sensitive altimeter

sensitive altimeter

[′sen·səd·iv al′tim·əd·ər]

(engineering)

An aneroid altimeter constructed to respond to pressure changes (altitude changes) with a high degree of sensitivity; it contains two or more pointers to refer to different scales, calibrated in hundreds of feet, thousands of feet, and so on.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

sensitive altimeter

A form of pneumatic altimeter that is more accurate than a simple altimeter. It has an adjustable barometric scale by which the instrument can be adjusted to the existing barometric pressure. The altimeter pointer makes a complete revolution for each thousand feet, with the second pointer indicating thousands of feet. The instrument, in addition, may have a counter reader to replace the third pointer, which indicates tens of thousands of feet.

An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved