What Is The Difference Between Active And Passive Attacks?

For an active attack , the attacker needs to first gain the physical control of the media where as for passive attack the attacker merely needs to observe the conversation
active attacks can be easily detected but passive can not
hence prevention is better for passive attacks and proper cure should be taken in case of active attack
moreover attacker needs more time to get information about the target in passive attack but i  active attack the attacker uses these information to launch an successful attack on target