Neil deGrasse Tyson Greeks Out

This is all Greek to me! On this explainer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice explain the meaning of the Greek alphabet within science.
Ever seen an equation with Greek letters all over the place? What does alpha mean? Delta? Lambda? Are they just letters for a frat? We break down what each letter means and the difference between the Greek alphabet and our own Roman alphabet. How do you spell the letter H? What words in science do we get from the greek alphabet? All that and more on another StarTalk explainer!
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About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
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About the prints that flank Neil in this video:
"Black Swan” & "White Swan" limited edition serigraph prints by Coast Salish artist Jane Kwatleematt Marston. For more information about this artist and her work, visit Inuit Gallery of Vancouver: inuit.com/.

[@starling-]

Thanks to our Greek friends for civilization, science, modern writing, culture and heritage.

[@moonchild1440]

Greetings from Greece my friend 😀

[@user-pf3hj8ck6x]

Παρακαλώ

[@gadflyeye]

You're welcome. Thanks to our Western friends for modern science and technology, which includes computers, cell phones and the internet, without which we wouldn't be able to communicate and learn about each other.

[@fransciscoeldrako8870]

I thought that was Sheldons quote for lamb greek fast food

[@digenis5203]

Now it is your time to help us out. They are destroying us.

[@jamesserbos6697]

English viewer: "Wow! The Greek alphabet is difficult to learn!" Greek viewer: "Wait till you step into the Greek grammar"

[@dimitriosdesmos4699]

oh no,....i can assure you, Greek is a very consistent language ( grammatically too) and mathematical and very easy to learn. The problem with the English language is that you have 1 word for 10 different meanings. In Greek you have 10 words that can describe the same thing, a little differently. ....I mean, greek has had 3000 years to evolve (you would think that the Greek philosophers polished it off ) it is almost perfect.....not difficult at all. English people are smart people, piece of cake...The only difficulty i can imagine that exists, is in phonetics.

[@Christina.tsolake]

Hahaha exactly 😂😂

[@panospap2153]

Ακριβώς

[@alexp8020]

Wait till you step into ancient Greek

[@tenialeme5099]

So true !!!! Χαχαχαχαχα .

[@sdepountis]

Someone has probably mentioned that already but, the word "Alphabet" actually derives from the two first letters of the Greek.... alphabet!

[@keeperofthereign]

Αλφάβητο.

[@keeperofthereign]

@@mariostsam Το πρόβλημα σου είναι το μονοτονικό ή το άρθρο;

[@keeperofthereign]

@@mariostsam Αν ναι, πρέπει να διωρθώσεις και την el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CE%BB%CF%86%CE%AC%CE%B2%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%BF

[@bentspoon6218]

@@keeperofthereign η αλφαβητα :)

[@chrissutton2586]

Woooooaaaaahhhh

[@stevesutcliffe3490]

I learned the Greek alphabet when I was 12, being an astronomy nerd. 20 years later I went to live in Greece and it came in very handy. Who knew?

[@kochin5786]

Hey happy to have you here

[@kostudas1]

you knew.. but not with the same way ......and the life goes on... the earth is spinning the sun is shining etc :)

[@kostudas1]

@@user-ib1nw2bt4i ΟΧΙ ΑΠΟ ΑΛΛΟΥ :)

[@dimitrismpilinis9833]

Astronomy or Greek? 😂

[@stevesutcliffe3490]

@@dimitrismpilinis9833 Oh, the astronomy. The Greek was useless... all you guys speak great English on Rodos. :-)

[@HDitzzDH]

"Epsilon, you don't see much of that" Math majors: *Vietnam flashbacks*

[@EvripidouM]

Greek: sees hundreds daily

[@kushoyarou]

I'm Greek and I find this show one of the best out there, with or without the Greek alphabet!

[@romanxydias4812]

Ναι!

[@Leftyotism]

Gala :D

[@hippoplatypus]

Ναι! People always struggle with the Ψ in my last name 🤣

[@Ilkor1]

Neil DeGrasse Tyson looks Greek!

[@jahjah_light6121]

you will find it likeable because its birth from Greek.

[@kostas1510]

Fun fact. The reason we use Delta (Δ) to represent a different between to point in space for example, is because it's the first letter of the word "Διαφορά" which translates to the word "difference" in English.

[@panagiotis1519]

Never thought of that before. Awesome 😎

[@abdulwasey3506]

Is that pronounced dia-pho-ra?? I know many Greek alphabet with sounds but not the pronunciation.

[@kostas1510]

@@abdulwasey3506 its not di-a--pho-ra. Most likely "thi-a-fo-ra". "Th" is pronounced like in the word "the".But you were close enough

[@teckzilla108]

Nice. Thanks for this. I only know the word from Math and physics classes, this puts a whole new meaning. 👍

[@andrej2375]

epsilon??

[@billtoumpanakis6198]

Psychology, is actually a greek word : ψυχολογία. So "psy" is actually "ψ".

[@prod.germain7368]

''ps'' is ψ, y is υ, ch is χ, etc.

[@fyruzone]

Psy is " ψυ" ps is "ψ"

[@nikof]

@@fyruzone pse is ψ

[@lolitaras22]

@@prod.germain7368 As a Greek, I confirm that.

[@prod.germain7368]

@@lolitaras22 im a Greek too 😂

[@paulcanini7211]

The fact that i studied maths and phisycs helped me in reading the street sings in Greece. And i actually knew where i was going.

[@gamotousername]

All the signs are in English alongside greek, as well as food labels.

[@Tsamokie]

signs*

[@digenis5203]

@@gamotousername εκτός στα περίχωρα που γίνονται σημάδι για καουμπόηδες.

