Talk:Greek letters used in mathematics

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Contents 1 Edits to upper and lower case letters 2 Greek letters in science and engineering 3 Wow 4 Greek pronunciation

[edit] Edits to upper and lower case letters

A few edits ago the lower and upper case Greek letters were the combined under one heading. In many cases the indication of which one is meant was lost. This needs some cleaning.

Additionally, the explanations in the bullets start at random with a small or capital letter. Usage in wikipedia seems to be small letters in lists. −Woodstone 11:43, 2005 Jun 4 (UTC)

[edit] Greek letters in science and engineering

A lot of Greek letters are also used in science and engineering. What do you think, should we add them here (perhaps after appropriate rename) or start a new article? −Woodstone 20:33, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)

• I'd say add them here. A comprehensive single list beats multiple lists – this can always be renamed to, say, Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering. AиDя01DTALKEMAIL 20:45, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wow

I had no idea this subject would be so popular. Nor did I think the other topic I made would be that popular as well. Thanks to all who contributed to both of them. --Admiral Roo 17:17, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Greek pronunciation

Would it be more appropriate to mention inside the brackets the correct pronunciation of some of the letters in the actual greek language? Some of them are correctly pronounced but for the following here is the correct pronunciation:

• μ (Me as in 'me')
• ν (Ne as in 'need')
• π (pe as in 'peek')
• ξ (kse as in 'anxious')
• τ (taf as in 'tough')
• υ (is eepsilon)
• φ (phe as in 'feel')
• χ (che as in 'he', strong 'h')
• ψ (pse as in 'autopsy')

I know they're commonly referred to with the current pronunciation. As a native greek I would like to point out the correct one as a suggestion for an addition -not substitution- to the current. −Arheos 00:15, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

These letters are borrowed from the "classical" Greek alphabet. How they are pronounced in modern Greek is not that relevant to this subject. There is an article Greek alphabet that contains that information.−Woodstone 10:10, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Since these letters have to be pronounced when used in context I think it is useful for people to know how to properly pronounce them. I have seen the discussion over at Greek alphabet but the interest here is that this article will be more often referred to when people look up a certain letter used in mathematics. The greek language is the only one that still uses these letters actively together with their pronunciation and it seems strange that a whole nation has a certain way of pronouncing them be it mathematics or not, whereas the rest of the world completely ignores that, a large portion of it at least, for one reason or another and uses something completely different for some of them. Well it's just my opinion after all.−Arheos 16:31, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

it's true that modern Greeks don't pronounce these letters in the same way that (non-Greek) mathematicians and scientists do. However, if you pronounced, say, τ as "taf", no English-speaking mathematician (and I think English-speaking mathematicians are probably the right sample to take here, as this is the English-language wikipedia) would understand you. Since this page is presumably meant to aid mathematical communication, it should reflect the pronunciations used by mathematicians.

However, it's probably worth mentioning in the article that there is this difference of pronunciation. I'll add something to that effect. Izzycat 21:27, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to provide this page as a link to students in my lower-division college math courses such as Trigonometry; I think an elementary pronunciation guide would be very useful for them. I'd want the pronunciations in use by mathematicians. Midnight Creek 06:20, 26 January 2007 (UTC)