Beta (disambiguation)

Beta (B, β) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. Beta or BETA may also refer to:

Automotive

• Beta (motorcycle manufacturer), an Italian off-road motorcycles manufacturer
• Lancia Beta, a car produced by Lancia

Computing and technology

• BETA, a programming language
• Beta release, a phase in software development before the official release
• Betacam, a family of half-inch professional videotape products developed by Sony
• Betamax, home videocassette tape recording format developed by Sony
• Perpetual beta, software or a system that never leaves the beta development stage
• South Texas Business Education & Technology Academy, sometimes known by the acronym "BETA"
• Beta, a term used for editor in the Fan fiction community

Geography

• Beta River (Mureș)
• Beta River (Olt)
• Beţa, a village in Lopadea Nouă Commune, Alba County, Romania
• Béta, a village in Mugeni Commune, Harghita County, Romania

Mathematics, finance, and statistics

• Beta (finance), the β coefficient in the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) that measures the sensitivity of the expected return of a stock (or portfolio) to the market
• β, a symbol representing the probability of a type II error in statistics
• β-reduction, a reduction rule for lambda calculus
• Beta distribution, in statistics—a family of continuous probability distributions
• Euler's Beta function, a special function also known as the Euler integral of the first kind
• Dirichlet beta function
• Beta (Βῆτα), a nickname given to Greek mathematician Eratosthenes by his contemporaries
• Beta coefficient (also known as standardized coefficient), in statistics—the estimate of an analysis performed on variables that have been standardized so that they have variances of 1
• Beta invariant of a matroid

Media and entertainment

Fictional characters and communities

• BETA (Muv-Luv), an acronym for "Beings of the Extra Terrestrial origin which is Adversary of human race", an alien race from the video game series Muv-Luv
• Beta (Transformers), a female Transformer from Transformers: Generation 1
• BETA, an organization in the 1986 TV series The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
• Beta Quadrant, one of four quadrants in the galaxy in Star Trek
• Beta Hirogen, the second in command of a Hirogen hunting party, as seen in Star Trek: Voyager

Film

• Beta (film), a 1992 Bollywood film directed by Indra Kumar

Games

• Beta (Magic: The Gathering), the second (revised) part of the first set of the card game Magic: The Gathering
• β, a classification of strength in the Earthbound, or Mother, series of Nintendo role-playing games

Music and broadcasting

• Beta Recordings, a record label headed by John B
• Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance, sometimes known by the acronym "BETA"

Social networking

• B3ta, a British humour webcommunity

Science

Biology

• Beta (plant), a genus of flowering plants, mostly referred to as beets
• Beta, a rank in a community of social animals
• Beta-endorphin, a kind of neurotransmitter
• Beta carbon, in organic chemistry—the second carbon atom in a chain when counting from a functional group
• Beta cell, a type of cell in the pancreas, which produces insulin
• Beta sheet, a secondary protein structure

Botany

• Beta (grape), a variety of North American grape

Electronics

• Beta, the common-emitter current gain of a bipolar junction transistor

Linguistics

• β, the voiced bilabial fricative symbol of the international phonetic alphabet

Meteorology

• Hurricane Beta, a 2005 hurricane

Physics

• Beta (plasma physics), the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure in plasma
• Beta (velocity), the speed of an object relative to the speed of light
• Beta function (physics), also β(g)—a function in quantum field theory
• Beta particle, a name used to refer to high-energy electrons (β⁻) or positrons (β⁺) emitted by certain types of radioactive nuclei
• β, a symbol for compressibility, a measure of the relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure change
• Thermodynamic beta, in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics—a numerical quantity related to the thermodynamic temperature of a system
• β, a symbol for Phase Constant, in electromagnetics and electrical engineering, used in the theory of plane waves

Psychology

• Beta movement, a perceptual illusion whereby two or more still images are combined by the brain into surmised motion
• Beta quadra, one of the four quadras in socionics
• Type-beta, a personality type now commonly referred to as type-B (see Type A and Type B personality theory)

Sports

• Beta (climbing), climbing jargon that designates information about a climb
• Beta Ethniki, the second tier division of the Greek football (soccer) league

Other uses

• Beta (time signal), a time signal service broadcast in the very low frequency range in Russia
• Beta Israel, a name given to Jewish communities that occupied territories of the Aksumite and Ethiopian (Habesh or Abyssinia) empires
• Beta reader, a person who critiques a written work prior to public release
• National Beta Club, a high school honor society

See also

• Betta, a genus of fish, often misspelled “beta”
• ß, a German letter that resembles β
• Alpha