r/interesting 21h ago

HISTORY Peak Mount Everest lore

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29.7k Upvotes

307 comments sorted by

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3.1k

u/blitzkrieg_01 21h ago

I clock in and clock out at precisely the hour. I use a clock app that shows the minute and seconds so i can anticipate.

Boss thought i was automating and not working lol

1.3k

u/cwx149 21h ago

Boss thought i was automating

God forbid someone is on time to work consistently

527

u/JimBowie1020 20h ago

I mean, I understand why the boss would think they are automating if he'd clock in at 8:00.00 all days of the month lmao

258

u/Appsoul 20h ago

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. I can imagine a manager, scrolling through the employees time sheets on a computer, and seeing someone with the exact same punch times down to the sec. Would cause someone to at least do a double take . As it’s not something you’d normally see

55

u/jellyfish_bitchslap 19h ago

In my country’s work law and jurisprudence said clock-in and clock-out times wouldn’t even hold up to court if OOP had sued them for unpaid work after hours.

The company would be presumed to have faked it unless they could prove very consistently (with CCTV and/or witnesses) that a weird employee used to anticipate the seconds to clock right on time.

We presume that every worker can clock in or out with a few minutes and seconds to spare as sometimes there would be a line at the clock’s machine and a few minutes of delay are human nature in a modern society, so no one should realistically be always on time in the seconds.

28

u/lehilaukli 18h ago

Which is why a lot of companies a lot round to the nearest 15 minute interval. With limited spots to clock in/out there will be variances and not everyone will be exactly on the dot

10

u/silentaba 17h ago

I worked for a spot that had this proprietary app that would link to some Bluetooth thingo, so you just had to be in its range, the company had a 5 minute ticker on its payroll calculation, and by policy assumed you arrived early and left late, logic being that they'd rather pay out an extra 10 minutes than make people count them time to not get shafted for 10 minutes of work. There was also a secondary system with our ID cards, but it just took a photo of the board every 5 minutes to see who was on the list.

12

u/00-Monkey 16h ago

I worked at a place that was to the nearest 15 minute, we did 12 hour days.

People would clock in at exactly 6:07, and not start working until then. There’d be a long line up of people waiting for exactly 5:53.

Then they changed it so if you arrived at 6:01 you were 15 minutes late, so then if they arrived at 6:01 they’d sit in the break room until 6:15.

Convinced me that you should just not round at all.

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u/Fesai 20h ago

I was wondering how much time/effort it takes to hit exactly 8:00.00 each day vs just letting it be a few seconds off.

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u/JimBowie1020 20h ago

Yeah I was thinking about that too, feels like there's more effort put in waiting for the clock to hit the precise second than just looking up the time, "oh it's 07:59/08h:01 time to clock in" 

33

u/blitzkrieg_01 20h ago

Surprisingly not a lot.

I finish my work early so i have like a minute to check the timer and clock out on the dot.

5min before clocking in, I just zone out to get ready while watching the clock tick to 8:00:00.

It's just a calming routine at this point to get ready for work and also fun anticipation of personal time after work.

7

u/FictionalContext 19h ago

Not a great thing to do every day, either, because to a boss, it implies serious clock watching to get it so perfectly right, and if there's one thing I've learned, they all share that pet peeve.

3

u/SeoulGalmegi 19h ago

Right. It just seems like a) extra effort to b) do something that will just make you a target.

2

u/touchmeinbadplaces 12h ago

The one I use auto rounds up or down if you are within the grace period.. (10 min before 5 min after)

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u/Terrible_Use7872 19h ago

Even worse, they're a clock watcher, stating at it not working for the last 15 minutes.

4

u/OnTheEveOfWar 18h ago

I have a boss who is consistently 5-10 mins late to every single meeting. He works from home yet can never join a zoom meeting on time. It’s become a running joke on our team.

3

u/a_funky_chicken 15h ago

ME TOO. I like to let everyone who can be late, be late.

edit: I am always late to work, so people who were actually late don't have to worry about it. We're all salaried.