[@srfrg9707]

A dead language they say...

[@blognroses3161]

That is really cool. And I am Greek. I guess mainly epsilon , thita , ypsilon become really familiar through science

[@gratsounas]

Greeks going nuts on the comment section on how americans pronounce greek letters.... It's like someone tearing my soul apart 😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣

[@Yeefus]

Γάμησε τα μαλακά

[@kostassgouros2967]

He slaughtered Θ Μ Ν Ξ Χ Φ Ψ , and especially Ι... , Seamed more like Yoda than "yota" ..but amazing show and great recognition to Greeks!!

[@Timrath]

Γιατί, εμείς καλύτερα προφέρουμε τα Αγγλικά (και όχι μόνο); Τα μαύρα μας τα χάλια έχουμε και εμείς στις ξένες γλώσσες.

[@gratsounas]

@@Timrath τωρα π κολλαει αυτο...καμια σχεση, αλλο να μαθαινεις μια ξενη γλωσσα και να χεις ξενικη προφορα και αλλο να αλλαζεις τα γραμματα και να τα λες οπως σε βολευει...

[@METALSCAVENGER78]

@@Timrath Ναι. τα γραμματα της αλφαβητου τα προφερουμε πολυ καλυτερα

[@morpheus6749]

As an engineer I must say that Greek is the coolest looking alphabet on the planet, even if my origins are an ancient rival nation.

[@coffeebeann1]

Ancient rival nation Sick

[@suchagug7865]

Persian?

[@morpheus6749]

@@suchagug7865 You know your history.

[@plutarchvonpluto6439]

Don't worry. We are rivals no longer.

[@Zeus-ez6rf]

Love Persia!

[@wagenvas]

Actually, there was a phonetic difference in ancient Greek between omicron and omega, which is exactly what their names define. Omicron (Ό-μικρον) was shorter, while omega (Ω-μέγα) was pronounced a bit lengthier. Thus they were named little-o and big-o.

[@enlathxaind178]

Small Ω is ω, if you look carefully it looks like two oo in half. In ancient Greece though there were not small letters at all. Small letters brought up later though on the Byzantine Empire years.

[@georgios_5342]

@@enlathxaind178 νομίζω πως αυτό που ήθελε να πει ο φίλος είναι ότι το ωμέγα σημαίνει ω μέγα, και το όμικρον σημαίνει ο μικρόν.

[@Johnny12575]

@@enlathxaind178 ε ναι ρε φίλε, δεν εννοεί μικρά και κεφαλαία ο wagenvas, εννοεί μακρό και βραχύ ο. Το μακρό είναι το Ω, το βραχύ το Ο

[@filliposchat6528]

@@Johnny12575 βασικά αυτό που ήθελε να πει είναι ότι οι αρχαίοι το ωμέγα το κρατούσαν περισσότερο φωνητικά, οοο, στις λέξεις τους, ενώ το όμικρον το κρατούσαν λίγο ο. Δηλαδή θα πρόφεραν πλησιαζοοοο και πακέτο. Θυμάμαι που και ένας καθηγητής μου το είχε πει στο σχολείο.

[@Johnny12575]

@@filliposchat6528 γιεπ, αυτό σημαίνει μακρό φωνήεν. Αυτό που το τραβάς και το προφέρεις οοοο. Ενώ το βραχύ είναι αυτό που έχει μικρή, βραχεία διάρκεια. Σκέτο ο. Αυτή είναι η διάκριση μεταξύ βραχέων και μακρών φωνηέντων

[@jacobchristian860]

The first 3 classes to wake up to in my senior year of high school were: - AP Physics - Ancient Greek - AP Calculus II I became very familiar with and loved the Greek alphabet! 15 years later, I still have my Greek transcripts of The Apology, The Crito, The New Testament, Aesops Fables, and The Odyssey.

[@coffeebeann1]

Post your notes That’s cool.

[@makisxatzimixas2372]

Dude, I don't understand most things in the Odyssey, you must be a guru or something. The New Testament is more readable with modern day Greek.

[@meridien52681]

Πολύ ολοκληρωμένο. Απολαύστε τις υπέροχες αναζητήσεις σας!

[@stixoimatizontas]

@@makisxatzimixas2372 The reason the Odyssey is so much harder, is because it's written so earlier in a language that was like ancient Greek to ancient Greeks.

[@nikossouliotis7241]

Doctor Tyson the thing you said about psy-energy and whatnot is derived by the Greek letter Ψ (psy) which is the first letter of the word ψυχή (psihi) which means soul or Psyche, and is the root of other words such as psychology

[@coffeebeann1]

Interesting

[@Tsamokie]

He is not a doctor.

[@konstantinos7480]

@@Tsamokie Doctor is anyone with a phd

[@Tsamokie]

@@konstantinos7480 Doctor? What field of medicine does he practice? Is he a MD? A DMD? A DDS?

[@shadearca]

@@Tsamokie If you spent your time opening a dictionary or google instead of typing ignorant comments on youtube you would know that the word doctor describes someone who has obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in any field. The usage of the title by medical practitioners came later and even today quite a few countries still do not use it that way and have a separate word for medical practitioners. So yeah Neil is a doctor everywhere, your MD might not be depending on the country.

[@soctimis]

as a Greek Cypriot , i feel honor that this great man knows so much about Greeks!

[@carultch]

Do you call your country Kupros in Greek?

[@soctimis]

@@carultch yes my friend, Kupros or in the greek alphabet Κύπρος

[@spiritusIRATUS]

Fun fact: the roman alphabet is probably derived from a north-western greek variant, from the first greek tribes that migrated to Italy. The F and Q also belonged to the alphabet, but were scrapped later over the standardisation of the koine (common) language. That is also where we get the name "Greece" from, as it is not called like that in greek.

