Appendix 3 Statistical Notation

Various notational systems in statistics are characteristic of various schools. The notational system used here follows certain general principles.

Notational Conventions

Letters from the beginning of the Latin alphabet are typically used as symbols for constants. Letters i, j, k, l, m, n often denotate subscripts of arrays. Letters v, w. x, y, z are characteristic of variables. Letters p and q are often used within the context of binary variables. Letters r and t are well-known statistical indices and the letter s is characteristic of unbiased variance estimates. However, the Latin alphabet does not have enough letters to capture the discussed concepts and we often utilize letters of the Greek alphabet.

Greek Symbols

A modicum of Greek facilitates the study of statistics. The Greek letters are pronounced as follows: Alpha as the initial a in arcane, beta as b in bone, gamma as g in gate, delta as d in double, epsilon as e in fret (short e), zeta as z in zeal, eta as e in echo (long e), theta as t in target, iota as i in pit, kappa as k in king, lambda as l in lasso, mu as m in mouse, nu as n in never, xi as x in wax, omicron as o in not (short o), pi as p in park, rho as r in riddle, sigma as s in house, tau as t in tender, upsilon as y in yttrium, phi as f in flag, chi as ch in loch, psi as ps in lapse, and omega as o in fortune (long o). The lowercase sigma has two forms, and . The second form is used at the end of words. Greek alphabet consists of 25 characters: