Geographers: Radhanath Sikdar

C G29/6/20

Mount Everest, as most people know, is the highest mountain above sea level in the world. On some of Topglobe’s world globes, Mount Everest is represented by a black filled triangle shape at the border of Nepal and China. The number 8844.43 which is the rock height, is written under this triangle.
It is Radhanath Sikdar (October 1813 – 17 May 1870), an Indian Bengali mathematician who is best known for calculating the height.

 

Sikdar spearheaded a team of mathematicians working for the Great Trigonometrical Survey, a project initiated to measure the entire Indian subcontinent.
It is in 1856, that, Sikdar and his team calculated the then named Himalaya Peak XV, from six different locations at a distance of 100 km from the mountain itself.

The average of the height readings was 29,002 ft., falling just 27 ft. short from the current official elevation of 29,029 ft.   

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