Re: Modulus of Rigidity

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

Bob Foley, Physics Dept. UW-Stout (I still resent having
been invited to become their school mascot because of my
morphology) asks:

> I was recent asked why the symbol G was used to
> represent the modulus of rigidity.

....

> Does anyone on the list have an answer to this question?

It is the only glyph in the German "Unbeugsamheit" with a
typographic descender. It is visual onomatopoeia. "g" was
already taken in mechanics, so "G" was adopted instead.

OK, so that's a silly answer. Anyone ever notice that in
the Mechanics text by Synge & Griffith Newton's second
law is written as
                    P = k m f
where, presumably,
                    P = phorce
                    k = a constant to take care of units
                    m = (unaccountably) mass (or weight)
                    f = fastering

? What's in a symbol, eh?

Leigh