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 *bait. In Greek, the name was βῆτα bêta, pronounced in Ancient Greek. It is spelled βήτα in modern monotonic orthography and pronounced.
History
The letter beta was derived from the Phoenician letterbeth. The letter Β had the largest number of highly divergent local forms. Besides the standard form, there were forms as varied as , and , , , , , and .
Uses
Algebraic numerals
In the system of Greek numerals, beta has a value of 2. Such use is denoted by a number mark: Β′.
Computing
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 tends to change by 1.5%.
Beta is often used to denote a variable in mathematics and physics, where it often has specific meanings for certain applications. In physics a stream of unbound energetic electrons is commonly referred to as beta radiation or beta rays. In regression analysis, symbolizes nonstandardized partial slope coefficients, whereas represents standardized 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. β is sometimes used to mean the proton-to-electron mass ratio.
Rock climbing terminology
The term "beta" refers to advice on how to successfully complete a particular climbing route, boulder problem, or crux sequence.
Slang
The term "beta" has become a common adjective used colloquially to describe someone who is displaying behaviours that classify them as unremarkable and confrontational, often lacking charisma and confidence. It is often used in the phrase "beta male," which is used to describe a person of the male gender who does not assert any dominant "alpha actions" into their character, such as lurking a group chat online without participating or substantial lacking of social awareness.
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. In typesetting technical literature, it is a commonly made mistake to use the German letter ß as a replacement for β. The two letters resemble each other in some fonts, but they are unrelated.
Videotape formats
"Beta" can be used to refer to several consumer and professional videotape formats developed by Japan's Sony Corporation. Although similarly named, they are very different in function and obsolescence.
Betamax was the name of a domestic videotape format developed in the 1970s and 1980s. It competed with the Video Home System format developed by the Japanese Victor Company, to which it eventually succumbed. The Betamax format was also marketed Betacord by ; some cassettes were simply labeled "Beta," and the logo was a lower-case beta. Betamax lost in the market and is an oft-used example of a technically superior solution that failed due to market forces.
Betacam, including Beta SP and DigiBeta, is a family of professional videotape formats launched in 1982 that was the de facto standard for professional video, advertising, and television production through the 2000s. The formats outlasted analog NTSC television, and their scarcity today is because the industry has moved to HD formats.
Character encodings
Greek Beta
Latin Beta
Mathematical Beta
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.
