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The Wolfram|Alpha Team

Handy Wolfram|Alpha Widgets for Everyday Unit Conversions

July 30, 2010 —
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Wolfram|Alpha has a massive database of measurements that can help you solve everything from complex scientific conversions to common everyday questions. And because of the ever-connected world we live in today, we often come into contact with systems of measurement that may be unfamiliar to us.

Wolfram|Alpha.com has always been a great source for quick and easy unit conversions. But now, thanks to the newly announced Wolfram|Alpha Widgets and Widget Builder, you can create and share these Wolfram|Alpha-powered mini-apps on your blogs and with your social networks. Below is a sampling of the handy widgets that users have created in recent days—for everything from kitchen conversions to shoe sizes.

Give yourself, and perhaps readers of your cooking blog, a helping hand in the kitchen with this easy-as-pie kitchen conversion widget. This particular widget was designed to convert American units of measure. However, you can customize your own widget for other systems of measurement in just a few easy steps with the drag-and-drop Widget Builder.

Have you ever found yourself needing to convert currency when budgeting for an upcoming international trip? This simple widget allows you to convert currencies and take into account possible fees and commissions you may incur when buying or selling moneys.

Do you need a fast way to compute the distance between two physical locations in your preferred units of measurement?

Wondering whether you just awoke a friend several time zones away with a text message? Wolfram|Alpha can also perform a variety of time conversions. With this widget you can simply enter the location, such as “Dubai”, and Wolfram|Alpha will display the time difference between Dubai and your location in several different ways along with other details about the current time in Dubai.



Did you stumble upon a “must have” pair of shoes that were created by a European designer? Is the only thing holding up your purchase the need to know how your American shoe size converts to European shoe size standards? Here you go:

We’ve barely scratched the surface of Wolfram|Alpha’s conversion capabilities, so feel free to explore more at www.wolframalpha.com or try building a few fun and handy conversion widgets of your own. Share your creative widget building skills with the world by tweeting a link to your widget in the gallery or on your blog, and ask your followers to rate it. Please include the hashtag #WolframAlphaWidget.

2 Comments

There is one more widget created on july 28 to show the current time http://developer.wolframalpha.com/widgets/gallery/view.jsp?id=92a0e7a415d64ebafcb16a8ca817cde4

Posted by Srikanth Ramu July 31, 2010 at 12:53 am

Awwh… come on guys! These widget thingys are great BUT how about all the GEO-coordinate conversions??? Going from decimal degrees into the degree,minute,second format and back. And even conversions between the various Datums! These conversion algorithms are available along with databases of Datums for conversions. I can’t even figure out how to access these conversions within the W|A search box. This is ripe for a widget! How about it?

Posted by dj August 1, 2010 at 10:03 pm