- Beta (letter)
Beta (uppercase Β, lowercase β, internal unicode|ϐ; _el. Βήτα [IPA|ˈviˑta] Vita) is the second letter of the
Greek alphabet . In the system ofGreek numerals it has a value of 2. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Beth .In high-quality print, a variant of the letter is sometimes used that does not have a
descender except at the beginning of a word: “βίβλος” is written “βίUnicode|ϐλος”. Lowercase Unicode|ϐ is very common in handwriting though.Ancient Greek
In
Ancient Greek , Beta represented a IPA|/b/ and the name of the letter, polytonic|Βήτα, was pronounced something like IPA|/ˈbɛːta/. The name of the letter in English derives from this; the American pronunciation is IPAEng|ˈbeɪtə, whereas the British pronunciation is IPA|/ˈbiːtə/. See:American and British English pronunciation differences .Modern Greek
In Modern Greek, it represents a
voiced labiodental fricative IPA|/v/ and the Modern Greek name of the letter, Βήτα, is pronounced IPA2|ˈviˑta.Use as a symbol or name
Beta is often used to denote a variable in mathematics and physics, where it often has specific meanings for certain applications, such as representing beta particles, and
beta radiation .In the
International Phonetic Alphabet , Greek minuscule beta denotes avoiced bilabial fricative .Common difficulties
In typesetting technical literature, it is a commonly made mistake to use the German letter ß as a replacement for the β. The two letters resemble each other superficially, but they are unrelated. This substitution looks extremely unprofessional to the eyes of German or Greek readers.
The Unicode number for β is U+03B2, and with β or β the β is coded in HTML.
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