beta

Beta

See beta version, beta site, Betamax and Betacam.

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beta

1. the second letter in the Greek alphabet (Β or β), a consonant, transliterated as b

2. 

a. involving or relating to electrons

b. relating to one of two or more allotropes or crystal structures of a solid

c. relating to one of two or more isomeric forms of a chemical compound

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beta [′bād·ə]

(astronomy)

For dust grains ejected from the nucleus of a comet, the ratio of the radiation pressure force to the solar gravitational force.

(electronics)

The current gain of a transistor that is connected as a grounded-emitter amplifier, expressed as the ratio of change in collector current to resulting change in base current, the collector voltage being constant.

(nucleonics)

The amount of reactivity of a nuclear reactor corresponding to the delayed neutron fraction.

(plasma physics)

The ratio of the ion energy density of a plasma to its magnetic energy diversity, or of the particle pressure to the magnetic-field pressure.

(science and technology)

The second letter of the Greek alphabet; β, B.

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1.		BETA - Kristensen, Madsen <olmadsen@daimi.aau.dk>, Moller-Pedersen & Nygaard, 1983. Object-oriented language with block structure, coroutines, concurrency, strong typing, part objects, separate objects and classless objects. Central feature is a single abstraction mechanism called "patterns", a generalisation of classes, providing instantiation and hierarchical inheritance for all objects including procedures and processes. Mjolner Informatics ApS, Aarhus, implementations for Mac, Sun, HP, Apollo. E-mail: <info@mjolner.dk>. Mailing list: <usergroup@mjolner.dk>. ["Object-Oriented Programming in the BETA Programming Language", Ole Lehrmann et al, A-W June 1993, ISBN 0-201-62430-3].
2.		beta - /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ See beta conversion, beta test.