Infinite Corridor

[4] 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.

Because the heavy pedestrian traffic in the Infinite Corridor guarantees a large audience, it is a setting for some "hacks" (practical jokes),[9] 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.

[10] 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.

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 pastries and other snacks.

The travertine walls bear the engraved names of MIT alumni who died in each of several wars, and these inscriptions have been re-gilded to make them more readable.

With two notable exceptions, the paintings were soon replaced by bulletin boards and enclosed display cases which remained largely unchanged for several decades.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

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 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.