Originally Posted by
mschwett
yep. different underlying terrain models, different degrees of precision in those models and the way they interpolate....
Not to be too anal(or pedantic if the last word was aced), but when talking about accuracy and precision it's best to use specific/correct terms.
Precision is "repeatability"(in the science and engineering worlds). An instrument can be highly precise and yet be completely inaccurate at the same time. Accuracy is an instrument's ability to measure a correct or theoretically correct value. All measurements are estimates of some true value. A good estimate of a true value is an average of multiple measurements.
Maps or reported elevation estimates need to be accurate. With any luck, they were developed with accurate and precise instruments.