Elevation and altitude usage! (minor rant)

[idrivemopar]

Lately I have heard a lot of people on the television(mostly sports commentators) and online, that commonly refer to altitude when discussing the height above sea level of a location, such as a football stadium or when folks out here in the west refer to something in the mountains or their city.

Elevation is the correct word to use to describe things like these, not altitude. Airplanes fly at altitude, clouds are at certain altitudes, stars and planets appear at certain altitudes above the horizon. A mountain or city isn't 10K feet in altitude, its 10k feet in elevation. I wish people would actually look up and learn the definition of words before they use them, these two should have been learned in grade school by most people.

Here are the definitions for correctly using the terms.
Altitude - the vertical height of an object above a surface
Elevation - the height above the level of the sea

I know some of you will argue this because the use of the English language has gotten lazy, so go ahead, I just wanted to state my case.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

Oh, so "altitude" don't stand for "alternative attitude"?? LOL

 

[dla4567]

I learn something new everyday. Now I can take the rest of the day off. Thank you.

 

[danf_fl]

Now, are you insinuating MSL (Mean Sea Level) or AGL (Above Ground Level)?

 

[69 GTX]

So why do they call it corrected altitude, instead of corrected elevation? Just saying.....

Your nose technically is at altitude because it's not on the earths surface, so I side with the commentators.

 

[69 GTX]

Altitude

Altitude or height (sometimes known as depth) is defined based on the context in which it is used (aviation, geometry, geographical survey, sport, and many more). As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context.


Both words are defined by measuring from a "datum" which can be what ever you want.

 

[69 GTX]

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic system, vertical datum

 

[Richard Cranium]

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/c32aaaa5-ea20-4074-9df3-acf23ff2e2d1

 

[bm02tj]

As with most things they will alter the definition to match the way people us a word even if wrong
As in ain't ain't in the dictionary but is now

 

[SteveSS]

You know i think you're right I used altitude in my post instead of elevation. All the signs here say elevation. Speaking of elevation there's a fancy high life magazine sold here called. "5280."

 

[hanks73340]

So....the sinniferous, effervescent, obstantagious phrases which you direct and re-iterate for our comprehension, has somewhat failed to impress us. The real question is what about the vertical distance that between the ground and the elevation that is measured between the point of altitude and where that elevation ends.

Also....sports announcers the just plain stupid and opinionated.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

So a car has wheels and a donk has rims.

 

[ws23jrt]

"Elevation"--as I came to know it -in the construction industry- is based (as has been said) on a consensus of what sea level is.
---It is an agreed upon -point in space- from which to build stuff much like a -square corner- is another reference to build something that allows all the fabbed parts fit.
It is arbitrary, to begin with, and a building will not be trashed in the middle of construction if someone decides to re-establish "sea level".

"Altitude"--(from my life experience) is based on barometric pressure which is also a constantly moving point as is the level of the sea. Standards start from a point of agreement. --A foot is 12 inches. A mile is 5280 ft.--10,000 kilometers is based on the distance of one fourth the way around the world.--(Our world is not perfectly round and will never be).

The semantics (and true meaning) of words can be- understandably- confusing.-- Engineers spend (likely) much less time with this stuff than we the general public because it is -so- not relevant.

 

[moparmarks]

Avs and Nuggets are on the Altitude Channel.

 

[SteveSS]

In Geology we always use elevation above MSL. Except when we are drilling of oil Then you have your surface elevation which may be +3000' msl, drilling depth which may be 10,000' but only 7,000' below msl.


Here's the whole trick to finding oil!!! Gillions of years ago places on the earth were covered with lush vegetation and creatures. They died and sunk to the low spots in the topography They accumulated in beds of rocks. Along came some forces that bent and folded those beds. Oil being lighter than water accumulated in these high spots of the bends thousands of feet below us. Drill into a high spot with tons of pressure of rocks on top and it releases gas and oil whammo you've got an oil gusher. It's that simple. You're rich.

You miss you get a duster that cost you $1,000,000.