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Date Archive: 2013 August

Education & Academic

Musing about Rectangular Bar Magnets

(This is the third post in a three-part series about electrostatic and magnetostatic problems involving sharp edges.) In the first blog post of this series, we looked at magnetic field configurations of piecewise straight wires. In the second post, we discussed charged cubes and orbits of test particles in their electric field. Today we will look at magnetic systems, concretely, mainly at a rectangular bar magnet with uniform magnetization.
Michael Trott, Chief Scientist, Wolfram|Alpha Scientific Content
Education & Academic

Visualizing Our Place in the Milky Way Galaxy with Mathematica

In today's world, people often forget about the wonders of the night sky. Modern conveniences provided by civilization such as electricity and lighting result in light pollution that obscures our views. Pictures like the one below that I took near Champaign, Illinois show the yellow glow of city lights that reduces the contrast with the night sky and makes it difficult to see some of the more visually stunning, but lower contrast sights like the Milky Way. But you can still make out the Milky Way in my photo as a cloudy stripe that runs up from the southern horizon during summer in the Northern hemisphere, or winter if you are in the Southern hemisphere.
Jeff Bryant, Research Programmer, Wolfram|Alpha Scientific Content
Computation & Analysis

Even More Formulas… for Everything—From Filled Algebraic Curves to the Twitter Bird, the American Flag, Chocolate Easter Bunnies, and the Superman Solid

This blog post is the continuation of my last two posts (1, 2) about formulas for curves. So far, we have discussed how to make plane curves that are sketches of animals, faces, fictional characters, and more. In this post, we will discuss the constructions of some filled curves (laminae).
Michael Trott, Chief Scientist, Wolfram|Alpha Scientific Content
Announcements & Events

A Visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom

I just finished giving a short presentation to several thousand screaming fans at the D23 Disney fan convention in Anaheim, California. When I say “screaming fans,” what I mean is Disney fans who were literally screaming at what I had to say. This already somewhat improbable situation was made all the more surprising by the fact that they were screaming about FindClusters. Well, technically, most of them may not have actually realized that’s what they were screaming about, because they were seeing only the output of the command, not the actual Mathematica code. But the thing they were so excited about was direct output from Mathematica, and the key differentiating factor that made it so interesting to them was the ability of FindClusters to discern, differentiate, and illuminate the shifting moods and emotions of animated feature films.
Theodore Gray, Cofounder, Wolfram Research, Inc.; Founder, Touch Press
Education & Academic

Attention Teachers and Educators—Good News!

The Wolfram Demonstrations Project has newly organized its K--12 interactive content to fit United States Common Core State Standards. Engagement, exploration, discovery---these are the staples of good education. Giving students the freedom to be curious and the tools to satisfy that curiosity helps develop independent thinkers and confident problem-solvers. With the Demonstrations Project, students can visualize, manipulate, and explore the very principles that are being taught in the classroom. Teachers can enrich their lesson plans with cutting-edge and engaging content by exploring the Demonstrations database by grade level and Common Core Standard.
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

Mathematica Summer Camp 2013 Comes to an End

Thirty-three extremely intelligent high school students gathered at Bentley University July 7-19 to participate in our second annual Mathematica Summer Camp. The program lasted two weeks, and within this small window of time, students created their very own Mathematica projects. At the end of the camp, students presented these projects to their peers, camp instructors, and Stephen Wolfram. Projects ranged from games created in Mathematica to a Demonstration of the "Wavefunction and Probability Density of a Coupled Quantum Harmonic Oscillator." These projects will be posted to the Wolfram Demonstrations Project here, adding to the great work of those from 2012!
Crystal Fantry, Education Content Manager