What is "beta"

Beta \Be"ta\, n. [Gr. bh^ta.] The second letter of the Greek alphabet, B, [beta]. See B, and cf. etymology of Alphabet. Note: Beta (B, [beta]) is used variously for classifying, as:

1. (Astron.) To designate some bright star, usually the second brightest, of a constellation, as, [beta] Aurig[ae].

2. (Chem.) To distinguish one of two or more isomers; also, to indicate the position of substituting atoms or groups in certain compounds; as, [beta]-naphthol. With acids, it commonly indicates that the substituent is in union with the carbon atom next to that to which the carboxyl group is attached.

second letter of the Greek alphabet, c.1300, from Greek, from Hebrew/Phoenician beth (see alphabet); used to designate the second of many things. Beta radiation is from 1899 (Rutherford). Beta particle is attested from 1904.

1. 1 Identifying a molecular position in an organic chemical compound. 2 Designates the second in an order of precedence. 3 (context computing English) preliminary; prerelease. Refers to an incomplete version of a product released for initial testing. 4 (context of a person, object or action English) associated with the beta male/female archetype. n. 1 The name of the second letter of the Greek alphabet ('''Β''', '''β'''), preceded by alpha ('''Α''', '''α''') and followed by gamma, ('''Γ''', '''γ'''). In modern Greek it represents the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced%20labiodental%20fricative sound of '''v''' found in the English words ''have'' and ''vase''. 2 Used in marking scheme: α, β, γ or α+, α, α-, β etc. 3 (context finance English) Average sensitivity of a security's price to overall securities market prices. 4 (context computing English) The phase of development after alpha testing and before launch, in which software, while not complete, has been released to potential users for testing. 5 (context computing English) A computer program in such a phase; a preliminary version. 6 (context climbing English) Information about a route which may aid someone in climbing it. 7 (context physics English) A beta particle or beta ray. 8 A beta fish, of the genus ''Betta''. 9 A beta male. v

2. 1 (context computing English) To preliminarily release computer software for initial testing prior to final release. 2 (context chiefly Internet English) To beta-read a text.

1. adj. second in order of importance; "the candidate, considered a beta male, was perceived to be unable to lead his party to victory"

2. preliminary or testing stage of a software or hardware product; "a beta version"; "beta software"

1. n. the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabet

2. beets [syn: genus Beta]

BETA is a pure object-oriented language originating within the "Scandinavian School" in object-orientation where the first object-oriented language Simula was developed. Among its notable features, it introduced nested classes, and unified classes with procedures into so called patterns.

Beta ( or ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative . Letters that arose from beta include the Roman letter and the Cyrillic letters and .

Beta is a winter-hardy variety of North American grape derived from a cross of the Vitis labrusca-based cultivar Concord and a selection of Vitis riparia, the wild riverbank grape, called Carver). It is an extremely cold-hardy grape that is self-fertile. This variety is grown successfully in Finland and was widely planted in Minnesota in the early 20th century. It ripens in late September in New York State. It bears dark, blue-black fruit that is used for jellies, fruit juices, etc. but rarely for wine.

In finance, the beta (β or beta coefficient) of an investment indicates whether the investment is more or less volatile than the market. In general, a beta less than 1 indicates that the investment is less volatile than the market, while a beta more than 1 indicates that the investment is more volatile than the market. Volatility is measured as the fluctuation of the price around the mean: the standard deviation.

Beta is a measure of the risk arising from exposure to general market movements as opposed to idiosyncratic factors. The market portfolio of all investable assets has a beta of exactly 1. A beta below 1 can indicate either an investment with lower volatility than the market, or a volatile investment whose price movements are not highly correlated with the market. An example of the first is a treasury bill: the price does not go up or down a lot, so it has a low beta. An example of the second is gold. The price of gold does go up and down a lot, but not in the same direction or at the same time as the market.

A beta greater than one generally means that the asset both is volatile and tends to move up and down with the market. An example is a stock in a big technology company. Negative betas are possible for investments that tend to go down when the market goes up, and vice versa. There are few fundamental investments with consistent and significant negative betas, but some derivatives like put options can have large negative betas.

Beta is important because it measures the risk of an investment that cannot be reduced by diversification. It does not measure the risk of an investment held on a stand-alone basis, but the amount of risk the investment adds to an already-diversified portfolio. In the capital asset pricing model, beta risk is the only kind of risk for which investors should receive an expected return higher than the risk-free rate of interest.

