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Wolfram Alpha the coolest search engine yet

J Sanchez — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:25:46 +0000

Wolfram Research was awarded The Best in Show and Technical Achievement awards @SXSW for its “answer” engine WolframAlpha. I have to say this is the coolest “answer” engine yet. I still remember the good ‘ol days when as a struggling math student I needed to do computations by hand. While it is certainly cool as a mathematical tool, and as someone who spend countless hours punching in equations into Matlab and Maple trying to get assignments turned in, or problems solved. I very much appreciate a tool like this. But the best part is that it does much more than mathematical computations. It can do simple things as weather, life expectancy in a country, maps, coordinates and even information about stocks, all accompanied by some statistical analysis – after all this is Wolfram Research. So after a few minutes of reading over the input language, I decided to give it a try. I first computed the eigenvalues of an upper triangular matrix, then the derivative of sin x, followed by the mass energy equivalence for a 90kg object, the life expectancy in the US and the stock information for Halliburton. Here are the result: Input:

eigenvalues+{{2,2,2,3},{0,i,2,6},{0,0,sqrt(2),1},{0,0,0,-sqrt(3)}}

Not only did I get the eigenvalues, but also the eigenvectors.

Input: derivative of sin x

Input: e=mc^2

Input: life expectancy US

Input: HAL stock

As you can see this can possibly a very useful tool whether you are settling a bet, or trying to do research.

Is god really Mathematician?

J Sanchez — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:56:34 +0000

A few weeks ago I received a 40% off any book coupon from a particular bookstore. Like every other addicted shopper, I thought to myself; well, I just can’t pass up a deal like this. I decided to take a trip to the bookstore to see how I could use my extremely valuable coupon. I usually browse the Computer, Physics and Math sections when at the bookstore. It was there that I saw Mario Livio’s Is God a Mathematician book. I looked at and said to my self “ah, this looks interesting.” Walking to the register my wife looked at the book and said “well, you have to believe in god first before you can say whether he is a mathematician or not.” I quickly defended the book and said “when scientist speak of god they don’t normally mean what you envision as god.” She shrugged her shoulders and said “OK.”

I took the book home and read it. Livio presents an actually well written book. Anyone interested in reading about popular science, or anyone with limited mathematical background will constantly find themselves saying to themselves “I did not know that” or “Ah, that is interesting.” Other than that, you will not gain much from it.

The truth is that the book doesn’t do justice to the title. The majority of the book is nothing more than a historical account of several mathematical topics, which Livio then links to how they relate to our present day life. That is all great, but he never really goes on to say how and where does he come up with the conclusion that god is indeed or is not a mathematician.

This brings me back to what I really think is the important part on this. My wife was completely right. Before one can say anything about god, or anything else for that matter, the object, place or thing of which is referring to must be defined. Furthermore that definition must either well understood or stated. She wasn’t completely right, but she was on the right track. Before Livio can say talk about god in any sense he must define what god means. The word god can have some many different meaning to different people. What is even more frustrating is that a well respected scientist would use a catchy title in an attempt to sell books. In my opinion a more fitting title would be “Great achievements in mathematics and how they relate to everyday life.” Furthermore, under this vision, what prevents god from being a chemist, physicists or biologist?

The last thing I would like to see is scientist turning science into propaganda. Science is science, and it can never be mistaken for religion or faith. Even when they attempt to explain the universe, they are totally different practices and should not be juxtaposed.

Google knol

J Sanchez — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:04:59 +0000

I few days ago I was out in the internets looking for what know what, when I accidentally ran into google knol. At first I thought it was nothing more than google’s attempt to knock off wikipedia. After playing and browsing the site for a few minutes I was able to find a lot of quite interesting articles, most of which were written by college professors or accredited individuals. I was able to find very interesting articles rather quickly. In a matter of seconds I found a very interesting article about Joseph Lagrange’s Firs proof of Group Theory. One thing that I did find particularly frustrating is the fact that new content takes quite awhile to appear. This is rather sad, since I think this could be a great tool for the curious learner.

n^0=1

J Sanchez — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:47:09 +0000

So I am sitting at a Cisco Networking class. Probably a good idea since I am trying to get my CCNA. Anyways, the professor starts talking about binary conversions and powers of two. He goes on to explain thatimmediately people start questioning why that is. He answer in a very humble way that he really does not know exactly why it is. He goes on to say that he is not a math person, but to please take his word for it. I am cool with that, no big deal, after all it is not a math class. A few minutes later this girl sitting across the room calls the professor and shows him how to explain whyand by explaining him, I mean show him her screen with the recent google search she just did about the subject. The teacher, again, politely says that is not my area, you can explain it if you want to. Next thing I know this girl is going to the board to explain why. Now, she did have the right idea, after all she had just googled it. She went on to show it by using the law of exponents and examples.

The law of exponents states the following: Using it you can create examples that show

While, the examples that she gave were correct she said something totally wrong. Something that anyone attempting to explain a mathematical expression should never do, no matter how stupid the expression may seem. She went on to say that you could easily prove it by example. WTF? Nothing in mathematics can be proven by example!. Furthermore,is true because it is defined that way. No if ends or butts. There is no proof that goes along with it.

The sad part of the whole thing is that she supposedly graduate it with a Math degree from The University of Houston. *sight*

Fractals

J Sanchez — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:24:38 +0000

PBS recently aired a very interesting documeetary on NOVA about fractals, called Hunting the Hidden Dimension. In it they described some of the history and modern uses of fractals. When I was young and stupid and in college I was always intrigued by the beauty of the pictures produced by fractals. The notion of this sort of ‘chaotic symmetry’ cointained within is beautiful, to say the least.

What I found surprisingly interesting, and that I did not know, was how fractals are used to explain the make up of nature. From cell phone antennas to the shape of Forests and Mountains.

If you get a chance try to catch it online.