The summit farthest from Earth's centre is Chimborazo, not Everest
#0014 Science & nature
Fact rank
S
Raised from the expected A to S: a primary source (NOAA, the US national ocean and atmosphere agency) states "over 2,072 m farther", and a calculation from the official Earth shape (WGS84) agrees
Wow rank
S
Surprising that the highest mountain and the farthest summit are different
Usefulness
—
A fact worth knowing for its own sake
Verification: Supported by evidence
Rule check: an article whose "why" cannot be written with sources is capped at fact rank B.
AI verification reports the evidence it found; it does not guarantee that a claim is true.
Because the Earth's equatorial radius is about 21 km longer than its polar radius, the point farthest from the Earth's centre is not the summit of Everest but the summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador, just south of the equator, by about 2 km.
Why
(No sourced explanation yet.)Evidence
Primary Explanation by NOAA (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The Earth is a bit thicker at the equator, and the summit of Chimborazo is over 2,072 m farther from the centre than the summit of Everest link
Primary Constants of the World Geodetic System WGS84 (equatorial radius 6,378,137 m, flattening 1/298.257223563). From these the polar radius is 6,356,752 m, a difference of 21.38 km. Distance from the centre: Chimborazo summit 6,384.39 km, Everest summit 6,382.31 km, about 2.08 km apart (checked by calculation) link
Notes and limits
The size of the difference varies slightly between sources, from 2,072 m to about 2.1 km (depending on the elevations and method used). Measured from sea level, Everest is still the highest. The Japanese Wikipedia article on Chimborazo says the same, so the text is kept short.
Derivations
Derived from: 振り子時計は赤道近くで1日に約2分半遅れた
Derived facts: —