[@user-xv3jg9hh7j]

well it comes from the people of euboia(ευβοια).they established the town of graia(γραια)it means old lady and they had very close contacts with the etruscans first and the lattins later.in ancient greece we had about 6 or 7 seven similar alphabets

[@ejokurirulezz]

Those two letters were indeed in alphabet but not the main one, was a dialect of some sorts. Koppa(Q) was Dorian dialect. Digamma (F) was from people from Euboia, Crete and Naxos. San(Μ) , in some dialects replaced Σ, in others was pronounced as tch and Dorians were using it as "S". Then there were newer letter that were added like Ω (omega) from Ionians for a long duration of "O". Other one is sampi (Ͳ) which was to pronounce ΣΣ and TT.

[@georgios_5342]

The Latin alphabet comes from the Etruscan alphabet which comes from the Cumaean alphabet which is essentially Euboean Greek. The Λ was a bit turned around, similar to < but with the bottom line straight, and also the Σ lacked the bottom stroke. Also, H and Ω didn't exist, because Ε and Ο could be both long and short. F existed having a sound similar to English w, but in Etruscan this sound didn't exist so the Etruscans used F for the f sound instead. H existed for the word initial h sound that was later written with the daseia diacritic in Koine Greek. These are the differences.

[@MikhalisBramouell]

Every Roman Emperor claimed descendance from the Trojan Greek Royal Family. Virgil's epic poem the _Aenid_ is literally the story of the Trojan refugees roaming the Mediterranean before settling in Rome. Rome is the Greek word for "might" and is used in many modern Greek words: ἄῤῥωστος = sick; ἀνάῤῥωση = recovery; ῥωμαλέος = mighty...

[@JayTemple]

I remarked some time ago on the irony of borrowing so many words from Greek but not the name for Greece!

[@liukasel]

Είστε μεγάλη έμπνευση κυριε Tyson, ευχαριστώ που υπάρχετε και μας δίνετε εύκολη πρόσβαση σε γνώση για κάθε θέμα. Συνεχίστε έτσι.Σας χαιρετώ από το νησί Τήνος, Ελλάδα

[@meridien52681]

Ο Δρ Tyson είναι τόσο πολύτιμος για τις γνώσεις του! Συμφωνώ, έχω μάθει τόσα πολλά και οι γνώσεις του είναι τεράστιες. Χαιρετίσματα από Αμερική και να είσαι καλά.

[@Mrlakis1]

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters not 26. The impact of the Greek language - not only the Greek alphabet- is huge in the scientific development. A lot of English words have their origins in the Greek language. The letter ψ is the first letter of the word "ψυχολογία" = psichologia = psychology etc. Great show by the way!! 👌👌👌😍😍😍

[@ciberiada01]

Yes, I don't know why he missed the fact that the Latin alphabet mostly originates from the Greek. Oh, and that thing for the letter ‘y’: in French, Italian and Spanish it's *still* called _i grec_ or _i greca_ meaning ‘greek i’.

[@don17525]

@@omhrikos ψαγμέ !

[@dermitdenfruechten]

In german we pronounce the latters like the greeks do. And it's interesting that we pronounce Iota like "Yota" and its similar to our "J" wich is pronounced "Yot". Even more interesting is that the spelling of our "Y" (english:"why") is exactly the same as the greek Ypsilon, we say "ypsilon/üpsilon".

[@enlathxaind178]

German's have studied ancient Greece probably more than anyone in the world and german language has much things in common with the ancient greek language.

[@ymorfis83]

Don't forget that you have Dativ, as the ancient Greeks had!

[@thrakiamaria]

Not exactly, but it's very close to new Greek pronunciation (dimotiki), i.e. Tau is pronounced like Taouuu (tou-rist). I think German pronunciation is the archaic greek pronunciation to the greek alphabet and its the only right among other foreign languages.

[@montgomerygarmadon4688]

Its because the Roman alphabet its a variant of Greek alphabet, so basically, all countries (in Europe-America) knows the Roman alphabet, but as i say before, its a variant of the Greek, all knows a variant of ancient Greek language ;)

[@grayavatar9766]

German also has male and female words unlike english which is all neutral. Eg in greek a chair is female...

[@giannispolykratis6787]

Neil you made only one “micro” mistake 24 letters instead of 26

[@its-ameraphael5589]

@ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΗΣ ΤΖΑΝΕΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ Μαζί με τους "αριθμούς" είναι 27 🖐️

[@ik5133]

27 ηταν στην αρχαιότητα.

[@its-ameraphael5589]

@@ik5133 Αυτό εννοούσε με το πρωτότυπο

[@TerraLuna2001]

Στα 19 χρόνια Ζωής μου πρώτη φορά μαθαίνω τέτοια πράματα

[@Omg_OmgG]

@@TerraLuna2001 άμα δεν σε ενδιαφέρουν και δεν ανοίξεις κάνα βιβλίο πως θα μάθεις;

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

Delta and epsilon have a traditional connection in engineering. "You give me a delta, I'll give you an epsilon." Change something by delta, and some result changes by epsilon.

[@baganatube]

In math (mostly analysis), it's the other way around. ∀ε ( ε > 0 → ∃ δ ( ... ) ). In English, "You give me a positive epsilon, there exists a delta (I may or may not be able to give you one) such that ...".

[@HDitzzDH]

Epsilon-delta proofs in analysis to prove limits...

[@pulkitmohta8964]

Real Analysis 101

[@njones420]

delta=change (διαφορά = difference)

[@heliocentric1756]

For an engineer epsilon and delta are both zero.

[@morbidmanmusic]

Chuck is way more on top of things then he gets credit for.

