The Overworked Greek Letter's Diplomatic Tour

The symbol μ (mu) is physics' most overworked letter, forced to represent multiple properties like it's some desperate academic taking on too many research projects to get tenure. In this handshake diplomacy showcase, μ plays five different roles: refractive index (how light bends through materials), magnetic moment (tiny magnets' strength), friction coefficient (why you slip on banana peels), permeability (how magnetic fields penetrate materials), and reduced mass (the mathematical trick that makes two-body problems solvable). Physics notation is basically just finding creative ways to recycle the Greek alphabet until everyone's thoroughly confused.