Gamma
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Revision as of 11:37, 20 January 2015
Gamma (uppercase Γ, lowercase γ; Greek Γάμμα) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Gimel 
. Letters that arose from Gamma include the Roman C and G and the Cyrillic letters Ge Г and Ghe Ґ.
Contents |
Uses
Greek
In isolation
In Modern Greek, it represents either a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ or a voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/. In Ancient Greek, it represented a voiced velar stop /ɡ/.
Before velars
Before other velars (κ, χ k, kh), it represents a velar nasal /ŋ/ in Modern as well as Ancient Greek. A double gamma γγ represents the sequence /ŋɡ/ (phonetically varying [ŋɡ~ɡ]) or /ŋɣ/.
International Phonetic Alphabet
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lowercase gamma (ɣ) represents the voiced velar fricative. A lowercase gamma that lies above the baseline rather than crossing it (ɤ) represents the close-mid back unrounded vowel.
Math and science
Lower case
The lower-case letter γ is used as a symbol for:
- gamma radiation in nuclear physics
- surface energy in materials science
- the Lorentz factor in theory of relativity
- The heat capacity ratio Cp/Cv in thermodynamics
- The activity coefficient in thermodynamics
- The gyromagnetic ratio in electromagnetism
- gamma oscillation in neuroscience
- Gamma Motor Neurons in neuroscience
- antibiotic concentration (1 γ = 1 µg/ml) in microbiology
- the power by which the luminance of an image is increased in gamma correction
- The Euler–Mascheroni constant
- In mechanical engineering,
- specific weight
- The shear rate of a fluid is represented by a lower case gamma with a dot above it:
- Austenite (also known as γ-iron), a metallic non-magnetic allotrope or solid solution of iron.
Upper case
The upper-case letter Γ is used as a symbol for:
- In mathematics, the gamma function (usually written as Γ-function) is an extension of the factorial to complex numbers
- In probability theory and statistics, the gamma distribution is a two-parameter family of continuous probability distributions.
- circulation in fluid mechanics
- As reflection coefficient in physics and electrical engineering
- The tape alphabet of a Turing machine
See also
| Majuscule form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Α | Β | Γ | Δ | Ε | Ζ | Η | Θ | Ι | Κ | Λ | Μ | Ν | Ξ | Ο | Π | Ρ | Σ | Τ | Υ | Φ | Χ | Ψ | Ω | |||||||||
| Minuscule form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| α | β | γ | δ | ε | ζ | η | θ | ι | κ | λ | μ | ν | ξ | ο | π | ρ | σ | τ | υ | φ | χ | ψ | ω | |||||||||
