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The Wolfram|Alpha Team

Wrapping Up a Fantastic Summer

September 30, 2013 —
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A lot of cool things happened this summer on Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram|Alpha Blog. And just wait—we have even better stuff planned for the coming months! But in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap of some of our best posts from this summer.

It began with our cool new curves, which are created through a series of elaborate equations, like this one:

Batman lamina

We made a ton of them, and they got so popular that we started up a contest to let our nerdiest reader choose the next image we’d turn into a mathematical curve! It was paired up with our recently released Personal Analytics for Facebook, and submissions were received in the form of Facebook status word clouds—in search of the nerdiest one!

Set the Curve Winner Word Cloud

Nice!

We also talked about other ways our Personal Analytics for Facebook is pretty awesome. Like how you can track changes in your life that happen over time, for instance, which times you log onto Facebook the most (and what you do there!).

Personal Analytics for Facebook

In fact, a lot of diverse topics were covered this summer, from movie premiers to magnets.

Elysium, which hit theaters this past August, had a lot of intriguing physics and chemistry in it. We were so fascinated that we decided to verify the science using Wolfram|Alpha to see if the movie was actually plausible. Read the post to find out what we determined!

Those of you who like more in-depth math and physics, the third in our series on sharp-edged magnets was published this summer, taking a look at the specific properties of bar magnets. This post explores the system in two-dimensions, but check back soon for the next installment, which delves into these visualizations and calculations in three dimensions!

Musings about Bar Magnets

And finally, our newest additions to the Wolfram|Alpha data collection: updated word data, amusement park data, and data for everyday objects! Discover more than just definitions; why not look up how often the word galimaufry has been used in the last century? Find out which roller coasters are located within 100 miles of you. Or get the average dimensions, densities, and other information about hundreds of random, everyday objects to satisfy your wildest curiosities.

So as the weather gets cooler, and you begin to trade in your breezy evening cookouts for cozy blankets and playing Scrabble by the fireplace, remember two things:

  1. You may hide from the cold, but don’t hide from the internet—fall and winter will be just as exciting around here!
  2. WOLFRAM makes a fantastic Scrabble word (+50 points for using all your letters!):

Scrabble Approves of Us

2 Comments

That Word Cloud looks super cool!!!

Posted by Josh Trenser October 8, 2013 at 11:55 pm

You were right, a lot has been happening on WolframAlpha in the recent past. The word cloud was good and the rectangulr bar magnets kept me wondering for a while. It is enigmatic in some way. Thanks for sharing the post, and all the best for the days to come.

Posted by Rey October 18, 2013 at 12:34 am