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Beta (UK: /ˈbiːtə/, US: /ˈbeɪtə/; uppercase Β, lowercase β, or cursive ϐ; Ancient Greek: βῆτα, romanized: bē̂ta or Greek: βήτα, romanized: víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive IPA: [b]. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative IPA: [v] while IPA: [b] in borrowed words is instead commonly transcribed as μπ.^[1]^[2] Letters that arose from beta include the Roman letter ⟨B⟩ and the Cyrillic letters ⟨Б⟩ and ⟨В⟩.

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', compare Arabic: بيت bayt and Hebrew: בית báyit). In Greek, the name was βῆτα bêta, pronounced [bɛ̂ːta] in Ancient Greek. It is spelled βήτα in modern monotonic orthography and pronounced [ˈvita].

History

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), and (Cyclades).^[3]

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

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 tends to change by 1.5%.

International Phonetic Alphabet

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Greek minuscule beta denotes a voiced bilabial fricative [β].

A superscript version may also indicate a compressed vowel, like [ɯᵝ].

Meteorology

Beta has twice been used to name an Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone:

Hurricane Beta, in 2005
Tropical Storm Beta, in 2020

Mathematics and science

Beta is often used to denote a variable in mathematics and physics, where it often has specific meanings for certain applications.

β is sometimes used as a placeholder for an ordinal number if α is already used. For example, the two roots of a quadratic equation are typically labelled $α$ and $β$ .

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.

In spaceflight, beta angle describes the angle between the orbit plane of a spacecraft or other body and the vector from the sun.

In physics β is used for a beta particle (an unbound energetic electron or positron).

β is sometimes used to mean the proton-to-electron mass ratio.

β is also used in biology, for instance in β-Carotene, a primary source of provitamin A, or the β cells in pancreatic islets, which produce insulin.

The uppercase letter beta is not generally used as a symbol because it tends to be rendered identically to the uppercase Latin B.

Rock climbing terminology

The term "beta" refers to advice on how to successfully complete a particular climbing route, boulder problem, or crux sequence.^[4]

Slang

Beta male, or simply beta, is a slang term for men derived from the designation for beta animals in ethology, along with its counterpart, alpha male.^[5]^[6] The term has been used as a pejorative self-identifier among members of manosphere communities, particularly incels, who do not believe they are assertive or traditionally masculine, and feel overlooked by women.^[7]^[8] It is also used to negatively describe other men who are not assertive, particularly in heterosexual relationships.

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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 (VHS) format developed by the Japanese Victor Company, to which it eventually succumbed. The Betamax format was also marketed Betacord by (Sanyo); 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.

Unicode

U+0392 Β GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA (Β)
U+03B2 β GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA (β) (\beta in TeX)
U+03D0 ϐ GREEK BETA SYMBOL
U+1D5D ᵝ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL BETA
U+1D66 ᵦ GREEK SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER BETA
U+1DE9 ◌ᷩ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER BETA
U+2C82 Ⲃ COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER VIDA
U+2C83 ⲃ COPTIC SMALL LETTER VIDA
U+333C ㌼ SQUARE BEETA (Japanese square katakana of ベータ bēta)
U+A7B4 Ꞵ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER BETA
U+A7B5 ꞵ LATIN SMALL LETTER BETA
U+10381 𐎁 UGARITIC LETTER 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: