Editing Infinite Corridor

{{short description|Hallway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = February 2025}}
[[File:Infinitecorridor.jpg|thumb|The Infinite Corridor is the main pedestrian thoroughfare at MIT (February 2006)]]
[[File:MIT infinite corridor 01.jpg|thumb|Empty Infinite Corridor during [[COVID-19]] lockdown (March 2021)]]
The '''Infinite Corridor'''<ref name="Hapgood">{{cite book|last=Hapgood|first=Fred|title=Up the infinite corridor: MIT and the technological imagination|year=1993|publisher=Addison-Wesley|location=Reading, Mass.|isbn=0-201-08293-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/upinfinitecorrid00hapg}} 203 pp.</ref> is a {{convert|251|meter|adj=on}} hallway<ref>[http://web.mit.edu/planning/www/mithenge.html ''MIT Infinite Corridor Astronomy - MIThenge''], Northeastern University Press, 2004.</ref> that runs through the [[Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology|main buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], specifically parts of the buildings numbered 7, 3, 10, 4, and 8 (from west to east).<ref name=JoyceGehry2004>{{cite book|pages=11–12|title=Building Stata: the design and construction of Frank O. Gehry's Stata Center at MIT|author1=Nancy Eleanor Joyce  |author2=Frank O. Gehry |name-list-style=amp |publisher=MIT Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-262-60061-3}}</ref> 

Twice a year, in mid-November and in late January, the corridor lines up lengthwise with the position of the Sun, causing sunlight to fill the entire corridor.  Named [[#MIThenge|MIThenge]], the event  is celebrated by students, faculty, and staff.<ref name=Coyle1998>{{cite encyclopaedia|article=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|author=Bill Coyle|pages=262|encyclopedia=International dictionary of university histories|editor1=Carol J. Summerfield |editor2=Mary Elizabeth Devine |editor3=Anthony Levi |publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=1998|isbn=978-1-884964-23-7}}</ref>

==Significance==
[[File:MIT infinite corridor 02.jpg|thumb|upright|Glass-enclosed historic displays]]
The corridor is important not only because it links major MIT buildings, but also because it serves as the most direct indoor route between the east and west ends of the campus.  The corridor was designed as the central spine of the original set of MIT buildings designed by [[William W. Bosworth]] in 1913.<ref>[[Mark Jarzombek]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=QiwRGc3E7Z8C ''Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech''], Northeastern University Press, 2004.</ref> 

The Infinite Corridor is slightly longer than that of the University Hall building at the [[University of Lethbridge]], [[Alberta, Canada]], which measures {{convert|800|ft|m}} long.<ref>[http://www.uleth.ca/campus-map/#40 ''University of Lethbridge campus map''], Retrieved 2013-12-08</ref> It is, however, significantly shorter than the so called "K-Straße" (K-street) in the Rost-/Silberlaube building of the [[Free University of Berlin]], which measures about {{convert|320|m|ft}}.<ref>[https://www.google.de/maps/@52.451925,13.2894801,18.7z ''Google maps distance measurement''], Retrieved 2016-06-10</ref>{{Citation needed|date=October 2020|reason=the existing citation may prove the length of that corridor, but not that it’s notable or known under this name}}

==Etiquette==
[[File:Infinite-corridor-bboard.jpeg|thumb|Unenclosed bulletin boards rapidly accumulate many posters]]
On occasion, students in the Transport Lab of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) have studied foot traffic in the Infinite Corridor, as a safer, more accessible model of [[traffic|highway traffic]].  In 1997, one student report made the following observations about the informal rules that seem to apply to Infinite Corridor traffic:<ref name=CentralArtery>{{cite news|last=Wright|first=Sarah H.|title=Students study MIT's central artery|url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1997/artery-0827.html|access-date=2011-06-01|newspaper=MIT Tech Talk|date=August 27, 1997|agency=MIT News Office}}</ref>

<blockquote>The rules of the road for the Infinite Corridor include: stay to the right, limit group size, pass on the left, form a line at bottlenecks, don't stop/slow down, no tailgating, traffic within corridor has right of way, no physical contact and no eye contact.
</blockquote>

==Hacks==
Because the heavy pedestrian traffic in the Infinite Corridor guarantees a large audience, it is a setting for some "[[Hacks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology|hacks]]" ([[practical joke]]s),<ref name="HackLobby7" /> especially those of a serial nature such as a series of "[[Burma Shave]]" style signs. The "Mass Toolpike" hack  in 1985 involved placing traffic signals, lane markings, and highway-like signs along the length of the Infinite Corridor.<ref name=Toolpike>{{cite book|last=Peterson|first=Institute Historian T. F.|title=Nightwork: a history of hacks and pranks at MIT|year=2011|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=978-0-262-51584-9|pages=47–49|edition=updated }}</ref> An [[April Fools' Day]] post from the Alumni Association blog ''Slice of MIT'' suggested that the corridor floor would be replaced with a self-powering [[moving walkway]] made of [[piezoelectric]] tiles.<ref name=ZeroFootprints>{{cite web |title=Leaving 'Zero Footprints' in the Infinite Corridor|url=https://alum.mit.edu/pages/sliceofmit/2014/04/01/leaving-zero-footprints-in-the-infinite-corridor/ |access-date=2014-05-15|work=Slice of MIT|date=April 1, 2014}}</ref>

==Geography==
===Entrance===
An outside grand stairway leads up from [[Massachusetts Avenue (Cambridge)|Massachusetts Avenue]]  to Lobby 7, the main entrance to the Infinite Corridor.  This location is often called "77 MassAve", an abbreviation of its official street address; the street itself forms the western boundary of the main or central campus.   The MIT Student Center (Building W20) is located directly across the street, at 84 Massachusetts Avenue.

Nearby bus stops serve [[MBTA]] buses from [[Harvard Square]], and from [[Back Bay]] across the [[Charles River]] via the [[Harvard Bridge]], as well as various [[shuttle bus]]es.  [[Food truck|Food vendor trucks]] often park in designated spaces near the entrance.

===Lobby 7===
[[File:MIT Lobby 7.jpg|thumb|upright|MIT Lobby 7, viewed looking up at the interior of the Little Dome]]
Lobby 7, so named because of its location in Building 7 (formally named the '''Rogers Building'''), is a large {{convert|100|ft|m|sp=us|adj=on}} vertical space open all the way up to the interior of the '''Little Dome'''.  A carved inscription<ref>ESTABLISHED FOR ADVANCEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE ITS APPLICATION TO INDVSTRY THE ARTS AGRICVLTURE AND COMMERCE CHARTER MDCCCLXI [carved in [[Roman square capitals]] without punctuation]</ref> circles the space just below the base of the Little Dome. Four empty pedestals occupy the corners of the square lobby; they were originally intended for large [[Sculpture#North America|Neoclassical figural sculptures]], but are instead often occupied by students studying, or occasionally playing live music. The Infinite Corridor begins straight ahead through the lobby, on the opposite side from the street.

During the 1970s, two large pillars flanking the entrance to the Infinite Corridor were partially wrapped in paper and used by the liberal "Alternative Advertising" and somewhat less liberal "Pillar Productions" where students would scrawl responses to issues of the day such as nuclear power or whether [[Disco Sucks|disco sucked]]. A display of [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] art was once withdrawn after vandalism in the lobby.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

Lobby 7 is frequently used for formally scheduled or impromptu concerts, as well as dance performances. Occasionally, "[[performance art]]" hacks or [[installation art]] hacks are sited in Lobby 7. Banners advertising campus events are often hung from the upper levels of Lobby 7, including the occasional hack banner such as "Don't let the Grinch steal your Christmas" (in reference to complaints about the campus [[Christmas tree]]).  The cavernous interior space of Lobby 7 is frequently the site of hacks that require a large volume of unobstructed indoor space.<ref name=HackLobby7>{{cite web|title=Hacks In Lobby 7 and the Infinite Corridor|url=http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_location/inf_corridor.html|work=MIT IHTFP Hack Gallery|access-date=2011-05-02}}</ref>

===Memorial Lobby (Lobby 10)===
A two-story atrium space at the half-way point of the corridor, informally known as '''Lobby 10''', is part of the '''MacLaurin Buildings''' in Building 10, underneath the '''Great Dome'''. In this space, it is quite common to find several booths or tables advertising upcoming events, or students engaged in other public activities and demonstrations, such as [[juggling]] or dancing.  Often, there are fund-raising activities, such as selling [[used books]], tickets for shows or concerts, artworks made in the MIT GlassLab or Student Art Association, or [[Chinese bakery products|Chinese pastries]] and other [[snack]]s.

On November 18, 2013 a formal dedication ceremony was held to rename the space '''Memorial Lobby'''. The [[travertine]] walls bear the engraved names of [[MIT alumni]] who died in each of several wars, and these inscriptions have been [[gilding|re-gilded]] to make them more readable.<ref name=Chandler>{{cite news|last=Chandler|first=David L.|title=MIT's Lobby 10 to be renamed in honor of fallen veterans|url=http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2013/mit-memorial-lobby-1108|access-date=2014-05-17|newspaper=MIT News|date=November 8, 2013}}</ref>

===Different levels===
The Infinite Corridor has five levels: the basement, and floors 1 through 4. Elevators in Lobby 7 and in Lobby 10 provide access to each floor, as do numerous stairways.  The elevators in Lobby 10 also provide access to the Barker Engineering Library, via the 5th floor.  In accordance with its US location, MIT buildings usually use the American [[floor numbering]] scheme.

