WolframAlpha Computational Knowledge Engine - Wow!

[gary]

Only in its early days, but a mind-boggling piece of work already, for
those interested in a glimpse of what Wolfram Research's "WolframAlpha
Computational Knowledge Engine" can do, try entering your question or
calculation at http://www.wolframalpha.com/ ;)

I was amused to find out it even knows "how much wood could a wood
chuck chuck?" :lol:

Rather than a general search engine like Google, WolframAlpha attempts to
gather knowledge and then compute and infer answers to queries on that
knowledge.

Be sure to watch the video demo by genius Stephen Wolfram himself and be
prepared to have your socks knocked off with the types of queries the
system can already handle! :thumbsup:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

Some readers may be familiar or use Wolfram's Mathematica software package
for performing numeric and symbolic math. Built on Mathematica, WolframAlpha
allows for natural language input and as mentioned, draws on data it knows about.

If nothing else, highly recommend you watch the video. :thumbsup:

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Mt Kuring-Gai

[Octane]

It truly is an amazing tool. I use it every now and then and throw weird queries at it. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[multiweb]

It's got a sense of humor too? :confuse3:
Type "what is the meaning of life"

Input interpretation:
answer to life, the universe, and everything

Result:
42

:lol: Wolfram spent too much time at the movies :rofl:

[Dennis]

Thanks Gary – I’ll bookmark this and take a look later (I’m outdoors with the ‘scope right now!)

Cheers

Dennis

[renormalised]

That is absolutely amazing....and what a resource!!!!

I've certainly bookmarked it!!

[TrevorW]

Thats amazing I was trying to get the average temperature stats for our city and couldn't get anything of the net from the BOM that made sense

typed in our locale and it provided all the info I was after

[Dennis]

I typed the question “Is there a stand alone program to control the SBIG CFW8 colour filter wheel” and variations on the question and unfortunately, nothing was returned.

Oh well, it is a highly specialized question!

Cheers

Dennis

[renormalised]

Don't worry Dennis, they'll get to that sort of query one day:)

[G1ZmO]

Certainly seems a great engine for some things e.g. "moons of neptune" but "why are carrots good for you?" it doesnt understand. Hmmm maybe they're not! lol

Try "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input." LOL

[gmbfilter]

Fantastic, something to keep a eye on

Even knows who is buried in grants tomb!

Doesn't know where the flies go in winter though!

Thanks again Gary

[Kal]

It can take a while to understand how to input your query to get the desired results.

For all of the queries, you have to understand that the data needs to be contained within their controlled databases on the back end, so generic questions generally won't work.

Here is an example of a query I had recently:

australia Vs usa electricity consumption per person (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i={electricity+consumption+%2F+pop ulation+usa}%2C+{electricity+consum ption+%2F+population+australia})