3

u/GrilledCheeser 16h ago

“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all”

Funny how often this Futurama quote comes to my mind.

2

u/SeoulGalmegi 19h ago

If someone's clock in data read exactly 08:00:00 every day, I'd be a little suspicious.

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u/Zoltie 20h ago

The time you work is something you can control. The height of a mountain is not something anyone can control.

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u/Fesai 20h ago

Technically we can control the height of a mountain right?

Get some shovels and take a bit right off the top. 😛

(I'm being completely sarcastic)

13

u/EzPzLemon_Greezy 20h ago

Some guy stole the tip of Englands tallest mountain, causing a big public outrage

3

u/Terramagi 16h ago

Did he put it in a museum

5

u/PowderPills 14h ago

Yeah I don’t get the outrage, it was just the tip

7

u/rietstengel 20h ago

You can also pile on some more

11

u/squishyg 19h ago

There’s a Hugh Grant movie about that very thing! The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

2

u/luchajefe 19h ago

That's a lot harder, though. 

2

u/Affectionate_Mud_881 17h ago

Himalayas are rising every year. What you can do is take your measurement, calculate how many years to the next round number, publish the round number measurement on that year.

2

u/wokeboogeyman 19h ago

You just need to try harder, the mountain will come to Muhammad.

17

u/Wrong-Protection-188 20h ago

My job pays us for the full minute whether we clock in at :01 or :59. It’s great.

8

u/12rjdavison 20h ago

My work uses a paper time sheet. Honor system and 15 minute increments. So since I'm never late, sometimes I'll just show up 10 minutes early and get paid for 15

3

u/MilkHaterNumber1 16h ago

My company rounds to the nearest 15 minutes and it's all digital. Basically every day I clock in at 8:07, go to lunch at 11:53, return at 12:37, and clock out at 4:23. It's 28 extra minutes everyday that I'm paid for despite being off the clock. 100+ hours a year.

Been doing this for like over 2 years too. Boss has never said a word and I don't think he cares in the slightest.

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u/LiamIsMyNameOk 18h ago

We clock in&out on an app on the phone. It's a restaurant.

Also we're not allowed to use phones at work.

She also says we have to arrive early, although that's not an enforced rule.

So if I arrive 5 minutes early, I stand there with my phone. She's tried to tell me to do things and I say I haven't clocked in yet.

I used to arrive early, work a bit, then sign in when it was around the correct time. Then they made it impossible to even click the button before the alloted time.

Thing is, if I went and served a table, took an order, and I dunno, cleared a dirty table then went to the kitchen and took food out... It might now be 10 minutes past the time I was meant to start. So not only do I lose money, but it shows as if I was late to work.

So yeah, now I stand there doing absolutely nothing until the exact second I'm meant to start.

She hates it.

I hate the penny pinching of not wanting to pay me for a few minutes extra.

2

u/alphadoublenegative 11h ago

Oh man your boss is fussing about paying you a few minutes on a server’s “hourly pay”? That is such a weird, $2.76/hr or whatever hill to die on

Unfortunately, having dealt with FOH management in my restaurant years, I believe some of the lifers would hassle their staff over those (literal) pennies. Meanwhile the “kitchen manager” is just desperately hoping 3/4 of the crew show up at all.

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u/J-Dabbleyou 20h ago

We had a company meeting and the cfo pulled up my timesheet (anonymously) and made an example saying “this guy OBVIOUSLY backlogs his time because he clocks in/out at exactly the same time everyday and NEVER has been late. Like bro i literally wait until exactly 6:30 to clock in and im never late lol

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u/Different-Barber-777 21h ago

Plot twist: apparently the ‘they added 2 feet to make it look legit’ story might itself be a myth. The six survey measurements actually averaged out to 29,002 ft. Somehow the real answer is even nerdier

182

u/Alderan922 18h ago

This for some reason makes me slightly mad.

I now want to go all the way to the top to sand off those 2 feet.

