Omega

Greek alphabet
Α α Alpha	Β β Beta
Γ γ Gamma	Δ δ Delta
Ε ε Epsilon	Ζ ζ Zeta
Η η Eta	Θ θ Theta
Ι ι Iota	Κ κ Kappa
Λ λ Lambda	Μ μ Mu
Ν ν Nu	Ξ ξ Xi
Ο ο Omicron	Π π Pi
Ρ ρ Rho	Σ σ ς Sigma
Τ τ Tau	Υ υ Upsilon
Φ φ Phi	Χ χ Chi
Ψ ψ Psi	Ω ω Omega
obsolete letters
Digamma	San
Qoppa	Sampi
Ϛ ϛ Stigma	Sho

Note: This article contains special characters.

For other uses, see Omega (disambiguation).

Omega (Ω ω) is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system it had a value of 800. The word literally means "big O" (ō mega, mega meaning 'big'), as opposed to Omicron, which means "little O" (o mikron, micron meaning 'little').[1] This name is Byzantine; in Classical Greek, the letter was called ō (ὦ), whereas the Omicron was called ou (οὖ).

Phonetically, the Ancient Greek Ω is a long o, similar to the vowel of English close. It is transcribed ō or simply o. In Modern Greek Ω is a short o similar to the vowel of English pot.

Omega is often used to denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit of a set, in contrast to Alpha, the first letter of the Greek Alphabet. Jesus declares himself to be the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last", (Revelation 22:13, KJV, and see also 1:8), Greek ἐγὼ τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος.

Omega was also adopted into the early Cyrillic alphabet. See omega (Cyrillic) (Ѡ, ѡ).

The symbol Ω (upper-case letter)

The upper-case letter Ω is used as a symbol:

• For ohm — SI unit of electrical resistance; also used upside down (℧) to represent the inverse of an ohm (mho/siemens) used for electrical conductance. Note that Unicode has separate code points for the ohm sign (U+2126, Ω) and the Greek uppercase omega (U+03A9, Ω)
• In computer science, in notation related to Big O notation to describe the asymptotic behavior of functions. See also Chaitin's constant
• Codex Athous Dionysii, an 8th/9th century uncial Greek manuscript of the Gospels on Mount Athos
• Omega Point, a theory about computing at the end of the universe
• In mathematics, the Omega constant
• In physics, the solid angle
• In particle physics to represent the Omega baryons
• Naoki Maeda's pseudonym for the Dance Dance Revolution song "MAX 300"
• In combinatory logic, the looping combinator, (λ x. x x)(λ x. x x)
• For the Lebanese political party: the Free Patriotic Movement
• A Prestige Swiss watch company named Omega [[2]]

• The logo of Lululemon Athletica is often mistaken for a stylized Ω, but the company claims it is in fact a stylized A.

• Since Omega is the last letter of the alphabet, it sometimes means the end. The saying "alpha omega" means "beginning and the end". Although such phrase is seldomly used, a movie was named "The Omega Man", who's main character became the last living human.

The symbol ω (lower-case letter)

The lower-case letter ω is used as a symbol:

• In textual criticism, the archetype of a manuscript tradition
• In physics, angular velocity
• In mathematics, the first transfinite ordinal number
• In number theory, an arithmetic function
• In combinatory logic, the self-application combinator, (λ x. x x)
• In computer science, in notation related to Big O notation, the asymptotically dominant nature of functions
• In Astronomy, as a ranking of a star's brightness
• In particle physics to represent the omega meson
• In Circuit Analysis and Signal Processing to represent frequency.

The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega under GFDL