- For other senses of this word, see Elevation (disambiguation)
Elevation, literally "lifting something or someone higher" , may refer to:*Elevation , the lifting of consecrated bread and wine in Mass*Elevation, the height of a geographic location above mean sea level...
.
In
ballisticsBallistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
, the
elevation is the
angleIn geometry and trigonometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle...
between the
horizontalHorizontal may refer*Horizontal plane, in astronomy, geography, geometry and other sciences and contexts*Horizontal coordinate system, in astronomy*Horizontalism, in sociology*Horizontal market, in microeconomics...
planeIn mathematics, a plane is a flat surface. Planes can arise as subspaces of some higher dimensional space, as with the walls of a room, or they may enjoy an independent existence in their own right, as in the setting of Euclidean geometry....
and the direction of the barrel of a
gunIn military parlance, a gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm...
,
mortarA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
or heavy
artilleryArtillery is a military combat Arm that employs weapons capable of discharging large projectiles in combat. They are generally capable of adding considerable fire power to the military capability of an armed force...
. Originally, elevation was a
linear measure of how high the gunners had to physically lift the
muzzleThe muzzle of a firearm is the end of the barrel from which the projectile will exit.Precise machining of the muzzle is crucial to accuracy, because it is the last point of contact between the barrel and the projectile...
of a gun up from the gun carriage to hit targets at a certain distance.
Though firearms were relatively easy to fire back then, artillery was not.
- For other senses of this word, see Elevation (disambiguation)
Elevation, literally "lifting something or someone higher" , may refer to:*Elevation , the lifting of consecrated bread and wine in Mass*Elevation, the height of a geographic location above mean sea level...
.
In
ballisticsBallistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
, the
elevation is the
angleIn geometry and trigonometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle...
between the
horizontalHorizontal may refer*Horizontal plane, in astronomy, geography, geometry and other sciences and contexts*Horizontal coordinate system, in astronomy*Horizontalism, in sociology*Horizontal market, in microeconomics...
planeIn mathematics, a plane is a flat surface. Planes can arise as subspaces of some higher dimensional space, as with the walls of a room, or they may enjoy an independent existence in their own right, as in the setting of Euclidean geometry....
and the direction of the barrel of a
gunIn military parlance, a gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm...
,
mortarA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
or heavy
artilleryArtillery is a military combat Arm that employs weapons capable of discharging large projectiles in combat. They are generally capable of adding considerable fire power to the military capability of an armed force...
. Originally, elevation was a
linear measure of how high the gunners had to physically lift the
muzzleThe muzzle of a firearm is the end of the barrel from which the projectile will exit.Precise machining of the muzzle is crucial to accuracy, because it is the last point of contact between the barrel and the projectile...
of a gun up from the gun carriage to hit targets at a certain distance.
Pre-WWI and WWI
Though firearms were relatively easy to fire back then, artillery was not. Before and during World War I, the only way to effectively fire artillery was plotting points on a plane.
Most artillery units seldom employed their cannons in small numbers. Instead of using pin-point artillery firing they used old means of "fire for effect" using artillery en masse. This tactic was employed successfully by past armies.
But changes have been made since past wars and in WWI, artillery was more accurate than before, although not as accurate as modern artillery guns. The tactics of artillery from previous wars were carried on, and still had similar success. Warships and battleships also carried large caliber guns that needed to be elevated to certain degrees to accurately hit targets, and they also had the similar drawbacks of land artillery.
WWII and beyond
As time passed on, more accurate artillery guns were made, and they came in different varieties. Small artillery pieces were used as mortars, medium sized artillery guns became tank guns, and the largest artillery guns became long range land batteries and battleship armaments.
With the introduction of better tanks in WWII, elevation was once again a problem for tank gunners, which had to aim through the Gunner's Auxiliary Sights(GAS) or even through iron sights. Though the problem was not that evident as tanks fired rounds at a higher velocity than normal artillery, making aiming less of a hassle.
As with WWI, WWII artillery was almost like its old counterpart. But in the war came the introduction of the FCS or the Fire Control System, which made firing artillery accurately easier
With the advancements in the 21st century, it has become easy to determine how much elevation a gun needed to hit a target. The Laser Range Finder is a modern component of FCS, an can accurately determine the range of the target, thereby calculating how much elevation the gun needs, making modern day guns highly accurate.