Pi (letter)
Pi /ˈpaɪ/ (uppercase Π, lowercase π and ϖ; Greek: πι [pi]) is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the sound [p]. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 80. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Pe (
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Symbol
The uppercase letter Π is used as a symbol for:
- In textual criticism, Codex Petropolitanus, a 9th-century uncial codex of the Gospels, now located in St. Petersburg, Russia.
- In legal shorthand, it represents a plaintiff.
- The product operator in mathematics, indicated with capital pi notation ∏ (in analogy to the use of the capital Sigma Σ as summation symbol).
- The osmotic pressure in chemistry.
- The viscous stress tensor in continuum mechanics and fluid dynamics.
The lowercase letter π is used as a symbol for:
- The mathematical real transcendental (and thus irrational) constant π ≈ 3.14159..., the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry. The letter "π" is the first letter of the Greek words περιφέρεια 'periphery' and περίμετρος 'perimeter', i.e. the circumference.
- The prime-counting function in mathematics.
- Homotopy groups in algebraic topology.
- Dimensionless parameters constructed using the Buckingham π theorem of dimensional analysis.
- The hadron called the pion (pi meson).
- Economic profit in microeconomics.
- Inflation rate in macroeconomics.
- A type of chemical bond in which the p orbitals overlap, called a pi bond.
- The natural projection on the tangent bundle on a manifold.
- The unary operation of projection in relational algebra.
- Policy in reinforcement learning.
- Polyamory[1]
History
An early form of pi was
Variant pi
Variant pi or "pomega" ( or ϖ) is a glyph variant of lowercase pi sometimes used in technical contexts. It resembles a lowercase omega with a macron, though historically it is simply a cursive form of pi, with its legs bent inward to meet. It was also used in the minuscule script. It is a symbol for:
- Angular frequency of a wave in fluid dynamics (angular frequency is usually represented by but this may be confused with vorticity in a fluid dynamics context).
- Longitude of pericenter in celestial mechanics.[2]
- Comoving distance in cosmology.[3]
- Single-scattering albedo in radiative transfer.
- Mean fitness of a population in biology.
- Fundamental weights of a representation (probably to better distinguish from elements of the Weyl group, than the usual notation ).
Character encodings
The various forms of pi are present in Unicode as:
- U+03A0 Π GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI (HTML
Π
·Π
) - U+03C0 π GREEK SMALL LETTER PI (HTML
π
·π
) - U+03D6 ϖ GREEK PI SYMBOL (HTML
ϖ
·ϖ, ϖ
) - U+220F ∏ N-ARY PRODUCT (HTML
∏
·∏, ∏
) - U+1D28 ᴨ GREEK LETTER SMALL CAPITAL PI (HTML
ᴨ
) - U+1D70B 𝜋 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL PI (HTML
𝜋
) - U+1D6D1 𝛑 MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL PI (HTML
𝛑
).[4]
Character encodings tables
- Greek / Coptic Pi[5]
Preview | Π | π | ϖ | Ⲡ | ⲡ | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI | GREEK SMALL LETTER PI | GREEK PI SYMBOL | COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER PI | COPTIC SMALL LETTER PI | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 928 | U+03A0 | 960 | U+03C0 | 982 | U+03D6 | 11424 | U+2CA0 | 11425 | U+2CA1 |
UTF-8 | 206 160 | CE A0 | 207 128 | CF 80 | 207 150 | CF 96 | 226 178 160 | E2 B2 A0 | 226 178 161 | E2 B2 A1 |
Numeric character reference | Π | Π | π | π | ϖ | ϖ | Ⲡ | Ⲡ | ⲡ | ⲡ |
Named character reference | Π | π | ϖ, ϖ | |||||||
DOS Greek | 143 | 8F | 167 | A7 | ||||||
DOS Greek-2 | 198 | C6 | 234 | EA | ||||||
Windows 1253 | 208 | D0 | 240 | F0 | ||||||
TeX | \Pi | \pi | \varpi |
- Mathematical Pi
Preview | ∏ | ∐ | 𝚷 | 𝛑 | 𝛱 | 𝜋 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | N-ARY PRODUCT | N-ARY COPRODUCT | MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL PI | MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL PI | MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL PI | MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL PI | ||||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 8719 | U+220F | 8720 | U+2210 | 120503 | U+1D6B7 | 120529 | U+1D6D1 | 120561 | U+1D6F1 | 120587 | U+1D70B |
UTF-8 | 226 136 143 | E2 88 8F | 226 136 144 | E2 88 90 | 240 157 154 183 | F0 9D 9A B7 | 240 157 155 145 | F0 9D 9B 91 | 240 157 155 177 | F0 9D 9B B1 | 240 157 156 139 | F0 9D 9C 8B |
UTF-16 | 8719 | 220F | 8720 | 2210 | 55349 57015 | D835 DEB7 | 55349 57041 | D835 DED1 | 55349 57073 | D835 DEF1 | 55349 57099 | D835 DF0B |
Numeric character reference | ∏ | ∏ | ∐ | ∐ | 𝚷 | 𝚷 | 𝛑 | 𝛑 | 𝛱 | 𝛱 | 𝜋 | 𝜋 |
Named character reference | ∏, ∏ | ∐, ∐ |
Preview | 𝜫 | 𝝅 | 𝝥 | 𝝿 | 𝞟 | 𝞹 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL PI | MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL PI | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL PI | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL PI | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL PI | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL PI | ||||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 120619 | U+1D72B | 120645 | U+1D745 | 120677 | U+1D765 | 120703 | U+1D77F | 120735 | U+1D79F | 120761 | U+1D7B9 |
UTF-8 | 240 157 156 171 | F0 9D 9C AB | 240 157 157 133 | F0 9D 9D 85 | 240 157 157 165 | F0 9D 9D A5 | 240 157 157 191 | F0 9D 9D BF | 240 157 158 159 | F0 9D 9E 9F | 240 157 158 185 | F0 9D 9E B9 |
UTF-16 | 55349 57131 | D835 DF2B | 55349 57157 | D835 DF45 | 55349 57189 | D835 DF65 | 55349 57215 | D835 DF7F | 55349 57247 | D835 DF9F | 55349 57273 | D835 DFB9 |
Numeric character reference | 𝜫 | 𝜫 | 𝝅 | 𝝅 | 𝝥 | 𝝥 | 𝝿 | 𝝿 | 𝞟 | 𝞟 | 𝞹 | 𝞹 |
Preview | ℿ | ℼ | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL PI | DOUBLE-STRUCK SMALL PI | ||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 8511 | U+213F | 8508 | U+213C |
UTF-8 | 226 132 191 | E2 84 BF | 226 132 188 | E2 84 BC |
Numeric character reference | ℿ | ℿ | ℼ | ℼ |
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
- "Jim Evans' Polyamory Pride Flag". Archived from the original on November 10, 2014.
- "Pomega". Eric Weisstein's World of Physics. wolfram.com.
- Outline for Weeks 14&15, Astronomy 225 Spring 2008 Archived 2010-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
- "Unicode characters supported by the Calibri font". fileformat.info.
- Unicode Code Charts: Greek and Coptic (Range: 0370-03FF)