The Greek Alphabet

Since we were mere children, we’ve always seen the symbol “π”. We were told that it simply represented the ratio between the diameter of a circle and its circumference, and at the time we wrote this symbol simply because we were told to. I guess it’s something that we didn’t really think all that much about. However, now as we grew up this symbol came from a grouping of strange symbols known as the Greek Alphabet.

The Greek Alphabet dates back to the eighth century BC, but the version we know today only dates back to the fourth century BC. With a writing system so old, it’s a wonder why mathematicians and physicists use these symbols to represent their constants or equations. Originally the Latin alphabet was the standard type of symbol for math, but after years of use they ran out of symbols to use and therefore resulted in using the Greek alphabet. One of the famous mathematicians, Leonhard Euler, used π and Σ specifically in his computations and I guess it just stuck. And with that, Euler then started a long tradition of using the Greek alphabet as a representation of mathematics and physics.

I mean personally, using all these crazy symbols when doing my math or physics homework makes me feel so cool. Whenever I do the physics equation x(t)=Acos(ωt+Φ) people look at it as if I’m writing in ancient hieroglyphics. These symbols not only provide me with something cool to write, but also representations of life. As in my previous blog, I talked about my use of Δ (delta) in everyday life to represent change. I guess that’s a quicker way of writing “change” when jotting down notes during lectures. It might just be one of those weird things I do, but these symbols are so interesting to me. They not only intrigue me, but confusing the people around me with these symbols is always fun to do.