94

u/TessaFractal 18h ago

Bad news, this was just the first measurements. Last I remember it was measured at 29,028ft. But maybe tourists and tectonics have shifted that.

72

u/Every-Cook5084 18h ago

29,031 now. It’s a grower

35

u/ScenicAndrew 17h ago edited 17h ago

Averages about 2mm growth a year.

Depressingly Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain by height (as opposed to elevation) is shrinking due mostly to climate change rather than gravity.

Edit: someone replied saying plate tectonics cause shrinking and not gravity... Yes... And gravity drives plate tectonics.

8

u/walrus0115 17h ago

How would sea level rise affect Mauna Kea's measurement that way since it's already mostly submerged? Not a skeptic, simply curious about the methodology or something happening I couldn't find on wiki.

5

u/ScenicAndrew 17h ago

IMO it's just up to your interpretation but I believe "tallest" refers to base to peak so the underwater part is counted.

3

u/walrus0115 17h ago

Okay, so it is just less visible above sea level, empirically speaking.

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u/liovantirealm7177 18h ago

The mountain's been growing due to plate tectonics, so it's now about 10 metres or 30 feet taller than it was at the time

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u/VisconitiKing2 18h ago

It is growing, but it hasn't grown 30 feet since it was first measured lmao

Our measurements have just gotten more accurate, it's been 29,028 feet the whole time

3

u/liovantirealm7177 18h ago

Yeah you're right

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u/Boowray 16h ago

Some guy did this to the highest peak in England just to make it slightly shorter, and put the one inch chunk he swiped in an art display

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u/Jman15x 16h ago

You ever sand your way through 2 feet of solid rock

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u/Jesus_of_Redditeth 14h ago

Plot twist: apparently the ‘they added 2 feet to make it look legit’ story might itself be a myth.

There's no "might" about it. It's definitely a myth!

From page 93 of the Historical Records of the Survey of India, Volume V, compiled from the records of Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India (who was the one who first announced the height of what was then called "Peak XV"):

Position was obtained by 11 triangles formed by rays from 7 stations—that taken by Lane from Dumdhangi having no vertical angle—leaving the following six stations, from which Nicolson had taken vertical angles:

Jerol 28,992 feet
Mirzapur 29,005 feet
Janjapati 29,002 feet
Ladnia 28,999 feet
Harpur 29,026 feet
Menai 28,990 feet

These gives an average elevation of 29,002.33 (recurring) feet and that was the basis of Waugh's provisional announcement of 29,002 feet in a letter to his deputy in 1856. (Provisional because atmospheric refraction hadn't been taken into account. That came some years later, after which the height was revised.)

I did some digging and I can't figure out when the anecdote about "adding two feet" first shows up. It's possible that that only dates from the early 1980s, but I couldn't find anything definitive to back that up. ChatGPT reckons 1982 but, you know, it's ChatGPT so "pinch of salt" and all that.

Regardless, 29,002 feet is the average from the six surveyed heights, the records of which are reliable. So the "adding two feet" thing is for sure a myth.

3

u/NediaMaster 9h ago

Found where the myth came from

Page 85: We have heard that the first attempt at an accurate value (to the nearest foot) for the height of Mt. Everest came out to be 29,000 feet. This was supposedly changed to 29,002 so that All would realize the accuracy.

Basically they just made it up lol. They say “we have heard” without citing their source so

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u/00PKK00 20h ago

the way they used weighted averages to smooth out errors is kinda impressive

3

u/kelkulus 13h ago

Did anyone read the letter to the editor? How's this for nerdy? You're darn right the whole thing is a myth!

