Have you ever cast your eyes on a mountain and found yourself at awe with its sheer magnificence?
Did you find yourself wondering how tall that mountain was, realising how tiny you felt at the bottom of something so vast?
Well, humans have been having the exact same experience throughout history.
In order to satisfy that curiosity, mathematicians applied techniques of triangulation to determine exactly how big the geological behemoth before you actually is.
Unlike in measuring your height, they can’t just rely on straightforward methods of measurement; instead, mathematic formulas had to be deployed along with some specialist knowledge, as explained in a recent article from IFLScience.
Remember Pythagoras and the quest for information to help you gain an understanding of a triangle on your math exam?
Well this mathematical formula requires some prior information too.
You need to know the distance between two different points of the mountain at sea level, and you also need to figure out the distance between those two points and the mountain’s peak.
So you’re armed with your high school maths knowledge, an understanding of the sea level and – hopefully – a calculator. But what comes next?
Well, it turns out, you will need just one more piece of specialist equipment.
A theodolite, a precision instrument that allows the user to measure both horizontal and vertical angles, will provide you with key information about the mountain.
Knowing its angles is absolutely crucial when it comes to measuring the height of the mountain itself.
Once you know the size of two angles, and the length of one of the mountain’s sides, you can calculate the height of the mountain using some relatively basic trigonometry skills.
Sounds pretty simple, right? Just get your hands on these pieces of equipment, a maths genius to consolidate those waning high school maths skills, and a good clear day.
What could go wrong?
Well, it turns out there are a lot of complicating factors – including distance, light levels, the weather, and even the atmosphere – that even catch experts out sometimes.
Okay, this is getting pretty complicated now.
If professionals struggle this much, I definitely couldn’t cope… or could I?
Because, as the article concludes, there is one modern and simple way to figure out a mountain’s height.
By using GPS.
This truly is the cheat code of mountain measuring.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth’s priciest precious metal isn’t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!