The Brownbag

by Fleur Edwards
Appreciating maths and science as I do, I recently took a trip to Wolfram and his Alpha and was suitably impressed.
Whilst the recently launched Wolfram|Alpha has at times been misinterpreted as a google-est tool, it is really a much more focused, factually correct band of knowledge. This tool is not for all searches, but this ‘computational knowledge engine’ is accessible for many more that its catch phrase would imply.
Wolfram|Alpha grew from the old Mathematica crowd and they use that base to build across all areas, including chemistry, mathematics and biology.
It doesn’t stop there however and also delves into earthquakes, music, weather and education, complete with ‘D dominant eleventh chord’ for example.
Wolfram isn’t even going to give you directions to your friends house, nor is it going to give you a complete filmography of Brad Pitt, but it will let you know that his full name is ‘William Bradley Pitt’, his date of birth (December 18th 1963) and his hometown (Shawnee, OK). What sets Wolfram apart is that for the most part the information is succinct, factually correct and user friendly. It gives you a complete list of background sources (from accredited authors) and steers away from the freestyle community input approach of Wikipedia. Feedback is still welcomed, but quality is put ahead of quantity and all information is ‘combined and curated’ by the Wolfram|Alpha team prior to   being posted on the site.
The content is truly impressive. I was able to analyze an SAT score (not that I have one being from Australia and all) and see that an SAT score of 1750 puts only 25% of males above me and 22% of females above me as well as the number of tests sampled.
The depth is surprising and the ease of use and interpretation makes it suitable for people of all ages and levels of understanding.

Overall Wolfram|Alpha is innovative and extremely ambitious, with initial indications are that they are achieving success in their endeavors. It is not just a place for Nerds-R-Us, but one where the general level of understanding of the human race can be lifted which is an admirable quality in anything.

Check it out
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at and is filed under Culture, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.