WOLFRAM

News, Views & Insights

Mathematics

Education & Academic

Get Down to Business with Finite Mathematics in Wolfram Language

“There is every reason to expect that the various social sciences will serve as incentives for the development of great new branches of mathematics and that some day the theoretical social scientist will have to know more mathematics than the physicist needs to know today.”

—John G. Kemeny, first author of the original textbook on finite mathematics and co-inventor of the BASIC programming language

Finite mathematics gives students a mathematical toolkit used in fields as diverse as business, economics, sociology and biology while covering techniques that are logically distinct from calculus.

John McNally, Solutions Developer, Academic Innovation Support
Education & Academic

Learn Multivariable Calculus through Incredible Visualizations with Wolfram Language

Multivariable calculus extends calculus concepts to functions of several variables and is an essential tool for modeling and regression analysis in economics, engineering, data science and other fields. Learning multivariable calculus is also the first step toward advanced calculus and follows single-variable calculus courses. Wolfram Language provides world-class functionality for the computation and visualization of concepts, which makes this elegant body of mathematical knowledge easy and fun to learn!
Tim McDevitt, Visualization Developer, Algorithms R&D
Education & Academic

Expand Your Understanding of Statistics with Wolfram Language

Statistics is the mathematical discipline dealing with all stages of data analysis, from question design and data collection to analyzing and presenting results. It is an important field for analyzing and understanding data from scientific research and industry. Data-driven decisions are a critical part of modern business, allowing companies to use data and computational analyses to guide their choices and direction, rather than subjective measures like intuition.

Jamie Peterson, Director, Wolfram U
Education & Academic

Stack the Odds in Your Favor and Master Probability with Wolfram Language

"I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably." —Christiaan Huygens

Have you ever wondered how health insurance premiums are calculated or why healthcare is so expensive? Or what led to the financial crisis of 2008? Or whether nuclear power is safe? The answers to these questions require an understanding of probability, which is the best tool that we have for coping with an uncertain world. In fact, an understanding of probability is required for professionals in a large number of fields, including data science, finance, engineering, biology, chemistry, medicine and actuarial science.
Marc Vicuna, Junior Kernel Developer, Algorithms R&D
Education & Academic

Active Learning with Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition

As you may know from your own experience (or perhaps from the literature on education), passively receiving information does not lead to new knowledge in the same way that active participation in inquiry leads to new knowledge. Active learning describes instructional methods that engage students in the learning process. Student participation in the classroom typically leads to deeper knowledge, more developed critical thinking skills and increased motivation to continue learning. In this post, you will see example activities demonstrating how Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition can support active learning methods in your classroom.
Jordan Hasler, Senior Developer, Wolfram|Alpha Math Content John McNally, Solutions Developer, Academic Innovation Support
Education & Academic

Wolfram|Alpha Pro Teaches Step-by-Step Arithmetic for All Grade Levels

In grade school, long arithmetic is considered a foundational math skill. In the past several decades in the United States, long arithmetic has traditionally been introduced between first and fifth grade, and remains crucial for students of all ages. The Common Core State Standards for mathematics indicate that first-grade students should learn how to add “a two-digit number and a one-digit number.” By second grade, students “add and subtract within 1000” and, in particular, “relate the strategy to a written method.” In third grade, multiplication by powers of 10 is introduced, and by fourth grade students are tasked to “use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic,” including multiplication and division. A fifth grader will not only be expected to “fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm,” but also “add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals.”
AnneMarie Torresen, Math Developer, Wolfram|Alpha Math Content
Show More