But the rumor is that Sikdar’s original number was 29,000 feet exactly. In this case, all those zeros were significant figures—but the public would not see them as such. They would assume the value was “about 29,000 feet.” And people might not accept a new claim for title of tallest mountain on the planet if the calculations looked insufficiently precise. So an extra two fictitious feet were added. At least, that is how the story goes. The official recorded height in 1856 was definitely 29,002 feet, but I cannot find any evidence that the initial calculations gave 29,000 feet exactly. Or even
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