Official comment
It is a pretty complicated topic... It is related to the camera's focal length, the sensor's pixel size and the distance from the objective. It is generally referred to as GSD or Ground Spatial Distance. GSD is typically quoted in inches or cm per pixel. A GSD of 4 in/px means that one pixel in the resultant image represents a 4 inch square on the ground. Smaller squares means more detail.
On a camera with a fixed focal length, like the DJI Phantom 3, the GSD will scale linearly with altitude. On a camera with a varifocal lens, the GSD will scale linearly with focal length.
People also sometimes refer to an image being X feet or Y meters and are talking about the spot size, or size of the area that an image covers on the ground. In aerial images, these are usually 10s to 100s of meters and will equal the GSD times the resolution. A 4000x3000 image with 5 cm GSD will give a spot size of 20000cm x 15000cm, or 200x150 meters.
Our Flight Planner https://www.mapsmadeeasy.com/flight_planner will let you play with the numbers without getting bogged down in the math.