WolframAlpha

What is WolframAlpha?

WolframAlpha is the go-to tool for high school, college students, and professionals for solving mathematical problems and getting specific answers to complex questions.

WolframAlpha returns accurate answers and offers step-by-step explanations on how it arrived at them. 

With its simple interface, the WolframAlpha App lets you instantly compute answers to questions across thousands of domains—from finance and food to math and medicine to stocks and spacecraft to wordplay and weather.

WolframAlpha, an award-winning app, is a powerful answer engine which aims to ‘make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone capable’. The app shouldn’t be mistaken for a search engine even though it looks like one. It is an informational tool that delivers specific answers calculated from the data gathered from all the information related to your questions. Kids can learn anything because it covers a variety of subjects but they need to learn how to ask the right questions.

The app features a very clean and practical design. The screen is divided into two sections: The left side is used for a number of features including example searches to give you an idea of how to ask questions, a search history tab, favourite searches and a section about the company.  Under the ‘About’ tab you will find s short introduction video and tips for good results. The right side is dedicated to the search bar and the results from your search. On the top right of the screen (we’re testing the iPad version) there is a button that allows you to add to favourites your search results or to share them on Facebook and Twitter.

Having more than ’50,000+ types of algorithms & equations, 10+ trillion pieces of data, linguistic analysis for 1000+ domains and running on more than 10,000 CPUs’ gives you a clear idea of how powerful is the tool you own...for just £1.99 (the first time the app was released  it had a price tag of but soon dropped). Obviously you need an Internet connection to use the app, the app being just a front end for mobile devices to access the vast computational algorithms available on their website. So what are the advantages of using the app? We think it offers a better user experience by having extra features (a search history, saving favourites) and being somehow faster than the browser tool. 

The custom search keyboard fills most of the screen mainly because it includes both the letter and numerical keyboard. Searching is easy and when entering a search query the app shows under the search bar word suggestions to help the search and make it quicker. When we typed the term ‘general’ the app suggested terms like ‘general electric’, ‘general relativity’ and even ‘general tso’s chicken’; each search response is presented very clear under the search bar and it looks very good on tablets.

Example searches are organized into different categories like Mathematics, Life Sciences, Weather& Meteorology, Music, Culture & Media, Colours, Education. We chose Mathematics and we found an extensive list of information related to elementary maths, number theory, graphics, algebra, geometry, functions, and math problems. The answers provided include definitions, graphs, charts, and data tables and go much further offering extended answers.

The learning potential lies with the user. As a reference tool it provides the answers you are looking for and it can be used to cover most of the curriculum topics. Learning to collect data and analyzing your search results will develop their thinking, organisational and communication skills. Visual presentations are included where necessary and they will help children with their math problems, chemistry, physics and other subjects. They can easily organize the information they gathered into favourites so it is easy to come back to it when need it.

While most of our serious questions were answered (‘mass of an apple’, ‘next moon eclipse’, ‘synonym obstreperous’,  ‘boiling point of lead, ‘gold atomic number’) we had some unexpected and fun results with others (the closest interpretation for ‘chocolate recipe’ was chocolate as a colour).  Kids will try it to amuse themselves by searching incoherent facts but once they realise that the app won’t be able to interpret most of their inputs will soon stop. 

Having access to such a vast container of knowledge is beneficial for school use if it will be integrated in their school activities as a tool for finding relevant information. It fits perfectly with students who want to explore different topics as long as they understand that questions need to be correctly formulated to get useful answers. WolframAlpha receives 4 stars EAS Certification because as long as the information you are looking for is available you will for sure find it.

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You can download WolframAlpha on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the WolframAlpha app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.