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We here at Wolfram|Alpha are constantly trying to improve the user experience by fine-tuning our algorithms and making our functionality in every domain more versatile and flexible. We are pleased to announce that we have made useful upgrades to chemistry functionality in Wolfram|Alpha, especially in the domain of solution chemistry. We have new data that enables you to quickly determine whether a given set of solvents are miscible in each other or not: “Is acetone miscible in benzene?” You also could ask for the list of liquids that are miscible in a given solvent: “What solvents are miscible in acetone?” We are improving our coverage of this area, with new data being added regularly.
In addition to miscibility of solvents, we now have greatly expanded functionality for computing solution dilutions with simple queries. For example, just ask Wolfram|Alpha: “How much water should I add to make .035M final solution from 100 ml of 2N H2SO4?” These are extremely useful features for all high school chemistry students as well as for the bench chemist to compute the required volumes based on very simple queries like: “Water needed to reduce concentration of 100 ml of 2M HCl to 0.26M”. Note that in addition to the required result, Wolfram|Alpha also returns a host of other pertinent properties for the final solution. You can also compute the final concentrations resulting from a dilution experiment by simply asking: “Molarity of a solution made by diluting 5.00 mL of 1.8M H2SO4 to a volume of 250.0 mL”.
While on the topic of diluting and preparing solutions, we are also very happy to now include detailed information (including preparation) of most common saline solutions that are administered at a hospital. To learn what is it that you are being injected with when you have a lactated Ringer’s drip attached to your arm, just type: “lactated Ringer’s solution”. In addition to the composition of the administered solution, you can immediately go over to the “Solute properties per 1 L” pod to learn what amount of the solutes needs to be added to water to get a final volume of 1 L. Alternatively simply clicking the “Per 100 mL” will show you how to change the ingredients to make a 100 mL solution of the same. We should always note though (as mentioned in the Composition pod) that what we show is only one of the slightly varying compositions that are available from various manufacturers. In addition to lactated Ringer’s solution, we have about 10 other common medical saline solutions (e.g. acetated Ringer’s solution, Hartmann’s solution).
We hope the aforementioned additions to our ever-growing repository will be useful to many of our users. Drop in your suggestions to let us know of other areas of interest to you in the domain of chemistry.