Measurement of Everest as the highest mountain
Medición del Everest como la montaña más alta
- Date
- 1852-1856 · confidence high
- Place
- Mount Everest (Chomolungma / Sagarmatha), Nepal-China
- Credited to
- Radhanath Sikdar, Andrew Waugh, Great Trigonometrical Survey of India
- People
- 👤 Andrew Scott Waugh1810–1878👤 Radhanath Sikdar1813–1870
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, using triangulation from more than 150 km away, calculated the height of 'Peak XV' at 8,840 m and identified it as the highest summit in the world. Sikdar did the calculation; Waugh named it Everest.
Coordinates of the summit. The mountain was known and sacred to Tibetans (Chomolungma) and Nepalis (Sagarmatha); the 'discovery' concerns its relative height.
What it led to
- The supreme mountaineering goal of the 20th century
- Cartography of the Himalayas
- Modern GPS measurement (8,848.86 m in 2020)
Built on
- Great Arc of the Indian meridian1802-1841
- Great Meridional Arc of Lambton and Everest
- Large theodolites
Made possible
- High-precision geodesy
- Correction for atmospheric refraction