Diameter Symbol
Not to be confused with the Scandinavian letter "Ø" or the Empty set symbol "∅".The symbol or variable for diameter, ⌀, is similar in size and design to ø, the Latin small letter o with stroke. Unicode provides character number 8960 (hexadecimal 2300) for the symbol, which can be encoded in HTML webpages as ⌀ or ⌀. The character can be obtained in Microsoft Windows by holding the Alt key down while entering 8960 on the numeric keypad. On an Apple Macintosh, the diameter symbol can be entered via the character palette (this is opened by pressing ⌥ Opt⌘ CmdT in most applications), where it can be found in the Technical Symbols category.
The character often will not display correctly, however, since most fonts do not include it. In most situations the letter ø is acceptable, which is unicode 0248 (hexadecimal 00F8). It can be obtained in UNIX-like operating systems using a Compose key by pressing, in sequence, Compose/o and on a Macintosh by pressing ⌥ Opt O (in both cases, that is the letter o, not the number 0).
In LaTeX the symbol is achieved with the command \diameter which is part of the wasysym package.
The diameter symbol ⌀ is distinct from the empty set symbol ∅, from an (italic) uppercase phi Φ, and from the Nordic vowel Ø.
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