Beta

Beta (uppercase/lowercase Β β), is a letter of the Greek alphabet, used to represent the "b" sound in Ancient Greek and "v" in Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. Letters that came from it include the Roman B and Cyrillic Б.

Beta.svg
Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu
Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi
Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron
Δδ Delta Ππ Pi
Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho
Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma
Ηη Eta Ττ Tau
Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon
Ιι Iota Φφ Phi
Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi
Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi
Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
Other letters
Ϝϝ Digamma Ⱶⱶ Heta
Ϻϻ San Ϙϙ Koppa
Ϡϡ Sampi Ϛϛ Stigma
Ϸϸ Sho

The sounds [b] and [v] resemble each other a lot. In Ancient Greek the "b" sound became "v" around 200 BC. Therefore, the letter B means the "v" sound in the Cyrillic alphabet, and a new letter, Б, was made for [b].

The letter beta is also used in finance, science and mathematics. For example. the beta function is named after the capital letter Β, and the probability of type II error in statistics is written with the lowercase β.[1][2][3]

Beta Media

Related pages

References

  1. "Greek/Hebrew/Latin-based Symbols in Mathematics". Math Vault. 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  2. "Greek alphabet letters & symbols (α,β,γ,δ,ε,...)". www.rapidtables.com. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  3. "Beta Symbol in Greek Alphabet". www.greeksymbols.net. Retrieved 2020-10-02.