google + encyclopedia = WolframAlpha

[spacegaier]

Wow! I just read an article in our local newspaper on http://www.wolframalpha.com and therefore also had a look at it. And I have to say, that I'm totally amazed!

wolframalpha.com is a very new project that is kind a mixture between google or a searchengine in general and an encyclopedia, but have a look at the introduction video yourself and you will understand and see the big potential this has.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/ ... alpha.html

PS: The genius behind this project is Stephen Wolfram, the famous physicist, mathematician and inventor of the math software Mathematica.

[nullsquared]

Slightly old, I thought about posting but I forgot so I only ended up posting about it on gamedev

Yes, it's quite amazing what it can do. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

[xavier]

I found myself rather impressed with what Alpha does. Entering human-readable questions for math and getting not only the calculated answer, but plots, approximate and exact equations and descriptions of the answer plus related mathematical topics....pretty neat. Granted, it's all really just a web version of Mathematica with a Google angle, but that just shows how good Mathematica is.

[nullsquared]

Granted, it's all really just a web version of Mathematica with a Google angle

Not at all. It does so much more than just math. Did you check out my link?

[xavier]

No, but if someone asked me to boil it down to two words, those would still be my response.

Why? When you go to the WA site, what do you see? You see a search box. You enter human-readable sentences and it returns you math (produced by a backend Mathematica engine).

[Kencho]

Well Xavier, you should see some of these:
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i= ... to%20Tokyo
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=A+minor+scale
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i= ... 2%2C+135lb

Sure all use maths in some way or another, but mostly to back up (or complete) the information shown on the screen. One deal is that instead of creating articles that show formulas and tables for you to calculate the numbers, it automagically picks the ones relevant to you and do all the math

[nullsquared]

No, but if someone asked me to boil it down to two words, those would still be my response.

Why? When you go to the WA site, what do you see? You see a search box. You enter human-readable sentences and it returns you math (produced by a backend Mathematica engine).

It does a lot more than just math. It knows history, what today is, biographies, riddles, and so on.

[xavier]

Right, but that's not the primary reason people go there. Hell, it's got Easter Eggs too, if you want; type in "88 mph" and find out about Back To The Future if you like. However, Alpha isn't going to be the first place I go for Back To The Future trivia; that's why we have IMDB...

[xavier]

Well Xavier, you should see some of these:
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i= ... to%20Tokyo
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=A+minor+scale
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i= ... 2%2C+135lb

Sure all use maths in some way or another, but mostly to back up (or complete) the information shown on the screen. One deal is that instead of creating articles that show formulas and tables for you to calculate the numbers, it automagically picks the ones relevant to you and do all the math

Does all the math, just like Mathematica...I still don't see how we are disagreeing...

For example, you can type a stock ticker symbol in Alpha and get relevant data and analytics. Well, I can do the same in Google and Yahoo, no?

[_tommo_]

It does really much than that, it knows the Answer To Life, Universe And Everything, just ask

Anyway apart from the nerdy easter eggs i'm still much more fast in finding the information i need on crossed google searches...
And btw, ask it "what is C++" and you will find that ogre doesn't exist

[spacegaier]

Interessting, how you hyphonate OGRE:
http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=ogre

[betajaen]

I love it, and I intend to abuse it for solving many math equations, but it can do given names as well which I find a good way to show it off to people.

"name francis, bill"

Unfortunately I share a name with a type of species of bird so, Wolfram Alpha gets a little confused.

[Edit]

It can do quantum physics as well; "protons in ununhexium, iron" - nice.

[xavier]

The fact that it exists will kill (if anyone still allows them) the use of laptops, PDA phones, smart phones, etc., during mathematics or science exams.