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![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Greek_lowercase_kappa_variant.svg/75px-Greek_lowercase_kappa_variant.svg.png)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Greek_word_%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%AF_written_with_a_handwritten_variant_of_kappa%2C_from_the_Byzantine_period.png/220px-Greek_word_%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%AF_written_with_a_handwritten_variant_of_kappa%2C_from_the_Byzantine_period.png)
Kappa (/ˈkæpə/;[1] uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ϰ; Greek: κάππα, káppa) is the tenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive IPA: [k] sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, Kʹ has a value of 20. It was derived from the Phoenician letter kaph . Letters that arose from kappa include the Roman K and Cyrillic К. The uppercase form is identical to the Latin K.
Greek proper names and placenames containing kappa are often written in English with "c" due to the Romans' transliterations into the Latin alphabet: Constantinople, Corinth, Crete. All formal modern romanizations of Greek now use the letter "k", however.[citation needed]
The cursive form ϰ is generally a simple font variant of lower-case kappa, but it is encoded separately in Unicode for occasions where it is used as a separate symbol in math and science. In mathematics, the kappa curve is named after this letter; the tangents of this curve were first calculated by Isaac Barrow in the 17th century.
Symbol
[edit]Lowercase (κ)
[edit]- Mathematics and statistics
- In graph theory, the connectivity of a graph is given by κ.
- In differential geometry, the curvature of a curve is given by κ.
- In linear algebra, the condition number of a matrix is given by κ.
- Kappa statistics such as Cohen's kappa and Fleiss' kappa are methods for calculating inter-rater reliability.
- Physics
- In cosmology, the Einstein gravitational constant is denoted by κ.
- In physics, the torsional constant of an oscillator is given by κ.
- In physics, the coupling coefficient in magnetostatics is represented by κ.
- In physics, the dielectric coefficient is represented by κ.
- In fluid dynamics, the von Kármán constant is represented by κ.
- In thermodynamics, the compressibility of a compound is given by κ.
- Engineering
- In structural engineering, κ is the ratio of the smaller factored moment to the larger factored moment and is used to calculate the critical elastic moment of an unbraced steel member.
- In electrical engineering, κ is the multiplication factor, a function of the R/X ratio of the equivalent power system network, which is used in calculating the peak short-circuit current of a system fault. κ is also used to denote conductivity, the reciprocal of resistivity, rho.
- Biology and biomedical science
- In biology, kappa and kappa prime are important nucleotide motifs for a tertiary interaction of group II introns.
- In biology, kappa designates a subtype of an antibody component.
- In pharmacology, kappa represents a type of opioid receptor.
- Psychology and psychiatry
- In psychology and psychiatry, kappa represents a measure of diagnostic reliability.
- Economics
- In macroeconomics, kappa represents the capital-utilization rate.[2]
Uppercase (Κ)
[edit]- History
- In textual criticism, the Byzantine text-type (from Κοινη, Koine, the common text).
- Mathematics and statistics
- In set theory, kappa is often used to denote an ordinal that is also a cardinal.
- Chemistry
- In chemistry, kappa is used to denote the denticity of the compound.
- In pulping, the kappa number represents the amount of an oxidizing agent required for bleaching a pulp.
Character encodings
[edit]Preview | Κ | κ | ϰ | Ⲕ | ⲕ | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA | GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA | GREEK KAPPA SYMBOL | COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KAPA | COPTIC SMALL LETTER KAPA | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 922 | U+039A | 954 | U+03BA | 1008 | U+03F0 | 11412 | U+2C94 | 11413 | U+2C95 |
UTF-8 | 206 154 | CE 9A | 206 186 | CE BA | 207 176 | CF B0 | 226 178 148 | E2 B2 94 | 226 178 149 | E2 B2 95 |
Numeric character reference | Κ |
Κ |
κ |
κ |
ϰ |
ϰ |
Ⲕ |
Ⲕ |
ⲕ |
ⲕ |
Named character reference | Κ | κ | ϰ, ϰ | |||||||
DOS Greek | 137 | 89 | 161 | A1 | ||||||
DOS Greek-2 | 181 | B5 | 228 | E4 | ||||||
Windows 1253 | 202 | CA | 234 | EA | ||||||
TeX | \kappa |
- Mathematical Kappa
Preview | 𝚱 | 𝛋 | 𝛞 | 𝛫 | 𝜅 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD KAPPA SYMBOL |
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL KAPPA | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 120497 | U+1D6B1 | 120523 | U+1D6CB | 120542 | U+1D6DE | 120555 | U+1D6EB | 120581 | U+1D705 |
UTF-8 | 240 157 154 177 | F0 9D 9A B1 | 240 157 155 139 | F0 9D 9B 8B | 240 157 155 158 | F0 9D 9B 9E | 240 157 155 171 | F0 9D 9B AB | 240 157 156 133 | F0 9D 9C 85 |
UTF-16 | 55349 57009 | D835 DEB1 | 55349 57035 | D835 DECB | 55349 57054 | D835 DEDE | 55349 57067 | D835 DEEB | 55349 57093 | D835 DF05 |
Numeric character reference | 𝚱 |
𝚱 |
𝛋 |
𝛋 |
𝛞 |
𝛞 |
𝛫 |
𝛫 |
𝜅 |
𝜅 |
Preview | 𝜘 | 𝜥 | 𝜿 | 𝝒 | 𝝟 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL ITALIC KAPPA SYMBOL |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC KAPPA SYMBOL |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL KAPPA | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 120600 | U+1D718 | 120613 | U+1D725 | 120639 | U+1D73F | 120658 | U+1D752 | 120671 | U+1D75F |
UTF-8 | 240 157 156 152 | F0 9D 9C 98 | 240 157 156 165 | F0 9D 9C A5 | 240 157 156 191 | F0 9D 9C BF | 240 157 157 146 | F0 9D 9D 92 | 240 157 157 159 | F0 9D 9D 9F |
UTF-16 | 55349 57112 | D835 DF18 | 55349 57125 | D835 DF25 | 55349 57151 | D835 DF3F | 55349 57170 | D835 DF52 | 55349 57183 | D835 DF5F |
Numeric character reference | 𝜘 |
𝜘 |
𝜥 |
𝜥 |
𝜿 |
𝜿 |
𝝒 |
𝝒 |
𝝟 |
𝝟 |
Preview | 𝝹 | 𝞌 | 𝞙 | 𝞳 | 𝟆 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD KAPPA SYMBOL |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL KAPPA |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC KAPPA SYMBOL | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 120697 | U+1D779 | 120716 | U+1D78C | 120729 | U+1D799 | 120755 | U+1D7B3 | 120774 | U+1D7C6 |
UTF-8 | 240 157 157 185 | F0 9D 9D B9 | 240 157 158 140 | F0 9D 9E 8C | 240 157 158 153 | F0 9D 9E 99 | 240 157 158 179 | F0 9D 9E B3 | 240 157 159 134 | F0 9D 9F 86 |
UTF-16 | 55349 57209 | D835 DF79 | 55349 57228 | D835 DF8C | 55349 57241 | D835 DF99 | 55349 57267 | D835 DFB3 | 55349 57286 | D835 DFC6 |
Numeric character reference | 𝝹 |
𝝹 |
𝞌 |
𝞌 |
𝞙 |
𝞙 |
𝞳 |
𝞳 |
𝟆 |
𝟆 |
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.
References
[edit]- ^ "kappa". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "University of Hong Kong School of Business" (PDF). HKU.