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What's the difference between steps and stairs?

Question

Why do you call them stairs inside and steps outside? They’re all the same aren’t they?
Viv, Faversham

Answer

** Definitive **
Name: Robert, Ealing
Qualification: Engineer
Answer: Neil Armstrong said “one small step”. Steps refer to climbing an altitude – it’s a distortion of context. Stairs are for going vertically, whereas steps take you from A to B, and sometimes it happens that B is a different altitude to A.

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