The first floor (called the "ground floor" by some) is the most traveled level, and is often the only one referred to as ''the'' Infinite Corridor. It is most of a floor above ground level at Massachusetts Avenue (the west end, Building 7), and in areas is a full floor up, with a [[parking lot]] entrance passing underneath (this entrance crosses the basement-level corridor at grade between Buildings 7 and 3). At its east end in Building 8, it is also about half a floor up.  The Basement Infinite Corridor mirrors the first floor passage, but connects to the extensive below-grade system of tunnels connecting many buildings.

==Displays==
[[File:MIT infinite corridor 04.jpg|thumb|Glass-walled labs adjacent to the Infinite Corridor, showcasing recent faculty and student publications]]
The walls lining the Infinite Corridor were painted stark "Institute Gray" with black doorway trim until Spring 1970, when a number of wall murals appeared.  With two notable exceptions, the paintings were soon replaced by [[bulletin boards]] and enclosed display cases which remained largely unchanged for several decades.  A Summer 2010 renovation installed more-durable boards, and more clearly marked many portions of them as reserved for exclusive use by one specified student activity or another.

The Cashier's Office wall was painted as a giant [[United States one-dollar bill|dollar bill]] for over 25 years (and was itself the subject of a number of non-destructive hacks).<ref name=10KHack>{{cite web|title=$10,000 Bill Mural at the Cashier's Office|url=http://hacks.mit.edu/by_year/1993/10K_bill/|work=MIT IHTFP Hack Gallery|access-date=2011-05-02}}</ref> The mural was eventually removed and replaced with a glass wall when the space behind it was converted to a community lounge.<ref name=TeardropHack>{{cite web|title=Teardrop on dollar bill mural|url=http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2005/goodbye_dollar_bill/|work=MIT IHTFP Hack Gallery|access-date=2011-05-02}}</ref> A picture of the old wall mural is etched  into the glass, as a historical marker.  The oldest remaining wall mural (near the former location of the Admissions Office) is an early-1970s style colorful painting of a "multicultural" group of people walking quickly, painted by Andrea H. Pritchard, wife of Physics Professor David E. Pritchard.{{cn|date=September 2019}}  Having survived many renovations and repaintings of the Infinite Corridor, the mural now is a carefully preserved relic of that era.

Some adjacent laboratories, notably those of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE, Course 3), now have floor-to-ceiling glass walls and large posters or display cases explaining some of their research activities and course offerings. This is a natural result of the DMSE's facilities location surrounding the eastern end of the Infinite Corridor.

==MIT's Infinite Solar System model==
In 2018, MIT professor [[Richard Binzel]] installed a 1:30,000,000,000 ratio [[Solar System model]] along 200 m of the Infinite Corridor at the third floor level. Each full-color plaque shows the to-scale size of a planet, along with an enlarged image and some basic data.<ref name="InfSolar">{{cite web |title=Infinite Solar System |url=https://eaps.mit.edu/infinite-solar-system/ |website=Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=2024-11-19}}</ref><ref name=Binzel>{{cite web |last1=Binzel |first1=Richard P. |title=Corralling the cosmos in the Infinite Corridor |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/10/24/132399/corralling-the-cosmos-in-the-infinite-corridor/ |website=MIT Technology Review |access-date=2022-03-05 |language=en |date=October 24, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Keller">{{cite web |last1=Keller |first1=Julia C. |title=An Infinite solar system |url=https://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-infinite-corridor-solar-system-1116 |website=MIT News |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=2022-03-05 |language=en |date=November 16, 2018}}</ref> At the scale of the model, the [[speed of light]] reduces to 1 cm/s, so that by walking normally, a viewer can attain warp speed, exceeding the cosmic speed limit.<ref name="InfSolar"/><ref name="Binzel"/> In addition to a printed brochure, a free online self-guided tour is available.<ref name="InfSolar"/>

