Alpha

For other uses, see Alpha (disambiguation).

Alpha (uppercase/lowercase Α α), is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, used to stand for the "a" sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 1. Letters that came from it are the Roman A and Cyrillic А.

Alpha is often used in physics and chemistry as a symbol or in the names of things, for example alpha particles (which are two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle the same as a helium nucleus). The symbol is also used a lot in mathematics in algebra, for example in naming angles, and in statistics, to represent statistical significance level.

Alpha is also used in the modern day as a slang term to describe someone who is superior to another. It gets it roots from an Alpha Male, or a wolf that is the head of the pack. Additionally, alpha can refer to Generation Alpha.

References

  1. ↑ "Greek/Hebrew/Latin-based Symbols in Mathematics". Math Vault. 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  2. ↑ "Greek alphabet letters & symbols (α,β,γ,δ,ε,...)". www.rapidtables.com. Retrieved 2020-10-02.