Constants SI Units SI Prefixes Binary Prefixes Symbols Formulae Radioactivity Greek Letters EM Spectrum Laws/Thoeries

List of standard symbols used in Physics formulae. The symbols used in different formulae books vary slightly and the same symbol can be used for multiple purposes. The symbols provided on this page correspond to those in the next page (Formulae.)

Sorted by symbol		Sorted by Name
Sym	Name	Name	Sym
α	alpha radiation	acceleration	a
α	fine structure constant	alpha radiation	α
β	beta radiation	ampere	A
Δ	difference	angle	θ
ε	initial phase angle	angle of incidence	i
ε0	permittivity of free space	angle of reflection	r
εr	relative permittivity	angle of refraction	r
η	efficiency	angular acceleration	a
η	viscosity	angular momentum	p
γ	gamma radiation	angular velocity	ω
γ	surface tension	area	A
∫	integral	atomic mass	A
λ	decay constant	atomic mass unit	u
λ	wavelength	atto	a
µ	coefficient of friction	Avogadros number	NA
µ	mass per unit length	beat frequency	fB
µ	micro	Becquerel	Bq
µ	Thompson coefficient	beta radiation	β
µ'	coefficient of sliding friction	Bohr magneton	µB
µ0	permeability of free space	Boltzmann constant	k
µB	Bohr magneton	candela	cd
µN	nuclear magneton	capacitance	C
µr	relative permeability	Celcius	C
ω	angular velocity	centi	c
ω	initial angular velocity	charge	Q
Ω	ohm	circumf.	C
Φ	magnetic flux constant	coefficient of friction	µ
π	pi	coefficient of sliding friction	µ'
Π	Peltier coefficient	conductance	G
±	plus or minus	conductance quantum	G0
Ψ	electric flux	conductivity	σ
ρ	resistivity	coulomb	C
σ	conductivity	critical angle	c
σ	Stefan Boltzmann constant	current	I
∑	sum	current density	J
θ	angle	deca	da
θ	temperature	decay constant	λ
a	acceleration	deci	d
A	ampere	depth	d
a	angular acceleration	difference	Δ
A	area	differential
a	atto	dioptre	D
A	nucleon number	displacement	s
A	atomic mass	distance	s
Ar	relative atomic mass	e	e
B	magnetic field strength	efficiency	η
Bq	Becquerel	electric field strength	E
Bs	magnetic field strength long solenoid	electric flux	Ψ
C	capacitance	electromotive force	E
C	Celcius	electron charge	e
c	centi	electronvolt	eV
C	circumf/	energy	E
C	coulomb	escape velocity	ve
c	critical angle	exa	E
c	specific thermal capacity	exponential	e
c	speed of light	extension	e
C	thermal capacity	Farad	F
cd	candela	Faraday constant	F
cmat	speed of light in material	femto	f
Cp	parallel capacitance	final velocity	v
Cs	series capacitance	fine structure constant	α
d	deci	focal length	f
d	depth	force	F
D	dioptre	frequency	f
d	relative density	gamma radiation	γ
da	deca	gas constant	R
	differential	gas constant	R
e	e	giga	G
E	electric field strength	giga (computer 230)	G
E	electromotive force	gram	g
e	electron charge	gravitational acceleration	g
E	energy	gray	Gy
E	exa	halflife	T½
e	exponential	Hall coefficient	RH
e	extension	harmonic number	n
E	Youngs modulus	Hartree Energy	EH
EH	Hartree Energy	hecto	h
eV	electronvolt	height	h
F	Farad	Henry	H
F	Faraday constant	Hertz	Hz
f	femto	horizontal measure	x
f	focal length	hour	h
F	force	inductance	L
f	frequency	inductance	X
f	lens opening	initial angular velocity	ω
F'	sliding force	initial number of atoms	N0
fB	beat frequency	initial phase angle	ε
G	conductance	initial velocity	u
G	giga	initial voltage	V0
G	giga (computer 230)	integral	∫
g	gram	Josephson constant	KJ
g	gravitational acceleration	Joule	J
G	universal gravitational constant	katal	kat
G0	conductance quantum	Kelvin	K
Gy	gray	kilo	k
h	hecto	kilo (computer 210)	k
h	height	kilogram	kg
H	Henry	kinetic energy	KE
h	hour	length	l
h	Plancks constant	lens opening	f
Hz	Hertz	light year	ly
i	angle of incidence	Loschmidt constant	n0
I	current	lumen	lm
I	moment of inertia	lux	lx
