Indian education is full of Greek letters like alpha, beta, gamma, theta, Vega, etc. These similar words are used in almost every field. If I ask theta in a summit with audience from diversified fields, they understand it differently. For example, theta is used in different fields as follows:
- Derivatives in finance.
- A plane angle in geometry.
- A special function of several complex variables.
- The voiceless dental fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet, such as in the words thick or thin (but not as in the, which is the voiced dental fricative).
- The Potential temperature in meteorology.
- The score of a test taker in item response theory.
- Theta Type Replication: a type of bacterial DNA replication specific to circular chromosomes.
- Threshold value of an artificial neuron.
- A Bayer designation letter applied to a star in a constellation; usually the eighth star so labelled but not necessarily the eighth brightest as viewed from Earth.
- The parameter frequently used in writing the likelihood function (Bayes theorem).
- Along with μ (Mu), population parameters in the Normal/Gaussian/Bell curve distribution, usually designated N(μ,θ).
- The Watterson estimator for the population mutation rate in population genetics.
- In Christian theological writings it is often used as a short hand for God.
If this single Greek letter is used in such diversified fields, I wonder how people interpret it. Being an Indian, we can say that we don't understand Greek. But what do Greeks say if they don't understand Greek??
