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What is ALPHA?
What is ALPHA: Here, we are going to learn about the word ALPHA. ALPHA – which is an abbreviation in Computer Acronyms/Abbreviations, etc.
Submitted by Anushree Goswami, on March 23, 2020
ALPHA
Alpha is the first and foremost letter of the Greek alphabet. In the classification of Greek numerals or numbers, it constitutes a value of 1.
Letters that taken place and occurred from alpha comprise the Latin A and the Cyrillic letter А.
In English, the noun "alpha" is used as a synonym for "beginning", or "first" (in an order of sequence), revealing its Greek roots.
In Ancient Greek, alpha was articulated [a] and could be either phonemically long ([aː]) or short ([a]).
Mathematics and Science
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The letter alpha corresponds to a variety of concepts in physics and chemistry, consisting of:
- Alpha radiation
- Angular acceleration
- Alpha particles
- Alpha carbon
- Strength of electromagnetic interaction (as Fine-structure constant)
- Alpha also corresponds to the thermal expansion coefficient of a compound in physical chemistry.
- It is also normally used in mathematics in algebraic solutions signifying quantities such as angles.
- Also, in mathematics, the letter alpha is used to refer to the area underneath a normal curve in statistics to represent the significance level when proving null and alternative hypotheses.
- In zoology, it is used to name the leading and governing creature in a wolf or dog pack.
- In aerodynamics, the letter is used as a symbol for the angle of attack of an aircraft and the word "alpha" is used as a synonym for this property.
The proportionality operator "∝" (in Unicode: U+221D) is now and then taken false for alpha.
The uppercase letter alpha is not commonly used as a symbol for the reason that it is inclined to be provided indistinguishably to the uppercase Latin A.
International Phonetic Alphabet
- In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the letter ɑ, which appears similar to the lower-case alpha, corresponds to the open back unrounded vowel.
Alpha and Omega
- Alpha, both as a symbol and term, is used to allude to or illustrate a range of things, consisting of the first or highly noteworthy happening of something.
- The New Testament has God speaking out himself to be the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." (Revelation 22:13, KJV). Because of this symbolism, the characters ⍺ and ⍵ signify the left and right arguments in the APL programming language.
Language
- The term "alpha" has been used to refer to spot or position in the social hierarchy, examples being "alpha males" or pack leaders.
Reference: Alpha