What Is Altitude
The definition of altitude, according to Dictionary.com, is:
"The height of anything above a given planetary reference plane, especially above sea level on earth."
So what is sea level and how is it calculated?
Highlights from the video:
- The earth is not round, it is an ellipsoid that is 42 km wider across at the equator than from pole to pole.
- The summit of Chimborazo, in Ecuador, is the furthest point from the center of the earth. Not Everest.
- Water is held to the surface of the earth by gravitational pull.
- Continents and mountains have more gravitational pull thus attracting more water which raises the sea level.
- Geodesists define Sea level as the calculated height of the sea as if the mass of the mountain was there but not the mountain itself.
- Geodesists created the World Gravitational Model to predict the average seal level within a meter anywhere on earth which is used in GPS devices and is the basis for the actual height of mountains on the earth.
