Pi (letter)

Pi (/ˈpaɪ/; Ancient Greek /piː/ or /peî/, uppercase Π, lowercase π, cursive ϖ; Greek: πι [pi]) is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless bilabial plosive IPA: [p]. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 80. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Pe (). Letters that arose from pi include Latin P, Cyrillic Pe (П, п), Coptic pi (Ⲡ, ⲡ), and Gothic pairthra (𐍀).^[1]

Uppercase Pi

The uppercase letter Π is used as a symbol for:

In textual criticism, Codex Petropolitanus, a 9th-century uncial codex of the Gospels, now located in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In legal shorthand, it represents a plaintiff.^[2]
In Mathematical finance, it represents a portfolio.

In science and engineering:

The product operator in mathematics, indicated with capital pi notation $Π$ (in analogy to the use of the capital Sigma $Σ$ as summation symbol).^[3]
The osmotic pressure in chemistry.^[4]
The viscous stress tensor in continuum mechanics and fluid dynamics.

Lowercase Pi

The lowercase letter $π$ is used as a symbol for:

The mathematical real transcendental (and thus irrational) constant π ≈ 3.14159..., the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry,^[5] exactly half of the circle constant. The letter " $π$ " is the first letter of the Greek words περιφέρεια 'periphery' and περίμετρος 'perimeter', i.e. the circumference.
The prime-counting function in mathematics.^[6]
Homotopy groups in algebraic topology.
Dimensionless parameters constructed using the Buckingham π theorem of dimensional analysis.
The hadron called the pion (pi meson).^[7]
Often inflation rate in macroeconomics.^[8]
Sometimes profit in microeconomics.
A type of chemical bond in which the p orbitals overlap, called a pi bond.^[9]
The natural projection on the tangent bundle on a manifold.
The unary operation of projection in relational algebra.^[10]
Policy in reinforcement learning.

Polyamory (in the earliest polyamory pride flag design, created by Jim Evans in 1995, pi stands for the first letter of polyamory).^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]

History

An early form of pi was , appearing almost like a gamma with a hook.^[15]^[16]

Variant pi

Variant pi or "pomega" ( $\varpi \,\!$ or ϖ) is a glyph variant of lowercase pi sometimes used in technical contexts. It resembles a lowercase omega with a macron, though historically it is simply a cursive form of pi, with its legs bent inward to meet. It was also used in the minuscule script. It is a symbol for:

Angular frequency of a wave in fluid dynamics (angular frequency is usually represented by $\omega$ but this may be confused with vorticity in a fluid dynamics context).
Longitude of pericenter in celestial mechanics.^[17]
Comoving distance in cosmology.^[18]
Single-scattering albedo in radiative transfer.
Mean fitness of a population in biology.
Fundamental weights of a representation (probably to better distinguish from elements $w$ of the Weyl group, than the usual notation $\omega$ ).
The lemniscate constant.^[19]

Unicode

Lower-case pi was fairly common in 8-bit character encodings, for instance it is at 0xE3 in CP437 and at 0xB9 on Mac OS Roman. The various forms of pi present in Unicode are:

U+03A0 Π GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI (Π)
U+03C0 π GREEK SMALL LETTER PI (π)
U+03D6 ϖ GREEK PI SYMBOL (ϖ, ϖ)
U+1D28 ᴨ GREEK LETTER SMALL CAPITAL PI
U+213F ℿ DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL PI
U+213C ℼ DOUBLE-STRUCK SMALL PI
U+220F ∏ N-ARY PRODUCT (∏, &Product;)
U+2210 ∐ N-ARY COPRODUCT (&coprod;, &Coproduct;)
U+2CA0 Ⲡ COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER PI
U+2CA1 ⲡ COPTIC SMALL LETTER PI

These are intended for use as mathematical symbols. Text written in the Greek language (i.e. words, as opposed to mathematics) should not come from any of the tables on this page, but instead should use the normal Greek letters, which have different code numbers and often a different appearance. Using the mathematical symbols to display words (or vice versa) is likely to result in inconsistent spacing and a clumsy, mismatched appearance:

U+1D6B7 𝚷 MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL PI
U+1D6D1 𝛑 MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL PI^[20]
U+1D6E1 𝛡 MATHEMATICAL BOLD PI SYMBOL
U+1D6F1 𝛱 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL PI
U+1D70B 𝜋 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL PI
U+1D71B 𝜛 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC PI SYMBOL
U+1D72B 𝜫 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL PI
U+1D745 𝝅 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL PI
U+1D755 𝝕 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC PI SYMBOL
U+1D765 𝝥 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL PI
U+1D77F 𝝿 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL PI
U+1D78F 𝞏 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD PI SYMBOL
U+1D79F 𝞟 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL PI
U+1D7B9 𝞹 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL PI
U+1D7C9 𝟉 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC PI SYMBOL