Io	maximum current	magnetic field strength	B
IRMS	RMS current	magnetic field strength long solenoid	Bs
J	current density	magnetic flux constant	Φ
J	Joule	mass	m
k	Boltzmann constant	mass of earth	mE
K	Kelvin	mass of electron	me
k	kilo	mass of neutron	mn
k	stiffness constant	mass of proton	mp
k	kilo (computer 210)	mass per unit length	µ
kat	katal	maximum current	Io
KE	kinetic energy	maximum voltage	VMAX
KErot	rotational kinetic energy	mechanical advantage	MA
kg	kilogram	mega	M
KJ	Josephson constant	Mega (computer 220)	M
L	inductance	metre	m
l	length	micro	µ
L	original length	milli	m
l	specific latent thermal capacity	mole	mol
lm	lumen	moment of inertia	I
ls	string length	momentum	p
lx	lux	mutual inductance	M
ly	light year	myria	my
m	mass	nano	n
M	mutual inductance	neutron number	N
M	mega	Newton	N
M	Mega (computer 220)	nuclear magneton	µN
m	metre	nucleon number	A
m	milli	number	n
MA	mechanical advantage	number of atoms	N
mE	mass of earth	number of moles	n
me	mass of electron	number of turns	N
mn	mass of neutron	ohm	Ω
mol	mole	original length	L
mp	mass of proton	parallel capacitance	Cp
mr	relative mass	parallel resistance	Rp
my	myria	Pascal	Pa
n	harmonic number	Peltier coefficient	Π
n	nano	period	T
N	neutron number	permeability of free space	µ0
N	Newton	permittivity of free space	ε0
n	number	peta	P
N	number of atoms	peta (computer 215)	P
n	number of moles	pi	π
N	number of turns	pico	p
n	refractive index	Plancks constant	h
N0	initial number of atoms	plus or minus	±
n0	Loschmidt constant	potential energy	PE
NA	Avogadros number	power	P
p	angular momentum	pressure	p
p	momentum	proton number	Z
P	peta	radian	rad
P	peta (computer 215)	radius	r
p	pico	radius of curvature	r
P	power	radius of earth	rE
p	pressure	reactance	X
Pa	Pascal	reaction	R
PE	potential energy	refractive index	n
Q	charge	relative atomic mass	Ar
r	angle of reflection	relative density	d
r	angle of refraction	relative mass	mr
R	gas constant	relative permeability	µr
R	gas constant	relative permittivity	εr
r	radius	resistance	R
r	radius of curvature	resistivity	ρ
R	reaction	RMS current	IRMS
R	resistance	RMS voltage	VRMS
r	separation	rotational kinetic energy	KErot
r	source resistance	Rydberg constant	R∞
R∞	Rydberg constant	second	s
rad	radian	separation	r
rE	radius of earth	series capacitance	Cs
RH	Hall coefficient	series resistance	Rs
RK	von Klitzing constant	Siemen	S
Rp	parallel resistance	Sievert	Sv
Rs	series resistance	sliding force	F'
s	displacement	source resistance	r
s	distance	specific latent thermal capacity	l
s	second	specific thermal capacity	c
S	Siemen	speed	s
s	speed	speed of light	c
sr	steradian	speed of light in material	cmat
Sv	Sievert	Stefan Boltzmann constant	σ
T	period	steradian	sr
T	temperature	stiffness constant	k
T	tension	string length	ls
T	tera	sum	∑
T	tera (computer 212)	surface tension	γ
T	tesla	temperature	θ
t	time	temperature	T
t	tonne	tensile strain	Tst
T	torque	tensile stress	Ts
T½	halflife	tension	T
Ts	tensile stress	tera	T
Tst	tensile strain	tera (computer 212)	T
u	atomic mass unit	tesla	T
u	initial velocity	thermal capacity	C
v	final velocity	Thompson coefficient	µ
V	vectra	time	t
v	velocity	tonne	t
v	vimto	torque	T
V	volt	universal gravitational constant	G
V	voltage	vectra	V
V	volume	velocity	v
V0	initial voltage	velocity ratio	VR
ve	escape velocity	vertical measure	y
VMAX	maximum voltage	vimto	v
VR	velocity ratio	viscosity	η
VRMS	RMS voltage	volt	V
W	watt	voltage	V
W	weight	volume	V
W	work	von Klitzing constant	RK
Wb	Weber	watt	W
x	horizontal measure	wavelength	λ
X	inductance	Weber	Wb
X	reactance	weight	W
X	xray	work	W
y	vertical measure	xray	X
y	yocto	yocto	y
Y	yotta	yotta	Y
Z	proton number	Youngs modulus	E
z	zepto	zepto	z
Z	zeta	zeta	Z