Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?

wolframalpha.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?

#21

Post by Silentio »

kurtosis wrote: post #6

I'm very unimpressed - I had high hopes alas, here are some real queries from my lab where google gives me the right answer within 1-2 links. (or I can reach for the CRC handbook) W|A Q: speed of light in glass A: c (speed of light) and small glasses are not compatible Q: magnetic moment of cobalt atom A: wolfram alpha isn't sure what to do with your input (note just "cobalt" has the information but you have to dig a…

By the HAL9000 thing, I assume you mean it does everything it can to protect the integrity of its mission and attempts to kill the crew.

Re: Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?

#22

Post by J_McQuade »

"Input interpretation: how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Result: a woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood

(according to the tongue-twister)"

That was actually surprisingly helpful, as I've never heard the second part! And now I know.

[edit]

"Input interpretation: how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man? (etc.)

Result: the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind (according to Bob Dylan)"

They've thought of everything!

Re: Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?

#25

Post by zandorg »

I have a theory... They're collecting queries made with the Alpha release, and they'll just implement the suggestion (in a general form, like slurping up an alcohol database in reply to someone's query complaint), and keep adding and adding cases until it can handle 1000 times more specific queries.

Re: Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?

#27

Post by bilbo0s »

DarkShikari wrote: post #7

... Q: mass of five hydrogen atoms A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: distance traveled by space shuttle in one day A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: explosive energy of five sticks of dynamite A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: number of keys on a US keyboard A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: world war 2 deaths A: Wolfr…

Just to be fair, I tried a couple of your queries with Google, and the answers were not forthcoming either. But I suppose with Google I could do some SEO and get the answers to show up. Whereas I am not sure how to do that with Wolfram. Of course it only just came out.

The queries I tried were:

    Q:distance traveled by space shuttle in one day
    A:Lots of links, none of which gives canonical answer.

    Q:explosive energy of five sticks of dynamite
    A:Lots of links, only a few of which deal with dynamite the explosive.

    Query time was roughly 9:30 AM Central Time Sunday May 16, 2009.
Still, I think both Google and Wolfram will go to this model over time. Which, of course, will be terrible for Google since revenue wise it is a one trick pony. I think it will be better for us though. It does seem more natural for me to ask for the population of Ningbo, and just get an answer instead of a list of links.

Re: Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?

#29

Post by okeumeni »

zandorg wrote: post #25

I have a theory... They're collecting queries made with the Alpha release, and they'll just implement the suggestion (in a general form, like slurping up an alcohol database in reply to someone's query complaint), and keep adding and adding cases until it can handle 1000 times more specific queries.

Good theory, its not that simple.
Post reply on HN