[@FlyingDwarfman]

Than he probably gives himself credit for, I'd reckon.

[@RudyOMP]

Yeah he’s a smart guy

[@landar2372]

Ya, you could tell he was fibbing about not knowing the alphabet.

[@jasongreen1015]

@@FlyingDwarfman 000

[@jasongreen1015]

0

[@facepalmjesus1608]

btw greek alphabet consisted two more letters the Digamma (F) and the Qoppa (Q) but they were rejected in the course of time and they have been incorporated in the roman alphabet F and Q are greek letters too

[@mariostsam]

some more too. We use another 3 letters for numbers though en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_Greek_alphabets

[@thrakiamaria]

Also Sambi but they where useless letters

[@montgomerygarmadon4688]

Σωστά!(or excactly, if you don't know Greeks)

[@nickolasmarmaras]

also J was γιοτ, another "lost" greek letter

[@alashiya9536]

@@montgomerygarmadon4688 Σωστά means Correct. The word for "exactly" (or precisely) is Ακριβώς!

[@v.567]

Lol yes, us Greeks pronounce those letters a bit differently.

[@panosdimakos659]

Εμείς τα λέμε σωστά εκείνοι τα λένε διαφορετικά😂

[@Deathstrike1990]

@@panosdimakos659 tha mas poune sto telos pos ta milame kai lathos... e re pou ftasame xD

[@BobInGreek]

@@Deathstrike1990 εδώ υπάρχουν μερικοί που γράφουν ακόμα γκρικλις χεχε

[@Deathstrike1990]

@@BobInGreek Spooondaaaaaa xD

[@v.567]

@@panosdimakos659 lol.

[@vggv5588]

Greetings from Greece Neil!!! Πάμε μωρέ λίγο !

[@Chevy-jordan]

Efharisto!

[@ShadoryKaine]

wait if its written like that how is that sentence read out loud??

[@yourfriend5144]

@@ShadoryKaine like this "Greeting from Greece Neil" in Greek😬

[@okije]

@@ShadoryKaine [Speaking Greek]

[@dimkk605]

Έλα ρε πατρίδα!

[@ekarolak]

Omicron Persei 8 - and it was FUTURAMA! Best show ever :)

[@carultch]

They chose that star because it is 1000 light years from Earth, so that the Omicronians could watch 20th century Earth TV in the time the show is based.

[@suzannepottsshorts]

I still want a Thundercougarfalconbird!!!

[@lekanswansons3646]

yup

[@TheJCJexe]

Futurama is my favorite!

[@buknor536]

Came looking for this comment right after he said it was Star Trek. Haha

[@markpats290]

Ε -έψιλον - ενέργεια E meaning energy. How did he miss that one ?

[@user-mc6on9kv6x]

Έλα ντε ??

[@anestiegomez]

@@user-mc6on9kv6x Σ επισης ξεχασε και ειναι σημαντικο στα μαθηματικα. Missed Sigma (Σ)

[@ejokurirulezz]

Because it's the capitals are similar in English and Greek, they pronounce the English one.

[@alexispapageorgiou72]

X being the unknown factor in equations.

[@anestiegomez]

@@alexispapageorgiou72 yeah but it is pronounced as eX, whereas Σ is pronounced sigma.

[@PaleBlueDott]

Lamda λ is also used to represent the half-life of a radioactive isotope. There's also a video game called Half Life that used the letter λ in their logo.

[@hieroglypkic1]

It's also used as air:fuel Ratio in engines

[@manos6590]

By the way we pronounce Π the same way English speakers pronounce P. I guess they replaced its spelling (ΠΙ) with the latin equivalents (PI) and with the i there, it ended up being pronounced like pie.

[@dberg666]

Yeah cyrillic uses a few of your letters. П is Russian and is p sound others, ц ф

[@carultch]

They do that because English vowels have shifted from the original vowel sounds in Latin. A shifted to the sound of E, E shifted to the sound of I, and I shifted to the dipthong "ai" (rhymes with sky). It is called the great vowel shift. Since p in English already rhymes with ski, the Greek letter pi gets shifted to rhyme with sky, so we can tell them apart. P in the original Latin sounds like "pay", and that is what Latin P is called in Greek, when using it as a mathematics variable name.

[@NoOne-xy6iz]

@@carultch Interesting!

[@carultch]

@@frfras7 The Russian Alphabet is originally Bulgarian. Some of it is based on Latin and is virtually identical to its Latin counterparts (A, K, M, O, T), some based on Greek (the Cyrillic equivalents of F, G, P, R, and U, as well as the letter Kha that looks like an X), and even a few of its letters were Hebrew inspired, like the letter Sha, that looks like a rectilinear W.

[@DeLaVeGaGR]

Also, the letter "Φ" now is commonly used as a diameter measurement symbol, for example I go to the general store and buy a Φ20 pipe, which translates to 20mm in diameter

[@ejokurirulezz]

True, also I don't know about how it is used in English, but in Greek we also use it for angles. Like angle φ=90°

[@AlexanderAntonopoulos]

Also the golden ratio in mathematics φ = 1.61

[@DeLaVeGaGR]

@@dimitrioskontelis6955 Yeah, thanks for the correction

[@blognroses3161]

yes, i have studied civil infrastructure engineering and I can confirm that. The accent in greek is "f-ee" for Φ

[@dimitrioskontelis6955]

@@DeLaVeGaGR you're welcome :)

[@explorer4662]

12:18 Ω (omega) is the 24th letter of the Greek alphabet not the 26th. The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, not 26. Thank you so much Neil for appreciating the contribution of Greeks in Science. Ευχαριστώ πολύ! Χαιρετίσματα από τη Λεμεσό! Greetings from Limassol, Cyprus!

[@bianfastiegelbockfabianboc9797]

Honestly, the explainers are my personal favorite

[@pulkitmohta8964]

Every Greek letter is used for representing something or the other in physics! Omega is used as the symbol for resistance! Myu is the friction coefficient, kappa is used to denoted conductivity, rho for volume density, and all others are used for some or the other purpose in physics!

[@Giorgosprg]

there was also letter F called digamma, which means double gamma Γ. but today is not in use anymore.

[@panosgarg6094]

δεν χρησιμοποιητε σαν γραμα αλλα υπαρχει σε αλλη μορφη "γγ

[@Giorgosprg]

@@panosgarg6094 ευχαριστώ φίλε

[@ik5133]

Thanks to Ancient Greeks for science, art, literature, technology, philosophy, democracy and many more.

[@montgomerygarmadon4688]

We are all thanks to this culture :)

[@hambos]

Greeks started it, but others developed them to what we have today, so we are all equal

[@montgomerygarmadon4688]

@@hambos Φυσικά, όμως οι Αρχαίοι Έλληνες εκτός από το να το ξεκινήσουν, το ανέπτυξαν ως την κορυφή. Είναι επιστημονικά αποδεδειγμένο πως η γνώση των Αρχαίων Ελληνικών αυξάνει τις νοητικές/διανοητικές ικανότητες αυτού που τα γνωρίζει.

[@greekphotographer1]

@@montgomerygarmadon4688 οι αλλοι τα κατεστρεψαν, αλλα μαθε και λιγη ορθογραφία!!! χαχα

[@greekphotographer1]

@@hambos not greeks, ancient greeks and the others destroyed them !!!

[@ektoraskontos3384]

Hello from Greece ! (Γεια σας από Ελλάδα)

[@tsourts4884]

Hello from Καστοριά Greece!

[@stephenarmiger8343]

Thanks for this! I have tried, on and off, to learn Greek, so I have noticed the Greek pronunciation of the letters as opposed to the math pronunciation. Wikipedia has a great page. To complicate things I am also attempting to learn the Russian alphabet which I learned was created by a Greek cleric.

[@tinapapazafeiriou1189]

2 clerics, Cyrillos and Methodios, that's why it's called Cyrillic, not russian

[@stixoimatizontas]

@@tinapapazafeiriou1189 Cyrillic or Glagolitic, for those who have studied Russian philology 😁

[@Seirios3400]

The mathematical structure of the Greek language is mind-blowing.

[@craighughes536]

When I told my Greek wife about omicron and omega, that was a lightbulb moment for her

[@MrSilenzi0]

That's bizarre because for a Greek person that is something you learn at kindergarten

[@le_kousou]

I am Greek too and I felt exactly like your wife

[@cirilloscater5545]

It probably is for all us greeks after this video XD

[@CptAngelKGaming]

Dude I literally never noticed it and I'm deep into linguistics and languages (and I'm Greek). Even during the video I didn't figure it out until he said it. It's crazy.

[@MrSilenzi0]

@@CptAngelKGaming guys you're trolling now, there is no other explanation. It's like a native English speaker saying that "o-small" and "o-grand" never crossed their mind that they refer to small O and big O.

[@stavrosgousgou]

Greetings from Greece 🇬🇷

[@carultch]

What is the story behind why angles are commonly represented with theta as the default choice? Angle in Greek would either be ankulos for angle or gonia for corner, neither of which has a th in it.

[@stavrosgousgou]

@@carultch it's like x for the unknown variable in mathematics. It's just a symbol which was decided to represent the angle as much as I know

[@carultch]

@@stavrosgousgou Ok, that makes sense. I think the reason why X is commonly the choice for unknowns in English-speaking countries, is that X is the least common letter to start a word. So it is commonly used as a wildcard letter that could stand for anything. I might think the same thing for theta, but I know of plenty of Greek words that start with theta.

[@AgeofDoom]

Greetings from Greece brothers of earth!

[@leonardoforcinetti]

Doesn't matter if he doesn't like it... NEVER STOP DOING THESE EXPLANATION VIDEOS!! you change our lives with them..

[@philohmazibuko]

"You done messed it all up again" 😂 Chuck is the best

[@-_Nuke_-]

xD

[@dhruvpant8616]

Please vote for them guys they absolutely deserve it.

[@swastik24]

Voted already, I feel they will definitly win because they already got 41% votes when I voted

[@ejmtv3]

I thought they already won?

[@orazmyratrejepgeldiyev1478]

paused the video, vouted, and continue watch. this guys %100 deserve it😎

[@kasrasharifan]

Voted with absolute pleasure

[@Magnusfication]

Just did. Theyre at 45%

[@harathecynic3397]

Omicron is indeed the little o. This is because omega is the big o: o mega. In ancient greek pronounciation of words, the omega was a prolonged oooo (μακρο), while the omicron was a short o (βραχυ). We do ancient greek in high school in greece. I am an engineer but still remember lot

[@Theoteta]

I love the explanation of how the greek alphabet is associated with parts of science, but I have a thing about pronounciation. For me trying to pronounce the letters (and words) of another language in the right way is a kind of respect (I won't play the card of which language came first so it's pronountiation of a letter came first and bla bla bla, because I get that sometimes is hard to do that). It's kind of pronouncing write the name of a person you meet out of respect. Probably it's my thing, because when I learn a language I realy try to say things right. Language is a part of an ethnicity's/county's coulture and history and I respect it as such.

