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Date Archive: 2019 July

Education & Academic

Building Uniform Polyhedra for Version 12

Since I started working at Wolfram, I’ve been a part of several different projects. For Version 12, my main focus was replicating models of the uniform polyhedra with the Wolfram Language to ensure that the data fulfilled certain criteria to make our models precise, including exact coordinates, consistent face orientation and a closed region in order to create a proper mesh model of each solid.

Working with visual models of polyhedra is one thing, but analyzing them mathematically proved to be much more challenging. Starting with reference models of the polyhedra, I found that the Wolfram Language made mathematical analysis of uniform polyhedra particularly efficient and easy.

But first, what really are polyhedra, and why should we care? With Version 12, we can explore what polyhedra are and how they’ve earned their continued place in our imaginations.

Keren Garcia, Algorithms R&D
Education & Academic

Applying Multiparadigm Data Science: New Wolfram U Course

Wolfram U’s latest interactive course, Multiparadigm Data Science, gives a comprehensive overview of Multiparadigm Data Science (MPDS) through a series of videos, quizzes and live computations, all running from the Wolfram Cloud. Using real-world examples, this free course provides an introduction to MPDS, strategies for improving your process and building your ideal toolkit, and the Wolfram Language functionality that makes it easy to implement.

Jamie Peterson, Director, Wolfram U
Announcements & Events

Enhanced Step-by-Step Solutions Now on Mobile: Announcing Wolfram|Alpha 2.0 for iOS

Since it was first launched about ten years ago, Wolfram|Alpha has been one of the most useful sites on the web. You can use it to do arithmetic, solve differential equations, find out how many calories there are in a cake, track the airplanes near your current location, track any given constellation, find out how many runs Ken Griffey Jr. scored in 1995 and even perform calculations that make absolutely no sense.

In October 2009, a few months after the website launched, we released Wolfram|Alpha 1.0 for the iPhone. Today, we are announcing the latest evolution in Wolfram|Alpha for your iOS phone or tablet, Version 2.0, which is available now on the iOS App Store.

Nick Zitzmann, User Interface Developer, Mobile Development
Best of Blog

Mathematica 12 Available on the New Raspberry Pi 4

With the recent announcement of the all-new Raspberry Pi 4, we are proud to announce that our latest development, Version 12 of Mathematica and the Wolfram Language, is available for you to use when you get your hands on the Raspberry Pi 4.

Mathematica 12 is a major milestone in our journey that has spanned 30 years, significantly extending the reach of Mathematica and introducing a whole array of new features, including significant expansion of numerical, mathematic and geometric computation, audio and signal processing, text and language processing, machine learning, neural networks and much more. Version 12 gives Mathematica users new levels of power and effectiveness. With thousands of different updates across the system, and 278 new functions in 103 areas, there is so much to explore.

Jacob Wells, Technical Specialist, European Sales
Education & Academic

How I Used Last-Mover Advantage to Make Money: An Exploration of Yahtzee and Coin Flipping

This week, I won some money applying a mathematical strategy to a completely unpredictable gambling game. But before I explain how, I need to give some background on last-mover advantage.

Some time ago, I briefly considered doing some analysis of the dice game Yahtzee. But I was put off by the discovery that several papers (including this one) had already enumerated the entire game state graph to create a strategy for maximizing the expected value of the score (which is 254.59).

However, maximizing the expected value of the score only solves the solo Yahtzee game. In a competitive game, and in many other games, we are not actually trying to maximize our score—we are trying to win, and these are not always the same thing.

Jon McLoone, Director, Technical Communication & Strategy