Human height is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body standing erect.
When populations share genetic background and environmental factors, average height is frequently characteristic within the group. Exceptional height variation (around 20% deviation from average) within such a population is sometimes due to gigantism or dwarfism, which are medical conditions caused by specific genes or endocrine abnormalities.
In regions of extreme poverty or prolonged warfare, environmental factors like chronic malnutrition during childhood or adolescence may account for delayed growth and/or (in severe cases) marked reductions in adult stature even without the presence of any of these medical conditions.
Read more about Human Height: Determinants of Growth and Height, Process of Growth, Height Abnormalities, History of Human Height, Average Height Around The World
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or height:
“I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
“To say more than human things with human voice,
That cannot be; to say human things with more
Than human voice, that, also, cannot be;
To speak humanly from the height or from the depth
Of human things, that is acutest speech.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)