Re: Exactly, how high is Mount Everest? Our book says they are unsure.

Dear Michele,

I'll try to comment and respond your question.

Firstly, there is a mistake in the altitude in meters that you researched. The correct value is about 8,848 meters or 29,028 feet. Some books publish values that can vary about ten meters but this is the value accept for the scientific community. This measurement has a precision of dozens of meters and it was accomplished by a group of researchers from India in 1954. According to measurements done with GPS (Global Positioning System) in 1994, the altitude of the Everest peak increases about 0.1576 inches (about 4 millimeters) each year. Now, an American expedition called the "Millennium expedition" intends to accomplish more precise measurements with GPS in order to determine the current rate of growth of Everest and to investigate a possible cancellation of this growth... interesting no? See the details in National Geographic page

National Geographic - Millennium Expedition

In this homepage you can also read something summarized on how was formed the chain of mountains that contains Everest (Himalayas).

If you have some other questions regarding this subject please write to MadSci and we will try to answer in a more complete way. Thank's!