Monday, June 19, 2017

Getting annoyingly technical

ALTITUDE: Vertical distance between an object and the local surface of the Earth. In other words, height in the air.

ELEVATION: Vertical distance between the local surface of the Earth and global sea level. The local surface of the Earth will be either land or water surface. In other words, height on the ground.

So, unless you're flying, you get elevation sickness, not altitude sickness. And I'm camped at an elevation of 11,215 feet. Yet I'm not suffering elevation sickness. I'm suffering a bout of pedantry.

3 comments:

  1. You're right, of course, but no one would understand me having elevation sickness. So, I guess I just have to jump up and down when suffering from altitude sickness. Unless I'm in an airplane being sick--I think that's called airsick, though. So where DO you get altitude sickness?

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  2. Oh and I thought that was an intense fear of elevators

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  3. It's where piedeotritons store their food, non perishables of course.

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