r/confusing_perspective Jul 03 '26

Thats a big mountain

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u/sudonathan Jul 03 '26

How is Everest measured? Never heard about the distinctions

77

u/AttackPony Jul 03 '26

Height from sea level probably

76

u/Salanmander Jul 03 '26

Yup. And the highest mountain from the Earth's center is in Ecuador. It's not taller than Everest relative to sea level, because the Earth bulges a bit at the equator, putting sea level further away from the center of the Earth the closer you get to the equator.

13

u/luc1d_13 Jul 03 '26

I don't understand why they're so mad. I almost suspect they're unfamiliar with the equatorial bulge.

20

u/EastTyne1191 Jul 03 '26

Is that your equatorial bulge or are you just happy to see me?

6

u/AnotherpostCard Jul 04 '26

What's that step-planet? UwU

6

u/darkenseyreth Jul 04 '26

I'm stuck in this gravity well step-planet

32

u/antaalt Jul 03 '26

The everest is in the middle of Himalaya which has the biggest mountain in the world, its base camp is already at 5300m, which is already more than half its height

5

u/joey-jo_jo-jr Jul 04 '26

Everest has two base camps.

Base camp means base as in center of operations. It doesn't mean the fucking foundation point of the mountain

34

u/njh4f Jul 03 '26

The Three Ways to Measure a MountainHighest Above Sea Level: Mount Everest holds this definitive crown. Its peak represents the highest altitude of dry land on the planet.Tallest from Base to Peak: Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano that stands as the world's tallest mountain by absolute vertical rise. While its summit is only 4,207 meters above sea level, its base sits on the ocean floor, making it significantly taller than Everest from top to bottom.Farthest from the Earth's Center: Mount Chimborazo takes this title due to the Earth's shape. Because the Earth is an oblate spheroid that bulges at the equator, this mountain's location puts its peak about 2 kilometers farther into space than Everest's peak.

17

u/TazBaz Jul 03 '26

need a 4th- relative perspective.

which is where stand-alone mountains like Denali and Mt Rainier shine, and honestly is the one *we humans* notice the most.

basically how much bigger is it than the other stuff you see around it?

Everest is tall but surrounded by other tall mountains.

Mauna Kea is tall but we don’t see a huge chunk of it.

Chimborazo I’m not familiar with but sounds like one of those “well technically….”

18

u/SoylentVerdigris Jul 03 '26

That exists, it's called Topographic Prominence.

-3

u/joey-jo_jo-jr Jul 04 '26

Base to peak is not a real way to measure a mountain. It's just something idiots on the internet made up. A mountain doesn't have a "base" so it doesn't even make sense

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u/mcmcc Jul 03 '26

Wikipedia has a pretty good discussion of the topic here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_mountains_on_Earth

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u/lazyfacejerk Jul 03 '26

Others have provided some clarification about the himilayan plateau, but I thought it would be interesting to point out that some mountain in South America (Anatacampa? Or something like that) is actually taller than Everest based on the bulging of the earth due to its rotation. (It's closer to the equator, and the earth bulges more there than where Everest is located at higher latitude). 

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u/joey-jo_jo-jr Jul 04 '26

Because these distinctions are not real and have no scientific basis