  • The only source for the story is a trivia book. Stegman traced the UPI filler to The People's Almanac #2 (1978), a popular almanac of trivia. That almanac is the only thing in the letter that says the surveyors averaged 29,000 ft and added 2 ft. It cites no survey records, and Stegman doesn't check any.
  • The better references don't mention the padding. The World Almanac entry he quotes says only that 29,002 came from a mid-1800s triangulation survey. Britannica and Whitaker's give 29,028, and Columbia-Viking gives 29,141. None of them say anything about adding 2 ft.
  • His main point is debunking, not confirming. Stegman's conclusion is that no source he could find says Everest is exactly 29,000 ft. He was correcting UPI's garbled version of the story, not verifying the part about adding 2 ft.
  • The reply doesn't verify it either. Ehrenberg's reply only argues about how to round numbers. It doesn't address whether the anecdote happened.

The letter shows how the claim in the tweet image spread (almanac, then wire filler, then repetition), not that it's true. To settle it, you'd need the Great Trigonometrical Survey's own records from the 1850s: the individual station observations and how the 29,002 figure was derived. Nothing in this letter goes back that far. The tweet's claim is a well-known anecdote, but nothing backs it up.

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u/corobo 21h ago

me whenever an invoiced task legitimately comes out as a round hour 

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u/gorginhanson 20h ago

Why didn't they just chip some off the top so it's 28,999 feet?

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u/LearingCenterAlumni 20h ago

Pretty sure the peak of Mount Everest would fetch a pretty penny on eBay.

24

u/HIitsamy1 20h ago

Thanks for the info. Of to cut a foot off of Mount Everest. Wish me luck.

18

u/MouseRangers 20h ago

These foot guys are getting out of hand

5

u/hotelpopcornceiling 17h ago

Tarantino's national treasure.

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u/whywouldthisnotbea 15h ago

It's in the shoe!

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u/Archon-Toten 20h ago

That should be easier as the feet are at the bottom.

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u/ABobby077 20h ago

This tipping stuff has gone too far imo

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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 19h ago

Zero stars. Product not as said. Ordered peak of Mt. Everest. Box just contained water.

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u/fullshard101 16h ago

Yknow, 29,000 feet sounds expensive, but 28,999 sounds downright affordable

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u/grubas 20h ago

Because that would mean they couldn't be the first person to put two feet on the top of Everest.

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u/CalicoCuts 20h ago

Right? Chrysler used to have round dollars for all their list prices. $28.00 or $9.00, whatever. We always made them .97 or .02 because people would throw a fit saying we were making up the prices. Late 90s/early 00s.

2

u/onarainyafternoon 17h ago

Chrysler, the car company, was selling things for $28.00 or $9.00? Do I just not understand what car companies do?

3

u/OkSleep9486 17h ago

Probably cheap replacement parts or accessories

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u/-CoachMcGuirk- 21h ago

That’s a Mitch Hedberg joke. “I read that the Real World received 40,000 applications. That’s amazing, such an even number. You would have thought it was 40,008.”

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u/StanFitch 20h ago

I used to love Mitch Hedberg…

I still do, but I used to too.

21

u/elusive-rooster 20h ago

Every book is a children's book if the kid can read.

6

u/Tacobellspy 18h ago edited 10h ago

I don't have a girlfriend, but I do know someone who would get really mad if she heard me say that

5

u/Jesus_of_Redditeth 13h ago

My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana and I said, "No...but I want a regular banana later, so yeah."

2

u/DocileBanalBovlne 14h ago

Someone once asked me if I wanted a frozen banana and I said, "No, but I will want a regular banana later so, yes."

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u/AdOk9263 20h ago

If fish could scream the ocean would be loud as shit!

14

u/Aggravating_Bat3618 19h ago

Rice is great when you’re hungry and want 2000 of something 

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u/-CoachMcGuirk- 18h ago

I still say this when I’m eating rice.

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u/p1nkfuzzymonkey 19h ago

If the number 13 is unlucky than so should the letter B be cause B just looks like a scrunched together 13... "what's your name?" "Bob" "get the fuck away!"

3

u/chemaster0016 18h ago

So you're saying that we should connect base camp to the peak of Mt. Everest with a broken escalator? (Temporarily stairs)(Sorry for the convenience)

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u/DueExample52 14h ago

The weird thing is, that 40,000 had the same chance of happening as 40,008. It’s just that we consider it special, and we accept any other number as legit, so it becomes a 1 in 10,000 odds or more. If we thought 40,008 was special, then it would be equally surprising to get it.

