Saturday, May 16, 2009

Some Interesting Wolfram Alpha Queries.

As I approached Wolfram Alpha last night I was full of excitement.  Will it change the way I use the internet? Well, while Alpha is interesting, I was disappointed with it’s lack of ability to figure out what it was that I wanted.  However, the power is there.  Given some time to mature, I feel that it will be a very powerful tool.Searching around I wasen't able to find any lists of interesting queries.  The closest i've been able to find is this list of Easter Eggs. So, In order to better understand Alpha, I’ve been hunting for others’ queries.  Here are some I’ve found on Twitter:

@thinkhard : Cyclic Cellular Automata, 3-Color
I'm still not sure exactly what "rule 4594122302107" means or how it relates to the R/T/C/N values of the algorithm.
@marios : Interesting data on Cyprus 
I had been previously ignorant about the civilized nature of Cyprus. 
@maxtsai : Swine Flu Statistics 
Interesting to see that Alpha is being continually updated.
@oliverg : Caffine and Aspirin
“Has an LD50 for caffeine but none for Aspirin”
@cah28 : The US Use of Oil
I’m still trying to figure out how to get a plot of this from 1908 to 2008.

If you find other interesting examples of Wolfram Alpha queries, please don't hesitate to share in the comments section.