Monikulmiota

Monikulmio (monikulmiota is the partitive singular) is the Finnish term for polygon, a plane figure bounded by straight line segments that meet at vertices to form a closed chain. The word is used in mathematics to describe any such figure, from the simplest triangle to polygons with many sides.

A polygon is defined by n sides and n vertices, with n at least 3. If its sides do not cross, it is a simple polygon. Polygons can be convex, meaning every line drawn through the figure intersects it at most twice, or concave, where at least one interior angle points inward. The classification also includes regular polygons, where all sides and all interior angles are equal, though most polygons encountered in practice are irregular.

Several basic properties are noted in geometry. The sum of the interior angles of a simple polygon with n sides is (n − 2) × 180 degrees. The perimeter is the sum of its side lengths. The area can be computed by the shoelace formula for arbitrary polygons given vertex coordinates; for regular polygons with side length s and n sides, the area can be expressed as A = (n s^2) / (4 tan(π/n)).

In educational and applied contexts, monikulmio covers a wide range of shapes, from triangles to large multi-sided figures, and is foundational in fields such as geometry, computer graphics, map making, and architectural design. The term is encountered in textbooks, exams, and technical writing when discussing properties, measurements, and algorithms related to polygonal figures.