Kappa

Symbol

Lowercase (κ)

• In graph theory, the connectivity of a graph is given by κ.
• In differential geometry, the curvature of a curve is given by κ.
• Kappa statistics such as Cohen's kappa and Fleiss' kappa are methods for calculating inter-rater reliability.

• In cosmology, the Einstein gravitational constant is denoted by κ.
• In physics, the torsional constant of an oscillator is given by κ.
• In physics, the coupling coefficient in magnetostatics is represented by κ.
• In fluid dynamics, the von Kármán constant is represented by κ.
• In thermodynamics, the compressibility of a compound is given by κ.

• In structural engineering, κ is the ratio of the smaller factored moment to the larger factored moment and is used to calculate the critical elastic moment of an unbraced steel member.
• In electrical engineering, κ is the multiplication factor, a function of the R/X ratio of the equivalent power system network, which is used in calculating the peak short-circuit current of a system fault. κ is also used to denote conductivity, the reciprocal of resistivity, rho.

• In biology, kappa and kappa prime are important nucleotide motifs for a tertiary interaction of group II introns.
• In biology, kappa designates a subtype of an antibody component.
• In pharmacology, kappa represents a type of opioid receptor.

• In psychology and psychiatry, kappa represents a measure of diagnostic reliability.

• In macroeconomics, kappa represents the capital-utilization rate.

  Uppercase (Κ)

• In textual criticism, the Byzantine text-type.

• In set theory, kappa is often used to denote an ordinal that is also a cardinal.

• In chemistry, kappa is used to denote the denticity of the compound.
• In pulping, the kappa number represents the amount of an oxidizing agent required for bleaching a pulp.

  Character encodings

• Mathematical Kappa