Does anyone use Wolfram|Alpha?

[Techy]

Wolfram|Alpha is a computational search engine that dedicates itself to answering simple questions, like "How big is the universe?", balancing chemical equations, solving math problems, etc. However it lacks in input variety and answering ability, so they will be times where you'll have to retype it, or paraphrase, or change the question altogether. Or times where it doesn't elaborate enough. It is computed from Wolfram Mathematica, which is an advanced computation software, also used for an eponymous product. However it can also be supported/backed up by human comments. A Pro version is coming soon, that improves functionality.


I use it to find answers & facts very quickly. Google or asking an actual person still is better, but Wolfram Alpha is a darn well computation engine.

 

[W3H5]

I'd never heard of it until now. I'll have a look and check it out.

 

[Sage]

I use it so often I have it set to a search keyword in Google Chrome (I type "wa" and then it uses any text after that as the search string). I mainly use it at work for quick chemistry conversions... e.g. "0.5 mM of nacl in mg/ml" or for dimensional analysis without having to do unit conversions (which is especially useful when you're dealing with squared or cubed units).

 

[Keef]

Yes, it's such a genius program. Sometimes I use it to get the answers I'm looking for, then go back and figure out how to get to that answer.

 

[turbolefty78]

Nice tip! I just tried it out and it's quite detailed. I hopped into the music area for a peek and shall have to explore further. Thanks for the post!

 

[AlexGTV]

It's an advanced duckduckgo.

Wolfram is a visionary scientist but I think he overestimates the power of cellular automata (in his book A new science). They don't solve anything, they just suggest that logic boils down to black and white, but this does not mean less work for scientists. Machines calculate better than humans but till now they don't learn very well, so calculation is only the one part of the equation. Besides, Newton did not calculate the law of gravitation, he derived it through experience.

Nevertheless, I like the streamlined website and I find it useful when you want to find information and combine it mathematically quickly, like ratios of income per country e.t.c.