==MIThenge{{anchor|MIThenge}}==
[[File:2019MIThenge.jpg|thumb|left|Observers awaiting MIThenge, November 2019]]
On several days each year, the Sun sets in alignment with the Infinite Corridor and shines along its entire length. This is known as "MIThenge", a reference to [[Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge|Stonehenge's alignment with the Sun]] (although the type of alignment bears a closer relationship with that of [[Newgrange]] and [[Maeshowe]] in that the sunlight passes through the mass of the buildings rather than through the standing stones of Stonehenge). These alignments occur on several days around January 31 and November 11. The phenomenon was spotted, calculated, and popularized in 1975–76 according to a ''Sky and Telescope'' article;<ref>{{cite news |last=Goldman |first=Stuart J. |date=January 27, 2011 |title=Sun Worship in Cambridge |url=http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/114745194.html |work=Sky & Telescope |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202095801/http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/114745194.html |archive-date=February 2, 2013 |accessdate=December 19, 2022}}</ref> the naming convention follows that coined for ''[[Manhattanhenge]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Iezzi |first1=Teressa |title=How Neil deGrasse Tyson Discovered Manhattanhenge |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3046868/how-neil-degrasse-tyson-discovered-manhattanhenge |date=May 29, 2015 |newspaper=[[Fast Company]] }}</ref> 

A less-known alignment with the Moon also occurs, but it is more subtle and more difficult to observe.<ref name=Eliasen>{{cite web|last=Eliasen|first=Alan|title=MIThenge|url=https://futureboy.us/mithenge/|work=Alan Eliasen – Things I Made From Yarn|publisher=Alan Eliasen|access-date=2014-05-16}}</ref> Although it occurs in alignment with the corridor during the summertime months, the sunrise cannot be observed then, due to visual obstructions at the eastern end of the Infinite Corridor.

A campus newspaper, ''[[The Tech (newspaper)|The Tech]]'', has published [[etiquette]] and viewing suggestions for first-time observers.<ref name=Hawkinson>{{cite news|last=Hawkinson|first=John A.|title=MIThenge is Fast Approaching Predictions for 2009–2010|url=http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N51/mithenge.html|access-date=2014-05-16|newspaper=The Tech|date=November 6, 2009}}</ref> Several online videos offer different perspectives on the phenomenon and on the observers.<ref name=Falk>{{cite web|last=Falk|first=Dan|title=MIT-henge|url=http://video.mit.edu/watch/mit-henge-11404/|work=MIT Video|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|access-date=2014-05-16}}</ref><ref name=Elemental>{{cite web |title=Elemental MIT: MIThenge |url=http://mit150.mit.edu/multimedia/mithenge|work=MIT+150 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|access-date=2014-05-16| url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517120629/http://mit150.mit.edu/multimedia/mithenge |archive-date=2014-05-17}}</ref>

{{gallery|title=MIThenge January 2022 
|File:MIThenge1.jpg|alt1=MIThenge January 2022, unobstructed|Unobstructed view
|File:MIThenge2.jpg|alt2=MIThenge January 2022, crowded corridor|Crowded corridor
}}

==Demonstrations==
During the 1960s, a common Technology Day demonstration used the unobstructed length of the corridor to demonstrate the [[speed of light]] in a simple, direct way. A [[strobe light]], [[photocell]], and [[oscilloscope]] were positioned at one end of the corridor, and a mirror at the other. The round-trip time is about 1.67 microseconds. The photocell picked up both the direct and reflected flashes. The flash duration being well under a microsecond, the result was two nicely separated pulses on the oscilloscope screen, which could be measured to compute the speed.

==In popular culture==
Early in the film ''[[Good Will Hunting]]'', a pivotal scene takes place in the Infinite Corridor where [[Matt Damon]]'s janitor character solves a difficult mathematics problem that had been posted there as a challenge to the students.

Science fiction author [[Joe Haldeman]], who taught writing at MIT for decades, discusses the Infinite Corridor in his 2007 novel ''[[The Accidental Time Machine]]''.

The 2022 video game ''[[Shadows Over Loathing]]'' features a school called SIT (Seaside Institute of Technology) which is clearly a [[parody]] of MIT.  SIT contains an "Infinite Corridor" which is genuinely infinite.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{commonscat|Infinite Corridor}}
* [https://eaps.mit.edu/infinite-solar-system/ MIT's Infinite Solar System self-guided tour]
* [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/iap-mithenge-0126.html MIThenge and photo]
* [http://futureboy.us/mithenge/ Alan Eliasen] publishes information about MITHenge solar and lunar events, and predictions for future dates.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110705213213/http://alum.mit.edu/pages/sliceofmit/2011/06/30/mithenge/ How MIThenge Got Its Start], ''Slice of MIT'' Alumni Association blog (2011)

{{MIT}}

{{Coord|42.360|N|71.092|W|display=title}}

[[Category:Architecture in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology buildings]]
[[Category:University folklore]]