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.