References

^ "Pi Symbol in Greek Alphabet". greeksymbols.net. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
^ sinclair (2024-01-22). "The Top Legal Symbol Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know". LawRank. Retrieved 2025-01-18. If you work with plaintiffs, you may choose to replace the word "plaintiff" with a symbol in some of your writing. The plaintiff symbol looks like the Greek letter pi (π).
^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Product". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
^ "13.7: Osmotic Pressure". Chemistry LibreTexts. 2015-01-18. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Pi". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18. The constant pi, denoted $π$ , is a real number defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference C to its diameter
^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Prime Counting Function". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18. The prime counting function is the function $π$ (x) giving the number of primes less than or equal to...
^ "Pi meson | subatomic particle | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18. Also known as: pion
^ "Fisher Equation". Corporate Finance Institute. Retrieved 2025-01-18. π – the inflation rate
^ "Pi bond | Double Bond, Electron Sharing & Hybridization | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
^ "What are the Unary Operations in Relational Algebra?". GeeksforGeeks. 2024-03-25. Retrieved 2025-01-18. The projection operation is a unary operation that is performed on a relation. A projection operation is used to retrieve all the values of one or more attributes. It is denoted by π.
^ Thomas, Melody (April 22, 2019). "Pretty poly: Why non-monogamous relationships are all the rage". Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
^ Schumer, Lizz (May 16, 2022). "21 LGBTQ Flags and What They Symbolize". Good Housekeeping.
^ Walsh, Matthias (17 June 2022). "What does the polyamorous flag look like?". LGBTQ Nation.
^ "Jim Evans' Polyamory Pride Flag". Archived from the original on November 10, 2014.
^ Thompson, Edward Maunde (2013) [1912]. An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography. Cambridge Library Collection - Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139833790. ISBN 978-1-108-06181-0.
^ Faulmann, Karl (2000). Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller Zeiten und Völker (in German) (Repr. nach d. Wiener Ausg. 1880, Neuausg ed.). München: Augustus. ISBN 978-3-8043-0374-4.
^ "Pomega". Eric Weisstein's World of Physics. wolfram.com.
^ Outline for Weeks 14&15, Astronomy 225 Spring 2008 Archived 2010-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
^ Kobayashi, Hiroyuki; Takeuchi, Shingo (2019). "Applications of generalized trigonometric functions with two parameters". Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis. 18 (3): 1509. arXiv:1903.07407. doi:10.3934/cpaa.2019072. S2CID 102487670.
^ "Unicode characters supported by the Calibri font". fileformat.info.

[1] "Pi Symbol in Greek Alphabet". greeksymbols.net. Retrieved 2023-02-07.

[2] sinclair (2024-01-22). "The Top Legal Symbol Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know". LawRank. Retrieved 2025-01-18. If you work with plaintiffs, you may choose to replace the word "plaintiff" with a symbol in some of your writing. The plaintiff symbol looks like the Greek letter pi (π).

[3] Weisstein, Eric W. "Product". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18.

[4] "13.7: Osmotic Pressure". Chemistry LibreTexts. 2015-01-18. Retrieved 2025-01-18.

[5] Weisstein, Eric W. "Pi". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18. The constant pi, denoted $π$ , is a real number defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference C to its diameter

[6] Weisstein, Eric W. "Prime Counting Function". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18. The prime counting function is the function $π$ (x) giving the number of primes less than or equal to...

[7] "Pi meson | subatomic particle | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18. Also known as: pion

[8] "Fisher Equation". Corporate Finance Institute. Retrieved 2025-01-18. π – the inflation rate

[9] "Pi bond | Double Bond, Electron Sharing & Hybridization | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-01-18.

[10] "What are the Unary Operations in Relational Algebra?". GeeksforGeeks. 2024-03-25. Retrieved 2025-01-18. The projection operation is a unary operation that is performed on a relation. A projection operation is used to retrieve all the values of one or more attributes. It is denoted by π.

[11] Thomas, Melody (April 22, 2019). "Pretty poly: Why non-monogamous relationships are all the rage". Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2021.

[12] Schumer, Lizz (May 16, 2022). "21 LGBTQ Flags and What They Symbolize". Good Housekeeping.

[13] Walsh, Matthias (17 June 2022). "What does the polyamorous flag look like?". LGBTQ Nation.

[14] "Jim Evans' Polyamory Pride Flag". Archived from the original on November 10, 2014.

[15] Thompson, Edward Maunde (2013) [1912]. An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography. Cambridge Library Collection - Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139833790. ISBN 978-1-108-06181-0.

[16] Faulmann, Karl (2000). Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller Zeiten und Völker (in German) (Repr. nach d. Wiener Ausg. 1880, Neuausg ed.). München: Augustus. ISBN 978-3-8043-0374-4.

[17] "Pomega". Eric Weisstein's World of Physics. wolfram.com.

[18] Outline for Weeks 14&15, Astronomy 225 Spring 2008 Archived 2010-06-15 at the Wayback Machine

[19] Kobayashi, Hiroyuki; Takeuchi, Shingo (2019). "Applications of generalized trigonometric functions with two parameters". Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis. 18 (3): 1509. arXiv:1903.07407. doi:10.3934/cpaa.2019072. S2CID 102487670.

[20] "Unicode characters supported by the Calibri font". fileformat.info.

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