[@RickySTT]

epsilon - used in computer science to represent a tiny value mu - abbreviation for the prefix micro- nu - often used to represent frequency (1 / lambda) rho - represents density, et al. Uppercase sigma - mathematical summation symbol tau - ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius (2 pi)

[@ybungalobill]

Omega -- ohms in electronics omega -- first infinite ordinal nu -- neutrinos Pi -- mathematical multiplication symbol Also epsilon represents small quantities not only in CS.

[@daanluyckx5647]

I think I have given more than one meaning to each letter in my studies... it depends on what you're studying...

[@ciberiada01]

ρ - electrical resistivity; ω - angular velocity (electrical circuits); ψ - initial phase (electrical circuits); φ - phase difference (= ψ₁ - ψ₂); u = Uₘₐₓsin(ωt + ψ); R = ρ·ℓ/s (connection between resistance and resistivity); Φ - magnetic flux; μ - magnetic permeability; η% - efficiency coefficient; And let's not forget ∅ - empty set (it looks just like Φ); ⌀ - diameter sign "phi" (⌀50 means tube with diameter of 50 mm) 😵

[@JacobNax]

small correction: mu -> mi nu -> ni tau -> taf idk why they teach the pronunciation so off, its just bad because greek people wont even know what these words mean haha

[@a.polaris5726]

Lowercase sigma is also used for a population standard deviation in statistics, among other things, and uppercase pi is actually used as the multiplicative equivalent of sigma's summation.

[@BState]

Ευχαριστώ for bringing this to the surface, να 'σαι καλά Neil! ❤

[@tatigalactic]

I met a very sweet guy who was from Congo and couldn't wrap his head around the fact that we use the letters "used for math" to write also! Hehe! His enthusiasm was so pure! I haven't ever thought about it until the moment i met him! And yes sir, we call it "pe" and not "pie" ! Great video and very nice accents! Salutations from Greece!

[@georgel.1996]

12:20 its the 24rth letter (we only have 24 letters). Very nice video, learned a few things I didnt know and had much fun listening to your Greek accent hahaha. Oh and I forgot, as I engineer I found a lot of μ, ν letters in bibliography that refers to viscocity of fluids, so they're important too!

[@erodotosmiltiadous]

Greek speaker here! Great video, we are proud of our alphabet (that's a Greek word, btw)! Did you all know that the English language has borrowed tens of thousands of Greek words? Actually Neil throughout his vid, used a bunch of them. The Greek alphabet is an ancient alphabet, used still today without changes!

[@sebastiangiovannella7778]

Beside having Ancient Greek and modern Greek?

[@fnersch3367]

The Greeks created the first true alphabet (9th C. BC). The earlier lettering systems were abjads (they require diacritical marks for vowels). The Greek alphabet uses diacritical marks as well but for inflection purposes.

[@Hoganply]

@@fnersch3367 That's cool. Inflective diacritics would be useful in English, I have to say.

[@sacalius_papalagius]

@@fnersch3367 they also were the first people to decide that they would use the same 26 symbols for everything. Be it writing, numbers, maths, geometry, ratios, even musical notation. It seems rather inconvenient now that I think about it very interesting. (also Greek speaker here).

[@fnersch3367]

@@sacalius_papalagius The Delphic Hymns to Apollo (128 BC) were written in "alphabeto" the first written music notation in Europe. The alphabetic numbering system can be seen on the Antikythera Mechanism (80 BC). I have a fine replica of it and they are in plain sight. Digamma and Koppa were used in their numbering system late in the Hellenistic Era. Thanks for the interest in this. I have built replicas of several ancient Greek musical instruments as well.

[@MrAbkejoe]

I do love these short videos, although I thoroughly enjoy the long-form content that you publish. Just a heads up here, any of the long-form content with Chuck and Janna Levin with you are wonderfully immersive and educationally enlightening, especially the chemistry that you three have and the amount of meticulous detailed knowledge Janna has to add to the discussion along with her contagious positive energy makes for an indubitably viral podcast/video! Please like so people see this!!! 😄

[@Geodreamcatcher]

Thank you Greece for your existence!!! You gave a powerful boost to whole planet!!!

[@Freedom_123]

Καλησπέρα σας! Μπράβο για την αγάπη σας προς την ελληνική γλώσσα!!!

[@chrissidiras]

On behalf of Greek neds: We love you!!!

[@carlosruiz1656]

Startalk, you come for Neil, you stay for Chuck. Love you guys

[@thusspake9526]

So many words mentioned are Greek here - eg diameter = διάμετρος (δια + meter) or perimeter= περίμετρος (περί+meter), meter = μέτρο. Greek is a very logically structured language, both in world formation and in syntax.

[@don17525]

What I found very interesting as a greek derived word is the origin of "disaster". Which means double star from δις + αστερ which in Greek translates to "two stars"

[@chrisb1822]

Nope" it's dys-aster. Like dys-tyxia. Dys means bad. So dys-aster = bad star (a bad omen - δυσαστήρ) . It became disaster in English.

[@don17525]

​@@chrisb1822 You might as well be correct! I thought the ancients maybe saw a second flaming object in the sky (comet), apart from the sun, and thought of it as a bad omen.

[@stevenjamesdunn8548]

I love learning new things, Neil just has that calming voice that makes everything so much more interesting and better!

[@theodoremaniatis]

Congrats on nomination. Best show for sure. BTW 24 letters in Greek alphabet.

[@christosrizos461]

Origin I am from Greece, raised abroad. Lovely introduction of the greek alphabet. thumbs up!

[@KKMDStyle]

I’ve never thought the topics were boring. Whenever I see a new show, my interest peaks and I look forward t9 watching.

[@konstantinoschtenelis2350]

Greetings from Greece. Your Greek knowledge is impressive!

