It took me a few seconds to realise why they were amused. It's λάμδα in Greek. Lamda. No b! 
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With this exception, knowing the Greek alphabet, is useful but *not* super useful. Mainly cos math formalisms created by non-Greek speakers.
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For example in high-school I was curious why Σ stood for sum and Π for product. I obv back then didn't know English as well as now...
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But now it's blindingly obvious why. Σum Πroduct, from English! In Greek it would be άθροισμα and γινόμενο. Totally different words.
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So it's knowing both English and the sound sigma and pi make that solved the "riddle".

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Also to my absolute shame I had to look up what sum is on Google in Greek!
That's the extent of my Charlieness (=what we say in Cyprus for -
Cypriots who have emigrated to the UK).

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And product. In fact I was most uncertain about γινόμενο, I thought it was προϊόν.
End of conversation
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