korkeus

Korkeus is a Finnish term that denotes height, altitude, or vertical extent. It refers to the distance from a reference plane or surface to a point or object, and is typically expressed in units such as meters or feet. In everyday language, korkeus describes how tall something is, from a person to a building. In geography and cartography, korkeus means elevation above mean sea level and is used in maps, GPS data, and elevation profiles. Elevation is usually measured relative to a geoid or reference ellipsoid.

In geometry, korkeus has a precise meaning: the height of a triangle is the perpendicular distance from a vertex to the opposite side (or its extension). The concept generalizes to polygons and other figures by selecting a base line and measuring the perpendicular distance to the corresponding vertex or region. For common shapes like rectangles and parallelograms, height is the dimension perpendicular to the base.

In architecture and construction, korkeus describes the vertical extent of a structure. Building height is often important for safety, zoning, and aesthetics, and may be reported to the topmost architectural point or to the highest occupied floor, depending on the convention used.

In other fields, korkeus appears in meteorology, aviation, and computer graphics as altitude, height, or elevation. In 3D modelling and terrain rendering, height maps encode korkeus values to reproduce relief on digital surfaces. The term’s etymology traces to the Finnish korkea, meaning “high.”