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Rare Greek Variables · Gwern.net

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I scrape Arxiv to find underused Greek variables which can add some diversity to math; the top 10 underused letters are ϰ, ς, υ, ϖ, Υ, Ξ, ι, ϱ, ϑ, & Π. Avoid overused letters like λ, and spice up your next paper with some memorable variables! Some Greek al­pha­bet⁠ vari­ables are just plain overused. It seems like no paper is com­plete with­out a bunch of E or μ or α vari­ables splat­tered across it—and they all mean dif­fer­ent things in dif­fer­ent pa­pers, and that’s when they don’t mean dif­fer­ent things in the same paper! In the spirit of of­fer­ing con­struc­tive crit­i­cism, might I sug­gest that, based on Arxiv⁠ fre­quency of usage, you ex­per­i­ment with more recherché, even, outré vari­ables? In­stead of reach­ing for that ex­hausted π, why not use… ϰ (vari­ant kappa), which looks like a He­brew es­capee? Or how about ς (vari­ant sigma), which is cal­cu­lated to get your reader’s at­ten­tion by mak­ing them go “ςςς” and ex­claim “these let­ters are Greek to me!” If that is t

--- title: Rare Greek Variables description: "I scrape Arxiv to find underused Greek variables which can add some diversity to math; the top 10 underused letters are ϰ, ς, υ, ϖ, Υ, Ξ, ι, ϱ, ϑ, & Π. Avoid overused letters like λ, and spice up your next paper with some memorable variables!" thumbnail: /doc/cs/shell/2021-04-08-gwern-meme-drake-raregreekvariableswritingsuggestion.jpg thumbnail-text: "Drake meme expressing disgust with the overused Greek letter variables α/X/Β/Ε/μ/λ/σ/π/γ/β, and pleasure with the suggested alternative replacement variables ϰ/ς/υ/ϖ/Υ/Ξ/ι/ϱ/ϑ/Π." created: 2021-04-08

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