Beta (letter)

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[[Image:Greek_alphabet_{{{letter|alpha-omega}}}.png|center]]

Greek alphabet Α α Alpha Β β Beta Γ γ Gamma Δ δ Delta Ε ε Epsilon Ζ ζ Zeta Η η Eta Θ θ Theta Ι ι Iota Κ κ Kappa Λ λ Lambda Μ μ Mu Ν ν Nu Ξ ξ Xi Ο ο Omicron Π π Pi Ρ ρ Rho Σ σ Sigma Τ τ Tau Υ υ Upsilon Φ φ Phi Χ χ Chi Ψ ψ Psi Ω ω Omega obsolete letters Ϝ ϝ Digamma Image:Greek alphabet san.png San Ϙ ϙ Qoppa Ϡ ϡ Sampi

This page is about the letter β itself, for other uses of Beta or β see Beta (disambiguation)

Beta (upper case Β, lower case β) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Beth Image:Phoenician beth.png. In Modern Greek, it is pronounced [v], but in Ancient Greek, it was pronounced [b]. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 2.

Beta should not be confused with esszet (ß), a similar-looking but unrelated letter in German language orthography.

The Modern Greek name of the letter is /ˈviˑta/. The American pronunciation is /ˈbeɪtə/ whereas the British pronunciation is /ˈbiːtə/. See: American and British English differences, IPA

Letters that arose from Beta include the Roman B and the Cyrillic letters Be and Ve.

Uses of β

See also Beta (disambiguation).

• From its position in the Greek alphabet, it often stands for the second in a series; e.g., β Centauri for the second brightest star in constellation Centaurus.
• β is the the symbol for the voiced bilabial fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet
• Beta version in used to describe something, typically software that is still in the testing stages.
• Beta is the second highest caste in Aldous Huxley's dystopic satire Brave New World.
• Bipolar junction transistor, where β is the symbol for the DC common emitter current gain.
• Plasma, where β is the symbol for the ratio of particle to magnetic field energy density.
• Beta-function in a quantum field theory.
• Beta coefficient in finance.

See also

• ß, in German language orthography which can be confused with β.als:Β

ca:Beta da:Beta de:Beta el:Βήτα es:Β fr:Bêta ga:Béite gl:Beta ko:Β la:Beta nl:Bèta (letter) ja:Β no:Beta pl:Beta pt:Β fi:Beeta sv:Beta zh:Β