Re: Editor's question--altitude/elevation

Steve Willner wrote:

In article <44039966.6070102@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bill Owen <wmo@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
The angle is correctly termed "altitude", and the distance above sea
level is the "elevation".

<snip>

I'm wondering whether the military uses the opposite convention. The
height an airplane flys at is "altitude" (distance), while artillery
aiming uses "elevation" (angle) in some sources I've seen. Any
artillery vets reading this?

I was a gunner in a (Canadian) militia field battery about a
quarter-century ago; the direction in which our guns (105-mm
gun-howitzers, more precisely) were aimed was described in terms of
"bearing" and "elevation", both measured in mils (6400ths of a circle).

--
Odysseus
.

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