I had no clue what SUVAT is and I know a relatively large amount of physics (advanced undergrad to grad level knowledge, currently an undergrad in college but with knowledge well above the curriculum). I feel a bit disgusted at the idea of someone memorizing those equations.
The first few letters are often used as parameters (e.g. p(x) = ax^2 + bx + c).
f is sometimes used for force density, e.g, in fluid mechanics (annoyingly, the wiki page on the Cauchy momentum equation uses f for the acceleration density caused by an external force).
Electrical engineers use j for the imaginary unit, because they will use i for current. I abhor this—why don’t they just capitalize and use I for current?
Fancy L’s are often used for the Lagrangian in analytical mechanics. The universe’s path is the one that is a stationary point (derivative equals 0, so minimum/maximum/saddle point) of the integral of the Lagrangian (denoted S), and analytical mechanics only gets more beautiful from there (it’s part of what got me into physics). Only mentioning this because you mentioned the Laplace transform.
m,l are often used for whole numbers when n is taken. So is k.
n with a hat is often used for the normal vector to some surface. Likewise A hat if you include the magnitude of the area.
P,Q,R,S,T are often used for points (like, in geometry). O is used for the origin/the center, though sometimes I see O just being another point.
u is often used for a velocity when v is taken.
Please don’t use s for speed.
s is often an arc length for a path.
R is often another logical proposition.
z is often used for the z-score in statistics, that is, sigmas away from the mean assuming a normal distribution. Likewise t for the t-test, which uses fancy stuff to better estimate the standard deviation from the sample (and only noticeably differs from z-tests for small samples).
k is often used as a multiplicative coefficient, e.g. Hookes law (F=kx).
Mathematics often uses X for a space of some kind. There’s also the convention that an upper case letter is a set from which the lower case letter comes from (e.g. take an example x in the space X of possible examples). When a bunch of sets are considered, one often uses some fancy version of the letter (Suppose we have an example-set A in the family of example-sets curlyA such that every example a in A is funny.)
I could make a long list of physical quantities with letter names. I could double the list by allowing greek letters (including ones used in mathematics But that wouldn’t really be about the connotations of variable names, it would just be a list of things with their variable names.
I had no clue what SUVAT is and I know a relatively large amount of physics (advanced undergrad to grad level knowledge, currently an undergrad in college but with knowledge well above the curriculum). I feel a bit disgusted at the idea of someone memorizing those equations.
The first few letters are often used as parameters (e.g. p(x) = ax^2 + bx + c).
f is sometimes used for force density, e.g, in fluid mechanics (annoyingly, the wiki page on the Cauchy momentum equation uses f for the acceleration density caused by an external force).
Electrical engineers use j for the imaginary unit, because they will use i for current. I abhor this—why don’t they just capitalize and use I for current?
Fancy L’s are often used for the Lagrangian in analytical mechanics. The universe’s path is the one that is a stationary point (derivative equals 0, so minimum/maximum/saddle point) of the integral of the Lagrangian (denoted S), and analytical mechanics only gets more beautiful from there (it’s part of what got me into physics). Only mentioning this because you mentioned the Laplace transform.
m,l are often used for whole numbers when n is taken. So is k.
n with a hat is often used for the normal vector to some surface. Likewise A hat if you include the magnitude of the area.
P,Q,R,S,T are often used for points (like, in geometry). O is used for the origin/the center, though sometimes I see O just being another point.
u is often used for a velocity when v is taken.
Please don’t use s for speed.
s is often an arc length for a path.
R is often another logical proposition.
z is often used for the z-score in statistics, that is, sigmas away from the mean assuming a normal distribution. Likewise t for the t-test, which uses fancy stuff to better estimate the standard deviation from the sample (and only noticeably differs from z-tests for small samples).
k is often used as a multiplicative coefficient, e.g. Hookes law (F=kx).
Mathematics often uses X for a space of some kind. There’s also the convention that an upper case letter is a set from which the lower case letter comes from (e.g. take an example x in the space X of possible examples). When a bunch of sets are considered, one often uses some fancy version of the letter (Suppose we have an example-set A in the family of example-sets curlyA such that every example a in A is funny.)
I could make a long list of physical quantities with letter names. I could double the list by allowing greek letters (including ones used in mathematics But that wouldn’t really be about the connotations of variable names, it would just be a list of things with their variable names.