[@eugenio1203]

Chuck is the reason behind the genius of this show, he is the one everybody can relate to because he represents us by "not knowing" and being funny, thus creates a strong sympathy. Although Dr Tyson is very entertaining by himself and very relatable as well, the pairing with chuck makes it just perfect

[@cozaki]

Well being a Greek and having studied abroad as well it was sometimes weird when somebody said mu (μ)and nu (ν) or etta (η). In greek they are pronounced mi (μ) ni (ν) and ita as in Italy (η). The best thing though was that in microbiology and chemistry you come across words such as xerophiles which is a combination of (ξερός)= dry and (φίλος)= friend. So while everybody was looking at a complicated word, for me it was oh that would be the english word for ξερόφιλος. So many science terms are related to Greek that I think it makes it easier for a greek to read science papers even when he is starting out because the terminology just makes sense most of the time even without knowing it.

[@johnphilippatos]

Χαχα, μιλούσα κάποτε με έναν Καναδό, τον ρωτάω τι δουλειά κάνει και μου λέει "I'm a botanist and ornithologist". Και αμέσως μετά μου λέει "Sorry, I mean my profession has to do with the study of plants and birds". Έβαλα τα γέλια και του λέω "φίλε όχι μόνο κατάλαβα τι δουλειά κάνεις, αλλά μπορώ να σου εξηγήσω και την ετυμολογία των λέξεων που περιγράφουν το επάγγελμα σου". Πιστεύω ότι αν ήταν μπροστά μου θα με κοιτούσε σαν χαζός.🤣🤣Εκεί κατάλαβα πόσο ισχύει αυτό που περιγράφεις.

[@vagkroy]

My regards from a Greek friend and listener of yours. Thank you for your beautiful videos that make our thinking brighter.

[@gtriantag]

As a Greek I want to thank you back for communicating science! Το άλφα και το ωμέγα είναι η μετάδοση γνώσης!

[@AlkisGD]

13:34 - And the Greeks wanna thank _you_ for freely sharing your videos with us! ♥️

[@spencerthompson1049]

I love that Chuck Nice is apart of these Star Talks you do he adds so much =)

[@rossradtke]

The summer camp I went to as a kid and was a counselor at during college, named the cabins Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta.

[@Stefos11]

The way they pronounce the letters is killing me haahahah

[@perseusarkouda]

Erasmian pronunciation hurts the ears of every native speaker lol

[@Johnny12575]

@@perseusarkouda the real problem is when foreign people who have been taught the erasmian pronunciation tell a greek "you speak greek wrong" At least from my personal experience, it made me feel like sh*t :p

[@perseusarkouda]

@@Johnny12575 They shouldn't say that because while Erasmian might make sense, it remains a speculation as there are no hard data to support it. Personally I believe it has to do with Doric or other northwest Greek dialects that migrated to Italy etc. Ionian Greek and thus Koine Greek is not much different than modern Greek.

[@Johnny12575]

@@perseusarkouda I know. As a greek, I always felt that there's no way our modern pronunciation has absolutely nothing to do with the Koine Greek. Plus, there are serious issues with the erasmian pronunciation, such as pronouncing the Θ as light t, and the Δ as light D. I feel that there's no way there would be no Δ and Θ sounds as in their modern pronunciation in ancient greek.

[@Stefos11]

@@Johnny12575 what about χ?😂 They pronounce it "chai" 😂 Its just "he" guys! I remember my maths professor, on the first lecture teaching about the pronunciations, he said: "If you are greek, being greek just makes your life a bit harder"

[@skatopiasma]

Awesome walkthrough through the alphabet! A small correction, if I may, it has 24 letters, instead of 26 that Neil mentioned. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet

[@iSkythYT]

Z is “ZED” -this post was made by the rest of the world outside America

[@Hoganply]

True, but as a Brit, I've found that 'zee' is more efficient when spoken or read next to most other letters. I think this pronunciation has only endured because it's an irregular letter.

[@juliaf_]

As a Canadian, the only time I'll use 'Zee' is when I'm saying Gen Z. There's a reason 'Eh to Zed' is a thing

[@haroldfloyd5518]

Zed ruins the alphabet song…

[@felicityc]

color honor donut

[@coffeebeann1]

Growing up unlearning the Zed making it ZEEEEE was like ugh 🤦🏽‍♀️ Lol even “H” Even helping my dad unlearn that.. only due to him training others and public speaking

[@cedricgist7614]

Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon; zeta, eta, theta - iota, kappa, lambda - mu, nu - xi - omicron, pi - rho, sigma, tau, upsilon: phi - chi - psi - Omega! The pacing above is how I taught myself the order of letters in the Greek alphabet. Never much cared for fraternities or sororities, but I also got tired of encountering Greek letteors and not knowing their order. Last point: likely someone mentioned this before me - there are traditionally 24 letters in the Greek alphabet. You mentioned 26 - and got me thinking. I believe there is also a "digamma," and at least one other rarely used symbol. That would account for at least 26 letters and spare me from daring to correct such learned gentlemen as yourselves. It was my oversight. Good video!

[@gorillakush2287]

Bravo for this my guy ,,, you video is veryyyy nice , more people need to get those information and start searching .... the knowledge

[@MrWasim100100]

if teachers teach in schools the same way as you do guys it would be fun for students to learn! very nice video keep it up :)

[@Vohlfied]

Chuck: "We could sit here, watch paint dry, if I'm getting paid I love it." Niel: "Today I wanna talk about the Greek Alphabet," Chuck: "Ah, well, then ya messed it all up again."

[@sniperas96]

We simply thank you for explaining as precisely as you could the etymology ( btw Greek word ;) ) of Greek alphabet. Quite handy for all students especially those who study physics, math, engineer etc!

