10-20-2003, 08:19 PM
This calls for Mount Everest to be renamed!!!
[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3193576.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asi...sia/3193576.stm[/url]
The man who 'discovered' Everest
by Soutik Biswas
BBC News Online
One day in 1852 in British-ruled India, a young man burst into an
office in the northern Dehra Dun hill town and announced to his
boss: "Sir, I have discovered the highest mountain in the world!"
Radhanath Sickdhar was an intrepid mathematician from Calcutta
After four long and arduous years of unscrambling mathematical data,
Radhanath Sickdhar had managed to find out the height of Peak XV, an
icy peak in the Himalayas.
The mountain - later christened Mount Everest after Sir George
Everest, the surveyor general of India - stood at 29,002 feet (8,840
metres).
Sickdhar's feat, unknown to many Indians, is now part of the Great
Arc Exhibition in London's vibrant Brick Lane.
The Indian Government-sponsored exhibition celebrates 200 years of
the mapping of the Indian subcontinent.
The exercise, which was called "one of the most stupendous works in
the whole history of science" was begun by William Lambton, a
British army officer, in Madras in 1802.
The survey involved several thousand Indians and was named the Great
Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) in 1819.
Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, is 29,035 ft high today
It covered more than 1,600 miles and countless people died during
the work. Tigers and malaria were the main causes.
Sickdhar, who was 39 when he made his discovery, was one of the
survey's largely unsung heroes.
The man from Calcutta was called a "computer" since he worked on
computation of data collected by survey parties.
He was promoted to the position of "chief computer" because of his
good work.
'Rare genius'
"Mathematical skills were essential for Sickdhar's work and he was
acknowledged by George Everest as a mathematician of rare genius,"
British historian John Keay, author of two books on the subject,
told BBC News Online.
"His greatest contribution to the computation was in working out and
applying the allowance to be made for a phenomenon called refraction-
the bending of straight lines by the density of the earth's
atmosphere," said Mr Keay.
Mr Keay says: "Like George Everest himself, [Sickdhar] may have
never seen [Mount Everest]."
It was first identified as a possible contender for the world's
highest peak in 1847 when surveyors glimpsed it from near
Darjeeling.
Sir George Everest found Sickdhar a rare mathematical genius
Several observations were recorded over the next three years by
different survey parties.
But the announcement that it was the highest - thanks to Sickdhar's
efforts - was delayed until 1856 as calculations had to be checked
repeatedly.
Sickdhar, the son of a Bengali Brahmin, was born in October 1813 in
Jorasanko, Calcutta's old city.
He studied mathematics at the city's renowned Hindoo College and had
a fundamental knowledge of English.
A workaholic, Sickdhar never married, instead dedicating his life to
knotty mathematical calculations.
George Everest was always full of praise for the number-crunching
genius.
He wrote that Sickdhar was a "hardy, energetic young man, ready to
undergo any fatigue, and acquire a practical knowledge of all parts
of his profession."
"There are a few of my instruments that he cannot manage; and none
of my computations of which he is not thoroughly master. He can not
only apply formulate but investigate them."
Mount Everest has risen higher since Sickdhar's findings.
In 1955, the mountain "grew" by 26 feet to 29,028 feet (or by eight
metres to 8,848 metres).
Mount Everest grew another seven ft (two metres) in 1999 after
researchers analysed fresh data from the mountain.
Today, the world's highest mountain stands 29,035 ft or 8850 metres
high.
[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3193576.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asi...sia/3193576.stm[/url]
The man who 'discovered' Everest
by Soutik Biswas
BBC News Online
One day in 1852 in British-ruled India, a young man burst into an
office in the northern Dehra Dun hill town and announced to his
boss: "Sir, I have discovered the highest mountain in the world!"
Radhanath Sickdhar was an intrepid mathematician from Calcutta
After four long and arduous years of unscrambling mathematical data,
Radhanath Sickdhar had managed to find out the height of Peak XV, an
icy peak in the Himalayas.
The mountain - later christened Mount Everest after Sir George
Everest, the surveyor general of India - stood at 29,002 feet (8,840
metres).
Sickdhar's feat, unknown to many Indians, is now part of the Great
Arc Exhibition in London's vibrant Brick Lane.
The Indian Government-sponsored exhibition celebrates 200 years of
the mapping of the Indian subcontinent.
The exercise, which was called "one of the most stupendous works in
the whole history of science" was begun by William Lambton, a
British army officer, in Madras in 1802.
The survey involved several thousand Indians and was named the Great
Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) in 1819.
Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, is 29,035 ft high today
It covered more than 1,600 miles and countless people died during
the work. Tigers and malaria were the main causes.
Sickdhar, who was 39 when he made his discovery, was one of the
survey's largely unsung heroes.
The man from Calcutta was called a "computer" since he worked on
computation of data collected by survey parties.
He was promoted to the position of "chief computer" because of his
good work.
'Rare genius'
"Mathematical skills were essential for Sickdhar's work and he was
acknowledged by George Everest as a mathematician of rare genius,"
British historian John Keay, author of two books on the subject,
told BBC News Online.
"His greatest contribution to the computation was in working out and
applying the allowance to be made for a phenomenon called refraction-
the bending of straight lines by the density of the earth's
atmosphere," said Mr Keay.
Mr Keay says: "Like George Everest himself, [Sickdhar] may have
never seen [Mount Everest]."
It was first identified as a possible contender for the world's
highest peak in 1847 when surveyors glimpsed it from near
Darjeeling.
Sir George Everest found Sickdhar a rare mathematical genius
Several observations were recorded over the next three years by
different survey parties.
But the announcement that it was the highest - thanks to Sickdhar's
efforts - was delayed until 1856 as calculations had to be checked
repeatedly.
Sickdhar, the son of a Bengali Brahmin, was born in October 1813 in
Jorasanko, Calcutta's old city.
He studied mathematics at the city's renowned Hindoo College and had
a fundamental knowledge of English.
A workaholic, Sickdhar never married, instead dedicating his life to
knotty mathematical calculations.
George Everest was always full of praise for the number-crunching
genius.
He wrote that Sickdhar was a "hardy, energetic young man, ready to
undergo any fatigue, and acquire a practical knowledge of all parts
of his profession."
"There are a few of my instruments that he cannot manage; and none
of my computations of which he is not thoroughly master. He can not
only apply formulate but investigate them."
Mount Everest has risen higher since Sickdhar's findings.
In 1955, the mountain "grew" by 26 feet to 29,028 feet (or by eight
metres to 8,848 metres).
Mount Everest grew another seven ft (two metres) in 1999 after
researchers analysed fresh data from the mountain.
Today, the world's highest mountain stands 29,035 ft or 8850 metres
high.