Why Mount Everest's height keeps changing

The world's tallest mountain just got a little taller — here's why.

In December of 2020, China and Nepal made a joint announcement about a new measurement for Mount Everest: 8,849 meters. This is just the latest of several different surveys of Everest since the first measurement was taken in 1855. The reasons why the height has fluctuated have to do with surveying methodology, challenges in determining sea level, and the people who have historically been able to measure Everest.

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[IamAeroDynamic]

I knew Everest's height just by googling it, all these people are wasting their time smh

[utdkuze]

I wanna change Mt. Everest's height Ima put a rock up there.

[ChaseCares]

From a land surveyor in the US, what a great job the Nepalese people did! And despite being thousands of miles away I can certainly appreciate the amount of effort and time that went into creating this important calculation, great job!

[impatrickt]

This is super inspiring. I can barely climb out of bed.

[BatCaveOz]

My life peaked when I finally climbed Mt. Everest.
Since then it has been all downhill.

[reynanhenry]

Earth : has earthquake
Humans : time to meassure the hight of mount everest

[wixostrix]

The best part of this really is the Nepalese people getting to measure their own mountain.

[davidguthary]

Fun fact: the initial measurement of Everest's height came out to exactly 29, 000 ft. When it was published, they deliberately changed it to 29, 002 ft to avoid accusations of rounding or low precision.

[terramater]

Breathtaking that Khim Lal Gautam stood on the world’s highest point for nearly two hours to capture the best available satellite data.
Aside from the new measurement, it's great to see that Nepal and China together announced that they had determined the exact height of the world’s tallest mountain. Looks like both, Mt. Everest and the China-Nepal relationship, have reached a new height.

[tkgsg]

Everyone gangsta till topographical prominence enters the chat

[KoenvMeijel]

I used to think that Everest was a cool archaic word for furthest or highest (like "forever" + est) but no it's just some British bloke

[DeshGp]

Nepal suffers a devastating earthquake in 2015, probably killing lots of people...

Nepal surveyors - "MEASURE THE HEIGHT OF THE MOUNTAIN NOW! QUICK!!!"

[aashishbabu]

Everyone is a gangster until Khim Lal Gautam reach the summit just to take a measurement 🤣

[randomstuff]

I think this video shows the fact that how complicated even small things are, and how great science is

[Aurora-mlcp]

I'm always amazed with people who reached the top of Everest 🏔

[maximuseuropa]

Everyone who reaches the summit is the temporary new world record holder of highest person on land.

[ajinkyagaikwad]

While you were watching the video, Mount Everest grew by 0.002 meters

Respect for Sherpas

[frilink]

I feel happy when the Nepalese feels proud they are the one measuring the

[Vox]

This video was adapted into an episode for Vox’s science podcast, Unexplainable. You can hear more of our reporting on Mount Everest and sea level, and learn about other contenders for the world’s tallest mountain there:

[ivantangliben]

This make me appreciate trigonometry right now compared a decade ago.