what's the difference between altitude and elevation?

Answer 1

elevation is how high above sea level the groud is that your on. Altitude is how in the air you are above the ground.

Answer 2

Jared Z and sgtj01 have got it right.

Altitude is used for things that are not touching the ground - so its usually an aviation term, ie how high an aircraft is above sea level. For example, the airplane's altitude was 12,000 feet.

Elevation is usually a term referred to being on the ground - such as a landform, or a person or object on land that is a certain distance above sea level. For example, we were walking on a mountain that had an elevation of 4,000 meters.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, as with many other words, these two
are often used, loosely and carelessly, as though
they meant the same thing. The other answerers
mostly have it right. Elevation is something you do
on the ground, altitude is something you do in the
air. But in many reference books you will see
such statements as "the altitude of mountain X is
so many thousand feet." It would be nice if every
one used the words precisely, but they don't.

Answer 4

I think they are pretty much the same thing.

But, generally, when you are talking about altitude, you're talking about being off the ground, like in a plane.

When you're talking elevation, you're talking about the height of the land you are on above sea level, like the height of a mountain.

Answer 5

Both the same, but usualy pilots use the term altitude to measure there elevation.

Answer 6

take it from a skydiver, altitude is how high you are, like in a plane, while elevation is how far above sea level a certain point on the earth is.

Answer 7

Altitude can be barometric( pressure) or radar. That is part of the answer.

Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude