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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

  • for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 342. The title of today's lesson

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