Painting - Acrylic vs. Latex

Is there a difference between acrylic paint and latex paint? I'm using a crackling compound to paint my daughter's furniture. I tried it with latex paint but it didn't work. When I re-read the instructions I saw that the bottle said, "Use with acrylic paint." Can you help??? Thanks.

I think that I can help you. Latex paint is an emulsion. Particles of a certain polymer are dispersed in water and held in suspension using surfactants (kind of a short definition). The kind of polymer used in the paint will determine the kind of paint it is. If the paint is an acrylic, then the polymer is an acrylic one and the paint is called an acrylic. There are a number of polymers that are used in making latex paint. So the long and short of it is that a latex paint can be an acrylic or not depending on the kind of polymer used to make it.