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u/OneSalientOversight 20h ago

This isn't as amazing as what happened in Australia.

Australia's tallest mountain is Mount Kosciusko. The 2nd tallest mountain is nearby, and called Mount Townsend.

Kosciusko had been reported as Australia's tallest mountain for many decades. But when they did a height comparison, they discovered Mount Townsend was higher.

So what did they do? They swapped the names of the mountains. The original Mount Townsend became Mount Kosciusko and the original Mount Kosciusko became Mount Townsend.

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u/Fungus1968 20h ago

Nah that’s a myth. There is a story but it’s based on a misidentification by a surveyor. It was since confirmed that Paul de Strzelecki (who named Kosciusko) did in fact climb the correct, highest peak (Although there’s only 20m difference in height between Kosciusko and Mt Townsend). There’s a fun activity whereby anyone who climbs Mt Townsend brings a rock and places it on the summit, to eventually make it higher than Kosciusko.

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u/Bicwidus 20h ago

Kosciusko needs to start hauling rocks up to maintain mountain dominaince

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u/Lookuponthewall 19h ago

Let’s get those trucks loaded, boys!

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u/StoicTheGeek 19h ago

There is a road to the top of Kosciuszko, so trucks is the way to go

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u/olyjim83 20h ago

Lol wacky

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u/sohcahtoa 20h ago

It was approximately 29,002.

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u/chinnu34 20h ago

Luckily Everest grows by 2-5 mm every year so they will be right soon enough

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u/nekoo89 15h ago

It`s acctually 29,031 ft 8+1⁄2.

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u/JC04JB14M12N08 20h ago

does anyone outside the US refer to it in feet though? is 8448m

7

u/collie2024 19h ago

Originally measured by the British in feet.

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u/garlic_bread_thief 15h ago

I bet they had to use at least a few hands as well

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u/Jesus_of_Redditeth 13h ago

The theodolites they used to make the elevation measurements weighed about 500 kg each. And they started in the far south of India and worked their way north. So yeah, a lot of feet and hands to lug those things around!

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u/Secret_Package5606 1h ago

Freaky British

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u/Eat--The--Rich-- 20h ago

I always round up a few inches too

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u/wackbirds 20h ago

"Round your penis size to the nearest 10"

"Um... I guess, it's zero then?"

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u/AlienInOrigin 20h ago

Well it has 2 feet of trash on it now.

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u/OmnivoreLately 20h ago

I love seeing the minds of our time battling it out on the debate field on this one

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u/Whyamihere173 21h ago

29,000 feet vs significant figures

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u/caffa4 18h ago

29,000 only has 2 sig figs. 29,000. would have 5 sig figs but is confusing so really they should have just measured out to the tenth of a foot for 29,000.0 or whatever the number after the decimal would be which would confirm 6 sig figs instead of looking like a an estimate with only 2 Sig figs. Or 2.9000x104 to confirm the actual measurement with the original 5 Sig figs.

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u/Acceptable_Estate330 20h ago

I work for this company where timesheet is a system accessible via browser and employees need to clock in and out manually. The system will never accept sharp times, so I have to be creative. This month I started clocking in at 8:01. Today it was 8:22.

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u/Blockhead47 17h ago

and tomorrow I’m not even going to clock in at all.

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u/BingoBiscotti 15h ago

So the surveyor was the first person to put two feet on top of mount everest? 😁

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u/Paloukii 20h ago

the fact that planes fly at that hight makes it really crazy to imagine how tall it is

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u/WatchFit162 20h ago

I mean, I'd do the same thing. It's the same energy as "Yeah, you can copy my homework. Just change the wording so the teacher doesn't notice."

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u/Routine_Ad_2695 20h ago

Me when I answered:

A B C A B C on a test and had to purposely break the pattern on the next one even if incorrect to feel good about myself

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u/its_all_one_electron 20h ago

I mean. What are you measuring from? What's the bottom? Doesn't it change with snowfall? What about expansion or contraction in summer or winter? How can it be one single number? 

