Greek Alphabet Quiz
December 1963 Popular Electronics

December 1963 Popular Electronics Table of Contents Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

This "Greek Alphabet Quiz" created by Robert Balin appeared in the December 1963 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Years from now most people will probably have forgotten about how prominently Greek letters appeared in the news in this current era (2022) regarding the COVID-19 plandemic and the destruction caused by politicians and others with power and financial agendas. Delta and Omicron variants (but notably not Xi since it might offend the leader of the country of the virus' origin) are the most publicized. For centuries prior, from a scientific and engineering perspective we looked either positively or benignly toward Greek letters when assigning them as unique identifiers for quantitative units or physical configurations. When Robert Balin created this "Greek Alphabet Quiz" for Popular Electronics magazine in 1963, he had no idea how the aforementioned people would manage to bastardize the revered letters. No vaccination, mask, or social distancing is required while working this quiz. Enjoy.

Greek Alphabet Quiz

By Robert P. Balin

Engineers and scientists use Greek letters as symbols for many properties, quantities, or relationships that are important in electrical and electronic circuits. Study the ten examples illustrated here and test your knowledge by matching the drawings with the Greek letter most commonly used as a symbol for the quantity or relationship illustrated. Eight correct answers is a good score.

Alpha () ___________

Beta () ___________

Gamma () ___________

Delta () ___________

Theta () ___________

Lambda () ___________

Mu () ___________

Pi () ___________

Phi () ___________

Omega () ___________

See answers below.

Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, and Radio News were published over the years - some really simple and others not so simple. Robert P. Balin created most of the quizzes for Popular Electronics. This is a listing of all I have posted thus far.

Greek Alphabet Quiz Answers

1 - C    ALPHA is the symbol for current gain of a transistor (the ratio of collector to emitter current) in a common base amplifier circuit.

2 - D    BETA represents the current gain of a transistor (ratio of collector to base current) in a common -emitter amplifier circuit.

3 - F    The GAMMA matching network is one of the most popular methods of feeding the driven element of a beam antenna.

4 - H    The DELTA connection of three-phase power transformer windings is used where minimum third harmonic of the line frequency is important, but it provides no neutral connection.

5 - J    THETA is commonly used to indicate the angular phase difference between two a.c. signals, or between a.c. current and voltage in a reactive circuit.

6 - B    LAMBDA is used to represent the wavelength of a periodic wave as measured between identical points on two consecutive waves.

7 - I    MU is the symbol for the amplification factor of a vacuum tube. This is the ratio of a small change in plate voltage to the change in grid voltage that will produce the same change in plate current.

8 - A    A PI -network is often used as the tank circuit in radio transmitters. It facilitates matching the transmitter output to the line or antenna impedance.

9 - E    PHI is commonly used to represent the total magnetic flux in a magnetic circuit.

10 - G    OMEGA is used primarily as the symbol for resistance, but is also used occasionally to represent the ohmic value of a reactive impedance.

Posted January 14, 2022