Name: Enligh Tutor Nick P Lesson (342) The Difference Between Elevation and Altitude
Uploaded: 2019-09-15T15:30:36.000Z
Duration: 5 min 8 s
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Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 342. The title of today's lesson

is the difference between elevation and altitude. Okay. And you know a lot of

times students will get confused by these two because when you look at the

definitions they're both measured from the distance above sea level.  So students

may you know when you come across one and they're used to the other one

they'll say oh what's the difference ? You know they both have almost the same

meanings. All right. But there is clearly a difference in use So let's let's look

the note here.  Elevation is the height of land that is

measured above sea level. We use elevation, especially for you know

mountains,  hills,  etc. So especially it should be something that's stationary

and especially land. Okay elevation.  Elevation could also be used on plans or

blueprints to describe the height of the side of a building. Even though this is

more of a technical use. This is used mostly in architecture. So if you are

looking at the blueprint or the plans they might say the elevation. Meaning

like how high it goes up. However if we're just talking about a building you

know , among ,  you know regular people ,we don't usually say what is the elevation

in that building  ? Well usually say what is the height of that building ? So we'll

just probably use height and you know the answer would probably be you know so

many floors,  or so many feet or possibly meters high. Okay. Good. And so all right

let's take a look at altitude. Altitude is used to measure the distance of an

aircraft or moving objects above sea level. So that's what we use altitude for.

We mostly use it for moving objects,  especially planes. Okay. All right. Let's

look at the several examples here. For all the Meanings.  The first one,  the

elevation of Mount Everest is 8,848 meters or 29,029 feet. All right. So now we

definitely wouldn't say altitude here. We wouldn't say the altitude of Mount

Everest. We have to say that elevation it is a mountain. It is a hill. It's a

measurement on land. Okay. Let's look at number two. The average plane usually

flies at an altitude between 35,000 and 42,000 feet. So this one we definitely

use altitude for. We will not use elevation for this. Yeah.  I did look at it.

I think they said that this is the perfect area because you need to go like

I think above 35,000 feet and the air becomes thinner and if the air becomes

thinner the plane can actually ... it has less resistance. It can travel faster and

you know airlines save on gas or gas mileage and I think there's a problem

going above 42,000 feet to some problem with the engines or something so they

usually stay in this area. Okay. Good and let's look at number three. The blueprint

shows the elevation of the front inside of that building . So again this is the

more technical use in architecture talking about the height of the building.

All right now. To make things even a little more confusing though. Sometimes

the student lmay ask well what about altitude sickness ? Because you know,

altitude measures the height of like moving objects,  planes,  and elevation does

the land. But we use altitude sickness for it for people. You know why don't we

say elevation sickness ? Actually  it seems to almost make more sense, because we are

standing on a mountain and really that's the measurement. The mountain above sea

levell. Well.  Let's look here. So altitude sickness is an illness that is a

combination of symptoms such as shortness of breath. Yeah. You might be

gasping or having a difficult time breathing. Nosebleeds yeah, your nose just may

start bleeding  out of nowhere . Nausea of course,  means you feel

like vomiting or throwing up. Headaches and exhaustion caused by a decreased

level of oxygen that one encounters at high altitude. So although I means

technically I guess you could argue we are moving objects and we are you know

that high-level even though we are still on the mountain but we do use the term

altitude sickness for this. And it's also good to note. Altitude sickness does have

a more formal name  mountain sickness too. Even though,  I think I hear most

people use altitude sickness that's the more common one. Anyway,  I hope this is

kind of clarified it for you. So use elevation for the measurement of land.

Use altitude for when you want to describe how high moving objects are,

especially planes. And then just realize you know , we just use this term altitude

sickness for the illness. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you