Wolfram Computation Meets Knowledge

Date Archive: 2018 February

Announcements & Events

Language upon Language: New Wolfram Language–Based Book Releases

Here at Wolfram Research, we're always looking to add fresh material to our reading lists, and this winter brings a crop of new books that make use of the Wolfram Language’s power and versatility. Physics and math are represented, as usual, but economics and specialized financial mathematics make a showing as well. Also of note, a musician and engineer analyzes "sound in the time domain." Brilliant minds prove once again that, with the Wolfram Language, the possibilities are endless.
Leading Edge

New in the Wolfram Language: FindTextualAnswer

Are you ever certain that somewhere in a text or set of texts, the answer to a pressing question is waiting to be found, but you don't want to take the time to skim through thousands of words to find what you're looking for? Well, soon the Wolfram Language will provide concise answers to your specific, fact-based questions directed toward an unstructured collection of texts (with a technology very different from that of Wolfram|Alpha, which is based on a carefully curated knowledgebase). Let's start with the essence of FindTextualAnswer. This feature, available in the upcoming release of the Wolfram Language, answers questions by quoting the most appropriate excerpts of a text that is presumed to contain the relevant information.
Announcements & Events

Wolfram News Roundup: Neural Net Connectivity, Gravitational Wave Discoveries and More

It's been an exciting beginning to the new year here at Wolfram Research with the coming release of Version 11.3 of the Wolfram Language, a soft announcement of the Wolfram Neural Net Repository and our launch of multiparadigm data science. As part of the new year, we're also launching some new content in the Public Relations department. As you may have seen, each month we are highlighting the accomplishments of our members on Wolfram Community. We are also recapping news and events about Wolfram each month. So, in case you missed the latest, check out these news stories:
Education & Academic

Cultivating New Solutions for the Orchard-Planting Problem

Some trees are planted in an orchard. What is the maximum possible number of distinct lines of three trees? In his 1821 book Rational Amusement for Winter Evenings, J. Jackson put it this way: Fain would I plant a grove in rows But how must I its form compose             With three trees in each row; To have as many rows as trees; Now tell me, artists, if you please:             'Tis all I want to know. Those familiar with tic-tac-toe, three-in-a-row might wonder how difficult this problem could be, but it’s actually been looked at by some of the most prominent mathematicians of the past and present. This essay presents many new solutions that haven’t been seen before, shows a general method for finding more solutions and points out where current best solutions are improvable.