Before reaching Greece, epsilon appeared in the Phoenician alphabet
In the Greek alphabet , epsilon is the fifth letter . It corresponds, therefore, to the letter E in the Latin alphabet .
Brief etymology and curiosities
It is interesting to note that, according to etymology , epsilon can be translated as "simple e" . The root of the term is found in the expression é psilón . The evolution of this letter began in one of the Phoenician alphabet, which is composed exclusively of consonants and was formerly used for writing several Canaanite languages, among which is Phoenician.
Other letters that we see today in languages such as Arabic and Hebrew also come from this first letter. As a curious fact, we must point out that originally the letter epsilon was a consonant; It was only in the Greek language that it became a vowel. It should be remembered that the Greek alphabet, born around the 9th century BC , consists of 24 letters. The first is alpha ( α ), then comes beta ( β ), in the third place appears gamma ( γ ) and in the fourth, delta ( δ ). After gamma comes epsilon ( ε ), followed by dseta ( ζ ).
When looking at older writings, epsilon looks like its Phoenician version: a sort of inverted F with three arms, instead of two. Over time, it acquired the image it has today. We can find it in all the local Greek alphabets, and in almost all of them it had the same shape, with slight alterations in the inclination and direction. Some exceptions are the Corinth, where it resembles a B , and the Sicyon, where its shape is similar to that of an hourglass.
Beyond the alphabet
Epsilon also appears in Greek numerals . This system uses the letters of the Greek alphabet, making epsilon equivalent to five ( 5 ). The letter epsilon also allows us to name various phenomena or variables, which go beyond the limits of writing and numbering to reach the sciences.
For mathematics , epsilon is used to refer to scarce quantities or those that have a tendency towards zero, especially in the field of continuity or limits. In physics, on the other hand, it represents the dielectric constant , a measurement that indicates the relative static permittivity of a material, that is, how much it is affected by an electric field.
The Greek alphabet has many applications
The Bayer name
Finally we can point out that, in astronomy , the Bayer name is used. This method was devised by the German Johann Bayer in the early years of the 17th century and consists of using the order of the Greek alphabet to name the stars according to their brightness in a constellation, followed by the Latin genitive of said constellation.
In this framework, epsilon is the fifth brightest star in its set: Epsilon Capricorni (the fifth brightest star in the Capricorn constellation), Epsilon Canis Minoris (the fifth brightest star in the Canis Minor constellation ), etc. It is worth mentioning that when talking about this name we must say Bayer letters instead of Greek letters .
This method is also used to indicate apparent magnitudes in case they are decreasing. The apparent magnitude is a numerical value that is assigned to a celestial object to refer to its brightness according to the appreciation of a person observing it from our planet, as well as the magnitude of light it receives from it. The lower the value, the greater the apparent brightness of the star. From our perspective, for example, the Sun is the brightest of celestial objects; Its apparent magnitude is -27.