Beta
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Look up Β or β in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Beta (UK /ˈbiːtə/ or US /ˈbeɪtə/; uppercase Β, lowercase β, or cursive ϐ; Ancient Greek: βῆτα bḗta or Modern Greek: βήτα víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive /b/. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative /v/. Letters that arose from beta include the Roman letter ⟨B⟩ and the Cyrillic letters ⟨Б⟩ and ⟨В⟩.
Contents
Name
Like the names of most other Greek letters, the name of beta was adopted from the acrophonic name of the corresponding letter in Phoenician, which was the common Semitic word *bayt ('house'). In Greek, the name was βῆτα bêta, pronounced [bɛ̂ːta] in Ancient Greek. It is spelled βήτα in modern monotonic orthography, and pronounced [ˈvita]. In US English, the name is pronounced /ˈbeɪtə/, while in British English it is pronounced /ˈbiːtə/.
History
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
The letter beta was derived from the Phoenician letter beth .
The letter Β had the largest number of highly divergent local forms. Besides the standard form (either rounded or pointed, ), there were forms as varied as (Gortyn), and (Thera), (Argos), (Melos), (Corinth), (Megara, Byzantium), (Cyclades).[1]
Uses
Numeral
In the system of Greek numerals, beta has a value of 2. Such use is denoted by a number mark: Β′. In Scientific unit notation it is used as a particle and pronounced as a /bIta/
Computing
In computing, the term "beta" is used as (usually) the last testing release(or the preview release) in the software release life cycle before the "release" version. Beta versions often have a version number of the form "0.n", (or "build number"). Typically it is the last version before a version of a software is fully released to all its actual customers.
Finance
Beta is used in finance as a measure of investment portfolio risk. Beta in this context is calculated as the covariance of the portfolio's returns with its benchmark's returns, divided by the variance of the benchmark's returns. A beta of 1.5 means that for every 1% change in the value of the benchmark, the portfolio's value changes by 1.5%.
International Phonetic Alphabet
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Greek minuscule beta denotes a voiced bilabial fricative [β].
Meteorology
The name Beta was used as a name during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season as Hurricane Beta.
Mathematics and science
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 radiation. In regression analysis, ⟨B⟩ symbolizes nonstandardized partial slope coefficients, whereas ⟨β⟩ represents standardized (standard deviation-score form) coefficients; in both cases, the coefficients reflect the change in the criterion Y per one-unit change in the value of the associated predictor X.
β is sometimes used as a placeholder for an ordinal number if α is already used.
In spaceflight, Beta angle describes the angle between the orbit plane of a spacecraft or other body and the vector from the sun.
Rock climbing terminology
The term "beta" refers to advice on how to successfully complete a particular climbing route, boulder problem, or crux sequence.
Statistics
In statistics, beta may represent type II error, or regression slope.
Typography
In some high-quality typesetting, especially in the French tradition, a typographic variant of the lowercase letter without a descender is used within a word for ancient Greek: βίβλος is printed βίϐλος.[2]
In typesetting technical literature, it is a commonly made mistake to use the German letter ß (a s–z or s–s ligature) as a replacement for β. The two letters resemble each other in some fonts, but they are unrelated.
Videotape format
Beta was the name of a domestic videotape format developed by Japan's Sony Corporation in the 1970s and 1980s. It competed with the Video Home System (VHS) format developed by the Japanese Victor Company, to which it eventually succumbed. The Beta format was also marketed as Betamax (Sony) and Betacord (Sanyo).
Character encodings
- Greek Beta
Character | Β | β | ϐ | ᵝ | ᵦ | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA | GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA | GREEK BETA SYMBOL | MODIFIER LETTER SMALL BETA | GREEK SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER BETA | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 914 | U+0392 | 946 | U+03B2 | 976 | U+03D0 | 7517 | U+1D5D | 7526 | U+1D66 |
UTF-8 | 206 146 | CE 92 | 206 178 | CE B2 | 207 144 | CF 90 | 225 181 157 | E1 B5 9D | 225 181 166 | E1 B5 A6 |
Numeric character reference | Β | Β | β | β | ϐ | ϐ | ᵝ | ᵝ | ᵦ | ᵦ |
Named character reference | Β | β | ||||||||
DOS Greek | 129 | 81 | 153 | 99 | ||||||
DOS Greek-2 | 165 | A5 | 215 | D7 | ||||||
Windows 1253 | 194 | C2 | 226 | E2 | ||||||
TeX | \beta |
- Latin Beta
Character | Ꞵ | ꞵ | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER BETA | LATIN SMALL LETTER BETA | ||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 42932 | U+A7B4 | 42933 | U+A7B5 |
UTF-8 | 234 158 180 | EA 9E B4 | 234 158 181 | EA 9E B5 |
Numeric character reference | Ꞵ | Ꞵ | ꞵ | ꞵ |
- CJK Square Beta
Character | ㌼ | |
---|---|---|
Unicode name | SQUARE BEETA | |
Encodings | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 13116 | U+333C |
UTF-8 | 227 140 188 | E3 8C BC |
Numeric character reference | ㌼ | ㌼ |
- Mathematical Beta
Character | 𝚩 | 𝛃 | 𝛣 | 𝛽 | 𝜝 | 𝜷 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL BETA |
||||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 120489 | U+1D6A9 | 120515 | U+1D6C3 | 120547 | U+1D6E3 | 120573 | U+1D6FD | 120605 | U+1D71D | 120631 | U+1D737 |
UTF-8 | 240 157 154 169 | F0 9D 9A A9 | 240 157 155 131 | F0 9D 9B 83 | 240 157 155 163 | F0 9D 9B A3 | 240 157 155 189 | F0 9D 9B BD | 240 157 156 157 | F0 9D 9C 9D | 240 157 156 183 | F0 9D 9C B7 |
UTF-16 | 55349 57001 | D835 DEA9 | 55349 57027 | D835 DEC3 | 55349 57059 | D835 DEE3 | 55349 57085 | D835 DEFD | 55349 57117 | D835 DF1D | 55349 57143 | D835 DF37 |
Numeric character reference | 𝚩 | 𝚩 | 𝛃 | 𝛃 | 𝛣 | 𝛣 | 𝛽 | 𝛽 | 𝜝 | 𝜝 | 𝜷 | 𝜷 |
Character | 𝝗 | 𝝱 | 𝞑 | 𝞫 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL BETA |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL BETA |
||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 120663 | U+1D757 | 120689 | U+1D771 | 120721 | U+1D791 | 120747 | U+1D7AB |
UTF-8 | 240 157 157 151 | F0 9D 9D 97 | 240 157 157 177 | F0 9D 9D B1 | 240 157 158 145 | F0 9D 9E 91 | 240 157 158 171 | F0 9D 9E AB |
UTF-16 | 55349 57175 | D835 DF57 | 55349 57201 | D835 DF71 | 55349 57233 | D835 DF91 | 55349 57259 | D835 DFAB |
Numeric character reference | 𝝗 | 𝝗 | 𝝱 | 𝝱 | 𝞑 | 𝞑 | 𝞫 | 𝞫 |
These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.
References
- ↑ Jeffery 1961, p. 23.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.