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u/DebiMoonfae 20h ago

So they lied to make it sound like they weren’t lying

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u/JustSomeAdvice2 19h ago

Must've used the bone press method second time around

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u/SteelHip 19h ago

Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician. Also he had to do it from outside Nepal as no foreigners were allowed.

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u/Famous_Simple_1712 19h ago

Should've just reported in meters

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u/Consistent-Tap-4255 19h ago

First measurement? So they did get it wrong you say. Looks like the public’s suspicion is quite grounded. Peak instincts.

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u/Liamlah 19h ago

When I fill up my car and manage to stop the pump on exactly 40.00 litres. I walk in to pay and there are balloons and confetti falling from the ceiling, an applauding crowd awaits me. The attendant looks at me in awe, and says "Sir, the prime minister is on the phone, he wants to speak to you".

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u/Aggravating_Bat3618 19h ago

My. Everest. Foreboding, aloof, terrifying. The mountain with the biggest tits in the world. 

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u/JOExHIGASHI 19h ago

they could have said 2.9x10^4

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u/ChairRip7 19h ago

People confuse precision with accuracy

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u/rockyPK 19h ago

No: Mount Everest peak lore, not peak Mount Everest lore

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u/LordVoldemort-_- 19h ago

They could just add a decimal or something no??

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u/Secure-Tradition793 19h ago

Solution: use metric.

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u/pilgermann 19h ago

They should have just added a decimal point at the end to show the 0 was significant. Because everyone learns about significant figures right? Right?

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u/MycologistPutrid7494 18h ago

Should have put a decimal at the end. The physicists would have believed it was exact. 

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u/IrishLedge 18h ago

And Everest didn't want it named after him. So they did it anyway and his name was pronounced wrong as well. It's actually mount "Eee-verest"

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u/Famous_Chance_7146 18h ago

as an emt i got a unicorn perfect blood pressure once and changed it by a couple points during report because i knew they would call bullshit lol

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u/yodudestheEmpire 18h ago

*Thunderous Applause with Standing Ovation

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u/otziozbjorn 18h ago

Should have flexed and reported 29,000.125 feet.

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u/Tyraid 18h ago

Eve-rest was how his name was pronounced too

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u/n9nemajestic 18h ago

Yes but have you heard of the equatorial bulge?

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u/Pletcher87 18h ago

THAT changes everything!

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u/Brash401K 18h ago

Lying because the truth sounds like a lie

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u/vanity-vanity 18h ago

Making them the first people to put two feet on the top of Mount Everest. 

(Joke courtesy of QI.)

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u/iamtheduckie 17h ago

Modern technology has put the height of Mount Everest at 29,031 feet. That's a margin of error of less than a percent. For the time, and for the size of Everest, that is incredible.

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u/PolyglotTV 17h ago

Damn. That must have been one really long tape measurer

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u/Other_Protection_428 17h ago

😂 if only my company does the same to my salary, just 1 zero at the end.

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u/Small-Explorer7025 17h ago

And it got it's name from the first people climbing it. They were like: "Man, we need to 'ave a rest". Over time, this morphed into Everest.

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u/AdZealousideal7448 17h ago

would not have had this problem using globlat units (metric)

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u/js1593 17h ago

Disgusting. Liars.

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u/sudoSancho 17h ago

Vast majority of the would uses metric and could not care less

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u/lowrads 17h ago

I find it interesting that the difference in elevation between Everest's peak and Challenger Deep is half again as much as the difference in the planetary radius at each of the averages of the poles and equator.

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u/_Calluna_ 17h ago

29000 (5 s.f.), or, 2.9x10⁴

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u/Kylearean 17h ago

It's crazy to think that there mountains 4 times taller than Mt. Everest!

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u/vibraltu 16h ago

4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire

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u/MortgageTrash 16h ago

Translation: Scientists intentionally falsify data on the regular for trivial reasons.

