Kappa

Kappa (/ˈkæpə/ ⓘ; 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 (𐤊). 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.

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

Lowercase (κ)

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.
The kappa curve, also known as Gutschoven's curve, is a curve whose shape resembles the letter 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.
thermal conductivity
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.

Chemistry

In chemistry, kappa is used to denote the denticity of the compound.

Uppercase (Κ)

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 pulping, the kappa number represents the amount of an oxidizing agent required for bleaching a pulp.

Unicode

U+039AΚ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA (Κ)
U+03BAκ GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA (κ)
U+03F0ϰ GREEK KAPPA SYMBOL (ϰ, ϰ)
U+2C94Ⲕ COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KAPA
U+2C95ⲕ COPTIC SMALL LETTER KAPA
U+2CB8Ⲹ COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER DIALECT-P KAPA
U+2CB9ⲹ COPTIC SMALL LETTER DIALECT-P KAPA
U+1D6B1𝚱 MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL KAPPA
U+1D6CB𝛋 MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL KAPPA
U+1D6DE𝛞 MATHEMATICAL BOLD KAPPA SYMBOL
U+1D6EB𝛫 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL KAPPA
U+1D705𝜅 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL KAPPA
U+1D718𝜘 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC KAPPA SYMBOL
U+1D725𝜥 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL KAPPA
U+1D73F𝜿 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL KAPPA
U+1D752𝝒 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC KAPPA SYMBOL
U+1D75F𝝟 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL KAPPA
U+1D779𝝹 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL KAPPA
U+1D78C𝞌 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD KAPPA SYMBOL
U+1D799𝞙 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL KAPPA
U+1D7B3𝞳 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL KAPPA
U+1D7C6𝟆 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC KAPPA SYMBOL