Article ID: CBB534296330

Radhanath Sikdar and the Final Phase of Measuring Peak XV (2016)

unapi

Radhanath Sikdar was the only Indian mathematician who took part in the stupendous effort to finally compute the height of Peak XV within a reasonable limit of error. George Everest had nothing to do with it. Radhanath Sikdar, who was the Chief Computer at the Calcutta Office of the Survey of India (SOI) since 1849, did not participate in any field operation pertaining to the calculation of Peak XV, carried out, with varying success, by a number of people, especially Waugh, Armstrong, Peyton, Hennessey and Nicholson. From 1849 onwards all these field readings were as a matter of routine examined by Radhanath Sikdar at the Calcutta office and his observations sent to Waugh stationed at Dehra Dun. A study of the internal letters and memos of the SOI for the period 1851-1861 shows that the task of bringing order to the hopelessly confused data coming from the field was entrusted with Sikdar. By efficiently applying the method of the Minimum Squares, he minimised the error factor and perhaps showed that the figure would be 29000 feet. Thus, while Radhanath Sikdar was certainly not the “discoverer” of Mount Everest, nor the only person responsible for the final computations, he certainly was the pivot round whom the computations were conducted.

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Authors & Contributors
Grier, David Alan
Aggarwal, Abhilasha
Casey O'Donnell
Kumar, Siva Prashant
Petrov, Victor
Clare S. Kim
Concepts
Mathematics
Computers and computing
Astronomy
Algorithms
Biographies
Transmission of ideas
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, late
20th century
20th century, early
18th century
Medieval
Places
India
United States
Great Britain
Himalayan Mountains (Nepal)
China
Bulgaria
Institutions
East India College
East India Company (English)
British Association for the Advancement of Science
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