WolframAlpha: A Magical Knowledge Engine

[Mech_Engineer]

I think it is valid formatting, Elish is trying to describe an integral of a function f where f is not presently known. The problem is whether it can interpret what you are trying to say. If you tell it "int f(x) dx" it correctly understands you are trying to describe an integral, it then presents the integral back to you and says "I don't know how to solve this", a totally sensible behavior. If you add the "from 0 to 1" back in though it just doesn't know how to interpret what you're saying at all. It would be unreasonable to expect something like wolfram alpha to be able to figure out any crazy thing you type in, but if "int f(x) dx" is valid syntax and "int sin(x) dx from 0 to 1" is valid syntax then why not "int f(x) dx from 0 to 1"?

The formatting itself I suppose is valid, but do we really need to ding WA for not properly displaying an input which has no solution?

 

[Borek]

We have been there, even in this thread:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=2443314#post2443314

 

[Raphie]

But if you have to learn to phrase the question in a particular idiosyncratic way, then we're back to just having a computational engine which can answer queries if you learn the syntax. We already had engines like that; for example, *mathematica*!

I agree with all of your points, in general, Coin, including the above, but one nice thing about Wolfram Alpha is that a) it gives one "contextual clues" along the way about how to "ask it the right way," and b) personally speaking, it is a Godsend for the mathematically curious without proper formal training.

If I were a professional in one of the mathematically oriented sciences, I don't think I would be overly impressed with Wolfram Alpha, but as a non-professional, I view it as a vast improvement over, say, the Google Calculator.

A small case in point: Via trial and error I know that (Golden Ratio)^30 and (phi)^30 bring up very different results. That tells me a lot about "phi" as a "variable" vs. "phi" as a "number." And that's something I can build on.

Another (general) case in point: By presenting mathematical information in many ways of a piece, it gives one several "paths" by which to "connect" to the information presented. e.g. Even if one had never heard of Taylor Series, one could intuitively learn about them in principle just by inputting e^(-phi^2).Raphie