Mu (letter)

"μ" redirects here. For other uses, see Mu (disambiguation).
Look up Μ or μ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Mu (uppercase Μ, lowercase μ; Ancient Greek μῦ [mŷː], Modern Greek μι or μυ [mi]) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 40. Mu was derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water (𓈖), which had been simplified by the Phoenicians and named after their word for water, to become 𐤌img (meme). Letters that arose from mu include the Roman M and the Cyrillic М.

Names

Ancient Greek

In Ancient Greek, the name of the letter was written μῦ and pronounced [mŷː].

Modern Greek

In Modern Greek, the letter is spelled μι and pronounced [mi]. In monotonic orthography, the ancient version is written with an acute accent instead of a circumflex: μύ.

Use as symbol

The lowercase letter mu (μ) is used as a special symbol in many academic fields. The uppercase mu is not used, because it is normally identical to Latin M.

Measurement

Mathematics

This is not exhaustive, since any Greek letter may be used freely as a variable name.

Physics and engineering

In classical physics and engineering:

In particle physics:

In thermodynamics:

Computer science

In evolutionary algorithms:

In type theory:

Chemistry

In chemistry:

Pharmacology

In pharmacology:

Orbital mechanics

In orbital mechanics:

Music

Cameras

The Olympus Corporation manufactures a series of digital cameras called Olympus µ[mju:][4] (known as Olympus Stylus in North America)

Linguistics

In phonology, it often stands for mora. In syntax, μP (mu phrase) can be used as the name for a functional projection.[5]

Character Encodings

Character Μ μ µ
Unicode name GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU GREEK SMALL LETTER MU MICRO SIGN COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER MI COPTIC SMALL LETTER MI
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 924 U+039C 956 U+03BC 181 U+00B5 11416 U+2C98 11417 U+2C99
UTF-8 206 156 CE 9C 206 188 CE BC 194 181 C2 B5 226 178 152 E2 B2 98 226 178 153 E2 B2 99
Numeric character reference Μ Μ μ μ µ µ Ⲙ Ⲙ ⲙ ⲙ
Named character reference Μ μ µ
DOS Greek 139 8B 163 A3
DOS Greek-2 183 B7 230 E6
Windows 1253 204 CC 236 EC
TeX \mu
Character 𝚳 𝛍 𝛭 𝜇 𝜧 𝝁
Unicode name MATHEMATICAL BOLD
CAPITAL MU
MATHEMATICAL BOLD
SMALL MU
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
CAPITAL MU
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
SMALL MU
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
CAPITAL MU
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
SMALL MU
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 120499 U+1D6B3 120525 U+1D6CD 120557 U+1D6ED 120583 U+1D707 120615 U+1D727 120641 U+1D741
UTF-8 240 157 154 179 F0 9D 9A B3 240 157 155 141 F0 9D 9B 8D 240 157 155 173 F0 9D 9B AD 240 157 156 135 F0 9D 9C 87 240 157 156 167 F0 9D 9C A7 240 157 157 129 F0 9D 9D 81
UTF-16 55349 57011 D835 DEB3 55349 57037 D835 DECD 55349 57069 D835 DEED 55349 57095 D835 DF07 55349 57127 D835 DF27 55349 57153 D835 DF41
Numeric character reference 𝚳 𝚳 𝛍 𝛍 𝛭 𝛭 𝜇 𝜇 𝜧 𝜧 𝝁 𝝁
Character 𝝡 𝝻 𝞛 𝞵
Unicode name MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD CAPITAL MU
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD SMALL MU
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL MU
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC SMALL MU
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 120673 U+1D761 120699 U+1D77B 120731 U+1D79B 120757 U+1D7B5
UTF-8 240 157 157 161 F0 9D 9D A1 240 157 157 187 F0 9D 9D BB 240 157 158 155 F0 9D 9E 9B 240 157 158 181 F0 9D 9E B5
UTF-16 55349 57185 D835 DF61 55349 57211 D835 DF7B 55349 57243 D835 DF9B 55349 57269 D835 DFB5
Numeric character reference 𝝡 𝝡 𝝻 𝝻 𝞛 𝞛 𝞵 𝞵

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.

Image list for readers with font problems

  1. ^

See also

References

  1. Ballou, Glen (1987). Handbook for Sound Engineers: The New Audio Cyclopedia (1 ed.). Howard W. Sams Co. p. 250. ISBN 0-672-21983-2. Amplification factor or voltage gain is the amount the signal at the control grid is increased in amplitude after passing through the tube, which is also referred to as the Greek letter μ (mu) or voltage gain (Vg) of the tube.
  2. "Nomenclature" NASA
  3. Definition
  4. Olympus History : µ[mju:] (Stylus) Series
  5. Johnson, Kyle (1991). "Object Positions". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 9 (4): 577–636. doi:10.1007/BF00134751.
  6. Unicode Code Charts: Greek and Coptic (Range: 0370-03FF)
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