Everest Gained Two Paper Feet

In 1854, British Surveyor General Andrew Scott Waugh began calculating the height of Peak XV, now Mount Everest in the Himalayas, using observations collected by the Great Trigonometrical Survey. After almost two years of correcting for light refraction, barometric pressure, and temperature, his team calculated an exact height of 29,000 feet. When Waugh announced the result in 1856, he published it as 29,002 feet so the public would not mistake it for a rounded estimate. This decision earned him the playful description of "the first person to put two feet on top of Mount Everest."

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