[@avramidis3d]

13:06 Omicron and Omega, were also phonetically different in ancient Greek. Omicron was short, while omega was longer. As Epsilon and Ypsilon was short (psilon means also little, thin). There was a longer combination for E, it was "AI: in Greek (AE in English), Aegaen Sea for example.

[@busyrand]

Neil is a masterful teacher... He made this topic extremely interesting from the onset. He possesses great brilliance! I deeply appreciate the Kappa Alpha Psi reference...

[@beou1980]

Not to also forget the dielectric constant of materials that is denoted with an epsilon as "εr" Greetings from Greece!

[@isaak4416]

The reason we have omicron and omega (Ο ο, Ω ω) is that in ancient greek they were pronounced differently, giving different meaning to a word. The "ooohh" sound in omega was longer. By the way, I've watched your interview to the greek youtube channel "Astronio" a while back now and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you could understand greek, you'd really be able to tell how humbled, grateful and overwhelmed Paul Kastanas was for that interview. Thank you for communicating the hard sciences to the people

[@mihalislymperakis2422]

Hello from Greece, tiny detail possibly, but in Greek language, the letter (i) - yota, when used in words, is spelled as “e”. So the letters M, N, Ψ (psi) and X (chi) are pronunciated as follows: M : Mee N: Nee Ψ: Psee X: Chee Cheers and well done on your amazing videos

[@Viewer-ld5rc]

The Greek language is powerful, with secrets hidden in it.

[@kozani07]

And we thank you for honoring the Greek alphabet!!! Cheers

[@Nicholas.Tsagkos]

Just FYI in Ancient Greek there was also the letter F (Δίγαμμα - double Γ) and the letter Q (Κοππα - Koppa).

[@csharpcoffee]

We use lambda in programming : "lambda functions" It's basically an inline function with no name. They are extremely common in Javascript but also available in other languages where they are less frequently used like C#

[@grproteus]

μ (mu - pronounced "mee" by us greeks ) is the symbol of muons psychic energy is from the greek "ψ-υχική ενέργεια" - so yeah, ψ is for psi :P

[@alexbatsis2785]

Ενέργεια, Συμμετρία, Αρμονία, Πλανήτης. Is it easy to tell which words are these in English?

[@alfalockeye9445]

Brilliant comment right here

[@mariasideri1974]

energy, symmetry, harmony, planet

[@JosiahWarren]

We can create equivalent with the same semantics. Get over it. We can all agree to name them gghdgsg, vdbbsb, vbdbd

[@katerinasimeonidou]

That's a great video, a great show!!! Thank you!!! Not sure if someone already mentioned it: O (Omicron) which means "small O" comes from the way the letter was actually pronounced in a word, even today its pronunciation is short (βραχύ), shorter than the Ω (Omega)'s, which means "long O" when pronounced (μακρό). Classic example the words ΧΩΡΟΣ (space) and ΧΟΡΟΣ (dance). When the Greek language became the lingua franca of ancient times foreigners who wanted to speak Greek could not pronounce it right and that's how the little signs of accentuation became part of the language and we now still have ΧΏΡΟΣ and ΧΟΡΌΣ respectively, as a way to understand where to give a little bit of accentuation.

[@hmapton]

What a lovely video! Regarding "Psy energy" mentioned #11:58 it really doesn't matter if its from the letter Psi (ψ) or the word Psychic as the word psychic is a Greek word also spelt with the letter psi. So "Psy energy" in fact references the same thing, the letter psi.

[@Rhekon]

Credible Hulk is such a great dad joke. It always sounds fresh.

[@a.polaris5726]

You wouldn't like me when I'm ANGRY... because I back up my rage with FACTS! And DOCUMENTED SOURCES!

[@rocintervention]

This is THE BEST show of Science & Education! 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

[@grayavatar9766]

I remember seeing a video on dvd where a greek professor was explaining how the shape of the greek letters had meaning and greek words are a sequence of shapes. Eg. F is for fire and light and o is an all encompassing shape, so the word fos is an encompassing light. A is shaped like the top of a mountain apex archi. First leadership top beginning There is so much more I've forgotten. I'd like to find and watch that video again.

[@johnyfilippas2103]

I am Greek and i tell ya that i am happy that people like you are so interested in our beautiful language. :)

[@carterwoodson8818]

I'm so hurt he skipped right over epsilon (limits) and zeta (reimann-zeta function)

[@ASJC27]

Every letter that he skipped has at least one if not multiple meanings in science and engineering. The only one I never came across is omicron, and that's probably because it's indistinguishable from an 'O'. Even psi, that Neil said was taken over by crazies, is used to mark azimuth angles and in rotational matrices. Zeta BTW is also commonly used for damping ratios in dynamic systems, and also in coordinate transformations and conformal mappings.

[@DimitrisPsarelis]

@@ASJC27 wavefunctions use ψ I think.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

In college, once I was working at a bookstore, and there was a collection of letters they had for sale for fraternities/sororities. So I arranged them in order of their occurrence in the Greek alphabet. You can probably imagine how that went over.

[@Konktg]

I can't

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

@@Konktg There were…consequences. I learned things about my co-workers, and myself.

[@Konktg]

@@ronaldgarrison8478 of what kind? It's kind of hard to grasp

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

@@Konktg Come on. I don't mean to be rude, but if you're not getting it by now, it's probably just not going to happen.

[@giorgosterzakis3286]

It's incredible how difficult it seems to be for every non Greek to just produce a sound that merely resembles Greek. Especially English speaking countries are so comforted by the idea that the whole world speaks their language that they nearly haven't even heard another language being spoken (certainly not to the extent that we do regarding English).

[@charalampe.productions]

GREETINGS FROM GREECE 🇬🇷