Wolfram Computation Meets Knowledge

Date Archive: 2016 August

Education & Academic

New Wolfram Language Books

We are constantly surprised by what fascinating applications and topics Wolfram Language experts are writing about, and we're happy to again share with you some of these amazing authors' works. With topics ranging from learning to use the Wolfram Language on a Raspberry Pi to a groundbreaking book with a novel approach to calculations, you are bound to find a publication perfect for your interests.
Education & Academic

Webinar Training Series: Wolfram|Alpha in the Economics Classroom

Are you a teacher who's been asked "Why am I learning this?", "How is this going to help me in real life?" and other variations of this question by your students? I know that I faced this when I was teaching, and it can be tough to provide a satisfactory response. However, being able to address this issue is critical in the classroom. We believe that Wolfram|Alpha provides one way to do so. The Wolfram Knowledgebase, our ever-growing repository of curated computable data, gives you instant access to trillions of data elements across thousands of domains. With Wolfram|Alpha, you can query these data points using natural language (plain English) right in your classroom. By using real-world data, students have the opportunity to direct their learning toward areas that they care about. In the economics classroom, you can discuss GDP using data about real countries, data that is current and citable. Explore Wolfram|Alpha's trove of socioeconomic data that will open multiple areas of inquiry in the classroom. A wonderful side effect that I've found with using a tool like Alpha is that it also teaches you to pose queries intelligently. Being able to carefully construct a problem is an integral step in the process of thinking critically. Join us for a special training event on August 24 to learn more about using Wolfram|Alpha in the classroom. This session in the Wolfram|Alpha for Educators: Webinar Training Series will focus on the economics classroom. Previous sessions in this series focused on calculus and physics classrooms, and you can watch our past event recordings online.
Education & Academic

Training Webinars: New in the Wolfram Language and Mathematica 11

3D printing. Audio. Machine learning. Neural networks. There are 555 completely new functions, major new areas of functionality and a vast deepening of core capabilities in Version 11 of the Wolfram Language and Mathematica. Continuing a three-decade tradition of aggressive innovation, Version 11 is filled to the brim with cutting-edge technology, and we're excited to share with you how to put all these new features to use. Join us for a special two-part webinar event, New in the Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 11, on August 23, 2016, from 2--3:30pm EDT (6--7:30pm GMT) and August 30, 2016, from 2--4pm EDT (6--8pm GMT). Take the opportunity to explore the new features in the Wolfram Language and Mathematica with experts at Wolfram Research, then engage in interactive Q&A with the developers after the presentations.
Best of Blog

Finding Pokémon GO’s Shortest Tour to Compute ’em All!

There's a Computed Pokémon nearby! Here is a Poké Spikey. This will help you catch ’em all! In this blog post I will share with you several data insights about the viral social media phenomenon that is Pokémon GO. First I will get you familiarized with the original 151 Pokémon that have now invaded our real world, and then I'll show you how to find the shortest tour to visit your nearby gyms.
Announcements & Events

Today We Launch Version 11!

Note: There have been additional updates to Mathematica. Read about the updates in Version 11.1, Version 11.2 and Version 11.3 I’m thrilled today to announce the release of a major new version of Mathematica and the Wolfram Language: Version 11, available immediately for both desktop and cloud. Hundreds of us have been energetically working on […]

Design & Visualization

Celebrate National Coloring Book Day with Wolfram (and Four Crayons)

Happy National Coloring Book Day! When my coworkers suggested that I write a blog post celebrating this colorful occasion, I was, frankly, tickled pink by the idea. Coloring is a fun, therapeutic activity for anyone of any age who can color inside the lines—or occasionally just a little outside, if they're more like me. And as the newest member of the Wolfram Blog team, I wanted to see in what fun ways I could add a little color to the Wolfram Blog. While looking through Wolfram|Alpha's massive collection of popular curves, from Pokémon to ALF to Stephen Wolfram, I realized that all of the images built into the Wolfram Knowledgebase would be great for coloring. So, I figured, why not make my own Wolfram coloring book in Mathematica? Carpe colores! Each of the popular curves in the Knowledgebase can be accessed as an Entity in the Wolfram Language and comes with a wide variety of properties, including their parametric equations. But there's no need to plot them yourself—they also conveniently come with an "Image" property already included: