What Greek letters do we use?

[BigT]

@Roderick_Femm

Isn’t theta used in some way in scientology? Lambda used to be a pretty common sort-of-secret reference to being gay, before gay lib, I don’t know what the status is these days. 

I only knew about thetans, but it seems that does indeed come from the Greek letter theta.

Thetan | Cleared Theta Clear

[Shalmanese]

It might be quicker to list all the greek letters not in common use.

To my mind, they’re:

Ϝϝ (digamma)
Ηη (eta)
Νν (nu)
Ξξ (xi)

Are any of these used in an area that an average user of English may encounter?

[Thudlow_Boink]

@StarvingButStrong

I ran across sigma a lot in Calculus class and probability studies.

Capital sigma is used for summation notation. Lower-case sigma is used for standard deviation. And mu is the symbol for population mean.

Epsilon is commonly used in theoretical math for an arbitrarily small positive number, although that doesn’t make it “common use” generally.I had Calculus in high school from a teacher who loved the theoretical approach, and we saw lots of delta-epsilon proofs.

[Ruken]

Yeah I’m surrounded by scientists and engineers, so my sense of “common” gets skewed.

---

@running_coach

:flees:

When come back . . . .

[Marvin_the_Martian]

Omega is used as the abbreviation for “ohms”.

[DPRK]

@Tabco

I’ve seen the term “beta” used to refer to people (mostly males) who are shy, introverted, and basically the opposite of alpha males.

Beta is not too bad, though. Wouldn’t they be at least zeta or eta males?

ETA

@BigT

I’ve actually even heard gamma males in some instances. Unlike betas, they aren’t even interested in becoming alpha.

Ah, ninjaed.

[Napier]

@Ruken

When come back . . . .

I saw what you did there.

[mixdenny]

@Thudlow_Boink

Capital sigma is used for summation notation. Lower-case sigma is used for standard deviation. And mu is the symbol for population mean.

But in these cases and others mentioned the letter is just mathematical notation. The word has not entered our language as something. I realize Pi fits that category as well it is just much more common.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@Shalmanese

It might be quicker to list all the greek letters not in common use.

To my mind, they’re:
Νν (nu)

Nu, you obviously don’t speak much yiddish.

[Shalmanese]

@mixdenny

But in these cases and others mentioned the letter is just mathematical notation. The word has not entered our language as something. I realize Pi fits that category as well it is just much more common.

“Six Sigma” as a quality control methodology has definitely entered enough into the language to count in my mind.

[dtilque]

@Typo_Knig

I still see iota in crossword puzzles, usually related to the phrase “every iota and jot”.

Interestingly, the word jot derives from iota.

[Apollon]

Alpha radiation (produced during radioactive decay).
alpha strike (the first salvo that is fired in a battle).
Delta wings (airplanes wiht triangular wings).
Kappa (a trademark for sports apparel).
Lambda (a symbol used by gay males).
Rho (radius).
Sigma (mathematical sum).
Phi (angle in geometry).
Psi (often used by pseudoscientists to symbolise extrasensory abilities).

[iamthewalrus_3]

Lambda is used in computer science. Lambda calculus is a mathematical framework related to computing theory. It has started to enter business names, for example https://lambdaschool.com/

Alpha and Beta are used in investing to refer to different ways to earn returns.

[Ynnad]

@Colibri

But remember, pie are not square, pie are round.

After many, many years I finally got to use that one as a trainee in an online training webinar a few weeks ago. I also added that cornbread are square. It was one of the highlights of my entire life.

[DPRK]

@iamthewalrus_3

Alpha and Beta are used in investing to refer to different ways to earn returns.

As are other Greek letters like gamma, delta, rho, theta, etc. Investors, oddly, seem to think there are Greek letters with names like Vega, zomma, vera, veta, and more

[StarvingButStrong]

@Ynnad

@Colibri

But remember, pie are not square, pie are round.

After many, many years I finally got to use that one as a trainee in an online training webinar a few weeks ago. I also added that cornbread are square. It was one of the highlights of my entire life.

Nuh-uh. I always bake mine in a ROUND skillet.

[Ynnad]

@StarvingButStrong

Nuh-uh. I always bake mine in a ROUND skillet.

But don’t you cut into squares to serve it. I have never seen cornbread served in pie-shaped pieces.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Apollon

Lambda (a symbol used by gay males)

How come?

[DinoR]

@mixdenny

But in these cases and others mentioned the letter is just mathematical notation. The word has not entered our language as something.

Six Sigma certainly entered our language as more than just notation. It is a reference to six standard deviations.

[Tinmansd]

In cosmology, lambda is the symbol for the cosmological constant to account for the expansion of space (and how we can see light from a galaxy 40 billion light years away even though the big bang was less than 14 billion years ago–how did that galaxy get so far away so fast? The Incredible Expanding Universe!)