The definition above covers only theoretical beta. The term is used in many related ways in finance. For example, the betas commonly quoted in mutual fund analyses generally measure the risk of the fund arising from exposure to a benchmark for the fund, rather than from exposure to the entire market portfolio. Thus they measure the amount of risk the fund adds to a diversified portfolio of funds of the same type, rather than to a portfolio diversified among all fund types.

Beta decay refers to the tendency for a company with a high beta coefficient (β > 1) to have its beta coefficient decline to the market beta. It is an example of regression toward the mean.

Beta is a time signal service in the VLF range in Russia, operated by the Russian Navy. There are 6 transmitter stations, which take turns transmitting time signals and other communications.

Although the transmitters are active 24 hours a day, each transmits the time code one hour per day.

Beginning on the hour is 25 minutes of 25.0 kHz, including morse code station identification and time code. This is followed by 5-minute intervals of 25.1, 25.5, 23.0 and 20.5 kHz. No time code is sent during the last quarter of an hour.

β in special relativity is the speed of an object relative to the speed of light: β = v/c.

β is dimensionless and equal to the velocity in natural units. Any expression which involves v, like the Lorentz factor, can be rewritten using β instead.

Category:Special relativity

Beta ( Hindi: बेटा, translation: Son) is a 1992 Bollywood drama film, directed by Indra Kumar. It featured Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor and Aruna Irani in pivotal roles. It is a remake of Kannada film Mallammana Pavada(1969), directed by Puttanna Kanagal. This is a second Hindi remake of the film with the first released in 1981 as Jyothi starring Jeetendra.

Beta was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1992. It won five Filmfare Awards. Kapoor and Dixit won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, respectively. Anuradha Paudwal won the Best Female Playback Singer Award for the item number "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga," while Saroj Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography and Irani won the Best Supporting Actress award.

The film became popular due to many reasons. Initially, actress Sridevi was offered the role of Saraswati. She refused because she had collaborated with Kapoor numerous times before. The item number "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga" remains one of the most popular Hindi songs of the 20th-century. Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit became one of the most popular on-screen couples of Bollywood.

Beta (B, β) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet.

Beta or BETA may also refer to:

Beta is a genus in the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae. The best known member is the common beet, Beta vulgaris, but several other species are recognised. Almost all have common names containing the word "beet". Wild Beta species can be found throughout the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Mediterranean coastline, the Near East, and parts of Asia including India.

Beta is climbing jargon that designates information about a climb. In rock climbing this may include information about a climb's difficulty, crux, style, length, quality of rock, ease to protect, required equipment, and specific information about hand or foot holds. For alpine climbs, beta may include information about the length and difficulty of the approach, availability of water on the climb and the approach, ease of exiting the route before completing it, descent information, perhaps even useful logistic information for climbs in foreign countries.

The original use of the term Beta in climbing is generally attributed to the late climber Jack Mileski. "Beta" was short for Betamax, a reference to an old videotape format largely replaced by the VHS format. This was actually a play on words, as Jack would often ask, "you want the beta, Max?"

The beta of a plasma, symbolized by β, is the ratio of the plasma pressure (p = n k T) to the magnetic pressure (p = B²/2 μ). The term is commonly used in studies of the Sun and Earth's magnetic field, and in the field of fusion power designs.

In the fusion power field, plasma is often confined using large superconducting magnets that are very expensive. Since the temperature of the fuel scales with pressure, reactors attempt to reach the highest pressures possible. The costs of large magnets roughly scales like β. Therefore beta can be thought of as a ratio of money out to money in for a reactor, and beta can be thought of (very approximately) as an economic indicator of reactor efficiency. To make an economically useful reactor, betas better than 5% are needed.

The same term is also used when discussing the interactions of the solar wind with various magnetic fields. For example, beta in the corona of the Sun is about 0.01.

Beta is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer, specialising in off-road motorcycles. Beta are best known for their popular trials bikes. In 2005, they launched a range of enduro motorcycles using KTM engines. In 2010 they launched the new RR series, with a new engine made in-house. Beta motorcycles have been used by world trials champions such as Jordi Tarrés, Dougie Lampkin and Albert Cabestany.

1. redirect software release life cycle#Beta