Normally, we use the letter $f$ to stand for frequency in equations.
$$T = 1/f$$ $$v = \lambda f$$ $$Φ +E_k = h f$$
So I'm curious as why the letter $ν$ (nu) is used to represent frequency in the equation $$E=hν$$ when people who first saw it may think it's velocity due to its resemblance with $v$ and get confused? (And even the frequency formula for matter waves de Broglie deduced from it uses $f$.)
Is there a historical reason behind this?
I think because scientists in previous centuries had gone through the classical education of ancient greek and latin, and greek, being symbols not used in the normal writing would stand up and not be confused .
Mathematics had used a lot of the first letters ( for every delta there exists an epsilon) and they probably did not want a confusion with force (f). lamda was taken by wavelength ( possibly by association with the l of length). mu, coming before nu in the alphabet, was also used up to denote some constants (magnetic permeability).
This wiki link gives the scientific definitions attached to the greek alphabet, and the correspondence is one letter to many definitions!
$\nu$ is used more often when specifying electromagnetic waves, such as light, X rays, and gamma rays.
$\omega$ is mostly used by electrical engineers in referring to alternating current.
