Digamma, waw, or wau (uppercase: Ϝ, lowercase: ϝ, numeral: ϛ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It originally stood for the sound /w/ but it has principally remained in use as a Greek numeral for 6. Whereas it was originally called waw or wau, its most common appellation in classical Greek is digamma; as a numeral, it was called episēmon during the Byzantine era and is now known as stigma after the value of the Byzantine ligature combining σ-τ as ϛ.
Digamma or wau was part of the original archaic Greek alphabet as initially adopted from Phoenician. Like its model, Phoenician waw, it represented the voiced labial-velar approximant /w/ and stood in the 6th position in the alphabet between epsilon and zeta. It is the consonantal doublet of the vowel letter upsilon (/u/), which was also derived from waw but was placed at the end of the Greek alphabet. Digamma or wau is in turn the ancestor of the Latin letter F. As an alphabetic letter, it is attested in archaic and dialectal ancient Greek inscriptions until the classical period.
The shape of the letter went through a development from Greek Digamma oblique.svg through Greek Digamma 05.svg, Greek Digamma angular.svg, Greek Digamma cursive 01.svg, Greek Digamma cursive 02.svg to Greek Digamma cursive 05.svg or Greek Digamma cursive 06.svg, which at that point was conflated with the σ-τ ligature Greek Digamma cursive 07.svg. In modern print, a distinction is made between the letter in its original alphabetic role as a consonant sign, which is rendered as "Ϝ" or its modern lowercase variant "ϝ", and the numeric symbol, which is represented by "ϛ". In modern Greek, this is often replaced by the digraph στ.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
The Wau Factor
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9 comments:
An interesting yet long-winded way of writing... 1!
Cleverly speeded up where needed, this hoax hits the spot with a certain, 'wow!' factor.
I still haven't digested this, but thanks for the tip!
SIX is a number of perfection, because it is the most perfect in nature, in the whole course of numbers, from one to ten; and it alone is so perfect that in the collection of its parts, it results the same, neither wanting nor abounding; for if the parts thereof, viz. the middle, third, and sixth part, which are three, two, one, be gathered together, they perfectly fill up the whole body of six, which perfection all the other numbers want. Hence, by the Pythagorians, it is said to be altogether to be applied to generation and marriage, and is called the scale of the world; for the world is made of the number six--neither doth it abound, nor is defective: hence that is, because the world was finished by God the sixth day; for the sixth day God saw all things which he had made, and they were 1 very good; therefore the heaven, and the earth, and all the host thereof, were finished. It is also called the number of man, because the sixth day 2 man was created. And it is also the number of our redemption; for on the sixth day Christ suffered for our redemption; whence there is a great affinity between the number six and the cross, labour, and servitude. Hence it is commanded in the law, that in six days the manna is to be gathered, and work to be done. Six years the ground was to be sown; and that the Hebrew servant was to serve his master six years. Six days the glory of the Lord appeared upon Mount Sinai, covering it with a cloud. The Cherubims had six wings. Six circles in the firmament: Artic, Antartic, two Tropics, Equinoctial and Ecliptical. Six wandering planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, running through the latitude of the Zodiac on both sides the Ecliptic. There are six substantial qualities in the elements, viz. sharpness, thinness, motion; and the contrary to these--dulness, thickness, and rest. There are six differences of position: upwards, downwards, before, behind, on the right side, and on the left side. There are six natural offices, without which nothing can be, viz. magnitude, colour, figure, interval, standing, motion. Also, a solid figure of any four-square thing hath six superfices. There are six tones of all harmony, viz. five tones, and two half tones which make one tone, which is the sixth.
2 half tones - Digamma
If you are into the "sacred geometry" of the Parthenon (especially the East Frieze) as I am, you would not immediately dismiss this. ;)
At 2:41 she writes:
e^(2πi) = Wau
Euler’s Identity says e^(πi) + 1 = 0
→ e^(πi) = -1
Raise both sides to power 2:
(e^(πi))^2 = (-1)^2
→ e^(2πi) = 1 = Wau
The number 6 however has no special properties whatsoever! ;-)
But 1 isn't a number. It's the "unit" (in the Greek system).
Tell it to a mathematician! ;-)
...and NO using zeroes!
how ecclectic! Have a great weekend my friend!!!:-)
Thanks, Angel! You, too!
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