:25Z")
It’s _in_ and _ft_ too. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/3 "2024-02-25T05:53:32Z")
So, what is it for a Smoot? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/4 "2024-02-25T06:02:20Z")
If you are an old-timey surveyor then you can use abbreviations like “[such-and-such a direction] 297 lks” > [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > So, what is it for a Smoot? About five-seven ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/5 "2024-02-25T06:07:35Z")
Google Earth allows Smoots for the ruler tool. But they spell it out in full. I was hoping they would allow it for general measurements, which would force them to use an abbreviation, but they only allow imperial and metric for that. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/6 "2024-02-25T14:33:10Z")
As far as I can tell, there is no abbreviation or shorthand for Smoot. I used to run across the Harvard Bridge several times a week, every 364.4 smoots ± 1 εar. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/7 "2024-02-25T17:10:50Z")
for those of you who are ignorant, here is the Straightdope’s official list of conversion factors, for various types of measurements: > [@](#): > > Mass: 25.375 smithereens equal 1 flinder > > Volume: One shitload equals 25 bushels, the capacity of the John Deere’s MS 1102G; their smallest ground-driven manure spreader. One Hell of a shitload equals 660 bushels, the capacity of the MS 1260, their largest hydraulic-powered manure spreader > > Area: Seventeen all over Hell’s Half Acres equals 1 way the fuck and beyond. > > Time: 5 million waiting here with my thumb up my ass equals one Jump Jesus. 20 Jump Jesuses equal one Hell freezes over > > Indeterminates: One couldn’t care less equals 1 could care less. 40 milliequvalents of could/couldn’t care lesses equals one better than a sharp stick in the eye. copied from [this wonderful thread, two decades ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-smithereens/278999/36) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/8 "2024-02-26T00:48:15Z")
Since Smoot ended up in the Bureau of Standards, you would think if there was a symbol, he would have created it. Smoot was a 5’7" Harvard student and some fellow students decided to measure the length of the Harvard bridge (between Cambridge and Boston) in Smoots. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/9 "2024-02-26T01:09:24Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > some fellow students decided to measure the length of the Harvard bridge (between Cambridge and Boston) in Smoots Shouldn’t the plural be _smeet_? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/10 "2024-02-26T02:25:24Z")
Smooten. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/11 "2024-02-26T02:59:44Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Smoot was a 5’7" Harvard student and some fellow students decided to measure the length of the Harvard bridge (between Cambridge and Boston) in Smoots. MIT, not Harvard. The bridge across the Charles River in front of MIT is called the Harvard Bridge, named after John Harvard, not the college. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/12 "2024-02-26T04:03:54Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > here is the Straightdope’s official list of conversion factors, for various types of measurements: Wasn’t that list taken from the official rules for [43-man Squamish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Koch#43-Man_Squamish)? ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/13 "2024-02-26T14:18:10Z")
What about the shit-ton and its metric equivalent? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/14 "2024-02-27T07:52:39Z")
How many other Directors or Presidents of the Bureau of Standards have had units of measurement named for them? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/15 "2024-02-27T08:17:02Z")
this guy wasn’t a director of an agency, just an engineer. But he did invent my favorite unit of measurement. His last name was Gilbreth, so he invented the “therblig”, for motion analysis. [Therblig - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therblig#:~:text=Therbligs%20are%2018%20kinds%20of,labour%20by%20eliminating%20unneeded%20movements). > [@](#): > > **Therbligs** are 18 kinds of elemental motions, used in the study of motion economy in the [workplace](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/workplace). A workplace task is analyzed by recording each of the therblig units for a process, with the results used for [optimization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(mathematics)) of manual labour by eliminating unneeded movements. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abbreviations-or-suffixes-for-linear-measurements/998053/16 "2024-02-27T22:29:35Z")
I think that every physics teacher in history has named either the unit of momentum or the unit of electric field after themself. The name doesn’t usually stick.