Scientific Notations

Scientific Notations

Engineering and science is full of letters and symbols that mean nothing until they are explained.  This page is to inform you on a quick glance the different notations used and the context they will be found in.  

This page will be updated as new pages are added to indicate which notations have been used so far. 

Greek Alphabet

This is very important to learn and these letters will pop up regularly.

Name	Symbol		Used for
	Capital	Lower case
alpha	Α	α	Angles, angular acceleration
beta	Β	β	Angles, Coefficients
gamma	Γ	γ	Shear Strain, Kinematic Viscosity
delta	Δ	δ	Differences, damping coefficient
epsilon	Ε	ε	Linear strain
zeta	Ζ	ζ	Damping coeficient
eta	Η	η	dynamic viscosity, efficiency
theta	Θ	θ	Angles, temperature
iota	Ι	ι
kappa	Κ	κ	Compressibility (fluids)
lambda	Λ	λ	Wavelength, thermal conductivity
mu	Μ	μ	Coefficient of friction, dynamic viscosity, Poisson's ratio
nu	Ν	ν	Kinematic viscosity
xi	Ξ	ξ
omicron	Ο	ο
pi	Π	π	Mathematical constant
rho	Ρ	ρ	Density
sigma	Σ	σ	Normal stress, standard deviation, sum of
tau	Τ	τ	Shear stress
upsilon	Υ	υ
phi	Φ	φ	Angles, heat flowrate, potential energy
chi	Χ	χ
psi	Ψ	ψ	Helix angle (gears)
omega	Ω	ω	Angular velocity, solid angle

Engineering SI Prefixes

If you are maths savvy you will  know that large or extremely small numbers are written in standard form.  Engineers thought this was to much effort and thus the prefixes were devised.  These are easily remembered as they work in threes, and you will already be using them.  a Kilometer for example is 1000 meters. A Megabyte of data, a terabite of data, a millimeter or a centimeter.  These are all using prefixes to denote the size of the subject.  

Look at the table below and familiarise yourself with the prefixes and the size of the numbers.  It is noted in standard form and also the long written out number.  Obviously you will not remember them all but take notice of the fact that if the number is getting smaller then the standard form denotes this with a negative power and in general the Greek alphabet is in capitals for the big numbers and lower case for the small numbers.

Linear Motion