I live on a perfectly flat barrier island, Sanibel Island. The elevation of the island is variously reported as 0', 3', or 4'. Topographic maps of the island have no contour lines, none. We do have a 70' bridge, but I have never ridden over it.

I have a Garmin Edge 200 the data from which I upload to my computer, and the program calculates all kinds of stats. One such stat is that over the last 781 miles ridden, every inch of which was on Sanibel, I have had an elevation gain of 4182 feet. I assume that the random error goes into the calculation, but since the program is only interested in elevation gain it throws out the negative error and reports the positive error as gain. Does anybody have a better guess, or even (gasp) actual knowledge about this?

I guess the 35,636 calories it says I burned is spurious too. I know I'm still fat and out of shape.

I wonder if the GLONASS system would be any better if they could get their satellites into orbit?