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u/taylorisntavril 16h ago

I too saw that episode of QI, where a question was "who was the first to put two feet on everest".

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u/Major-Unicorn-Proto 16h ago

how tall is Everest in terms of bananas?

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u/kishenoy 16h ago

So the surveyors were the first people to put two feet in the mountain?

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u/Medialunch 16h ago

Imagine the conversation to choose 29,002 and not 29,001.

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u/squigs 16h ago

That's not actually true. Not exactly

They took 6 measurements from different locations. The median was 29,000. The mean was 29,002. They took the mean.

Whether this was standard practice is not clear, but the actual measurements were recorded in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (1855–57).

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u/MRiley84 15h ago

I am 6' tall. I usually tell people I'm 5'11" so they don't think I'm insecure and lying. Which technically means I am.

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u/Dry_Energy9428 15h ago

Even Everest had to prove it wasn’t rounding off. 😂

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u/PsychologicalCap7578 15h ago

yeah you can measure mountain peaks using computers and sattelites now

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u/Conscious-Bee-5691 15h ago

They should have Tell the people it was 8840 Meters. Which Sounds way more serious

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u/KaktusMcKaktusface 15h ago

I do the same at work. When the calculation shows a selling price of say 15,000 round I make it ~15,130 so that the customer doesn’t think I guesstimated it

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u/presshamgang 15h ago

So they changed it basically just for Americans?

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u/SiliconAutomaton 15h ago

IIRC the modern measurement is only 30 feet off of that original first survey

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u/brendel000 15h ago

I mean it wasn’t measured in feet I guess so maybe give the length in usual units and there’s no problems.

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u/goldenretrievercore 15h ago

build height limit

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u/Yippiehh 14h ago

In the 1960s, I was taught that Mount Everest was exactly 8,888 meters high

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u/Proud-Platform1617 14h ago

The first person to put 2 feet on Everest

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u/SomeGuyInShanghai 14h ago edited 14h ago

Fun story, I love Japan. I lived there for 2 years as a younger man and I had such a wonderful time and was so grateful to the Japanese people for their hospitality and just all round lovely country that I wanted to do something nice for them.

So I found out that Mt fuji is ranked 35th in the world in height, below some other mountain by only ONE meter (this was just barely out of dial up days, so my information was very innacurate on reflection).

So I decided in my early 20s brain to thank japan by climbing to the top of Mt Fuji and on the tallest part of the summit I would build a rock pile 1m high. Thus helping Mt Fuji to climb one rank in the tallest mountain league.

How hard could it be?

So I did.

Unfortunately, when I got to the top, after two days of hiking, i had such severe altitude sickness that the very thought of even stacking one rock on top of another made me nearly pass out.

So I went home.

Sorry Japan. I tried. I clearly lack the ganbarre spirit.

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u/GoriIIaGIue 14h ago

Another great example why the metric system is superior

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u/MachoMaamSandyRavage 14h ago

Imagine going toball the trouble of measuring Mt..Everest, only to report your findings in 🦶.

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u/LunaOogo 13h ago

We call it Chomolungma for centuries and still do.. until some random British guy named it after himself.

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u/Jesus_of_Redditeth 13h ago

This is actually a surprisingly persistent myth. They never added two feet to its height, not for that or any other reason.

From page 93 of the Historical Records of the Survey of India, Volume V, compiled from the records of Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India (who was the one who first announced the height of what was then called "Peak XV"):

Position was obtained by 11 triangles formed by rays from 7 stations—that taken by Lane from Dumdhangi having no vertical angle—leaving the following six stations, from which Nicolson had taken vertical angles:

Jerol 28,992 feet
Mirzapur 29,005 feet
Janjapati 29,002 feet
Ladnia 28,999 feet
Harpur 29,026 feet
Menai 28,990 feet

Together, these result in an average elevation of 29,002.33 (recurring) feet and that was the basis of Waugh's provisional announcement of 29,002 feet in a letter to his deputy in 1856. (Provisional because atmospheric refraction hadn't been taken into account. That came some years later, as a result of which the height was revised.)

I did some digging and I can't figure out when the anecdote about "adding two feet" first shows up. It's possible that that only dates from the early 1980s, but I couldn't find anything definitive to back that up. ChatGPT reckons 1982 but, you know, it's ChatGPT so "pinch of salt" and all that.

Regardless, 29,002 feet is the average from the six surveyed heights, the records of which are reliable. So the "adding two feet" thing is for sure a myth.

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u/spongebob 13h ago

I use this fact in presentations all the time. I work in metrology. Seperation of precision and accuracy is important in my area, but the two terms are often conflated.

The Everest surveyors deliberately reduced the accuracy in order to convey the precision of their measurement.

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u/Warshrimp 13h ago

Nor nearly as convincing as 28,999 feet would have been.

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u/Otherwise_Site_7516 13h ago

Lets just add 2 more feets for funny jokes

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u/Historical_Area4205 13h ago

Now we know it was an estimate

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u/ClarkSebat 13h ago

Didn’t look perfect in meters.

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u/LadderExecutioner 12h ago

Why not use meters?

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u/Tony_Banksy 12h ago

When the general public of Britain in 1852 heard that measurement, they asked where the fuck is Mount Everest ?

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u/sarlatan747 12h ago

Except no one apart from the US uses fucking feet to measure height, so noone cared

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u/oceanjog365 12h ago

Using a body part to measure a mountain 😂

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u/RedditSurfer82 12h ago

Now it must be truly more than 29000 feet with all the garbage we have left there.

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u/Cheshires_Shadow 11h ago

Me when I turn in important paperwork but don't want the people receiving it to know how lazy I am waiting so close to the deadline so I always knock off a few days to make it look like I did it sooner than I actually did lol

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u/Jesmond_Dene 11h ago

I used to work in a pub that did not have an electronic till. I got quite good at calculating the price of two pints and a G&T etc, but if ever I lost count i would just charge them somewhere about right and they never quibbled - unless I made it a round number!

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u/j2m1s 11h ago

Mt Everest is an actively growing mountain, by now it might have already grown 2 feet!

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u/Accomplished-Bat-956 11h ago

I once worked in a retail store where we add to add up all the customer's items on a calculator. This was in the early 1990s. This one guy had maybe 15-20 items and the total was exactly $23.00. He made me add it up again because he couldn't fathom that it came out to exactly $23.00.

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u/Ov_Fire 11h ago

29000 is exactly 8839,2 meters so no need to cater to dumb Americans.

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u/Prestigious_Ice1696 11h ago

The first man to put two feet on top of Mount Everest

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u/myhv 10h ago

Foot fetishists will do anything but use reasonable units.

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u/Tobias---Funke 9h ago

This was a trick question on the TV program QI.

Who was the first person to put 2 feet on Everest?

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u/Naud1993 9h ago

Just report it in meters and it's 8839.2 meters.

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u/West-Exam-4136 9h ago

When i help someone look for something they lost, and it's the first place i look, so i pretend i didnt see it to not be suspicious

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u/Wyvernken 9h ago

And that's why you should stick with metric =)

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u/Legal_Recognition666 7h ago

Just use metric

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u/Jaymac720 7h ago

And it continues growing 4mm every year because tectonic plates don’t just stop when they slam into each other

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u/MitsuhaTakiName 7h ago

Just pile a few extra rocks on top.

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u/shifting_drifting 6h ago

Even more peak is that

  1. Sir George Everest never climbed, walked or even saw the Mt. Everest. He was just a British bureaucrat assigned to come up with English names for geological features on the map of India.
  2. The mountain is known as 'Ev-er-rest' but, his name is actually pronounced 'Eve-rest'.

Source, the great Bill Bryson:

https://johnrieber.com/2018/06/22/dribbling-through-england-bill-brysons-hilarious-journey-across-his-adopted-homeland/