WOLFRAM

News, Views & Insights

Mathematics

Education & Academic

Spellbound Valentines: DIY Art from 3D-Printed Sound

An original gift can make people feel much warmer, especially in the icy weather affecting so many places this winter---including our headquarters. Valentine's Day is a good excuse to get a little creative in the art of gift making. And for me, "getting creative" long ago became synonymous with programing in the Wolfram Language. It is that medium that compels me to treat programming as art, where one can improvise, easily pulling magical rabbits out of a hat. So what shall we make? I think the best gift is a DIY one---especially if it says a lot without even making a sound. Below you see a 3D-printed silver earring in the shape of a sound wave recorded while a person is saying "I love you."
Vitaliy Kaurov, Director of Community Engagement
Education & Academic

Registration Is Open for Mathematica Summer Camp 2014

We are happy to announce the Mathematica Summer Camp 2014! This camp, for advanced high school students entering grades 11 or 12, will be held at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts July 6--18. If you are ready for two weeks of coding fun, apply now on our website. Students who attend the camp have a unique opportunity to work one-on-one with Wolfram mentors in order to build their very own project in Mathematica.
Crystal Fantry, Education Content Manager
Education & Academic

How to Win at Rock-Paper-Scissors

Rock-paper-scissors* isn't obviously interesting to look at mathematically. The Nash-equilibrium strategy is very simple: choose equally and randomly from the three choices, and (in the long run) your opponent will not beat you (nor will you beat your opponent). Nevertheless, it's still possible for a computer strategy to beat a human player over a long run of games. My nine-year-old daughter showed me one solution with a Scratch program that she wrote that won every time by looking at your choice before making its decision! But I will walk you through a simple solution that wins without cheating.
Jon McLoone, Director, Technical Communication & Strategy
Education & Academic

Centenary of Bohr’s Atomic Theory (1913–2013)

I had intended to write a treatise describing the history of the hydrogen atom over the last 100 years. Unfortunately, my time is running out this year, so I will content myself instead with this much briefer blog post outlining the major events associated with Niels Bohr's three epochal papers in 1913. The hydrogen atom has been the most fundamental application at each level in the advancement of quantum theory. It is the only real physical system that can be solved exactly (although some might argue that this is also true for the radiation field, as an assembly of harmonic oscillators).
S M Blinder, Senior Scientist, Document & Media Systems
Education & Academic

Q&A with Harvard Professor Oliver Knill

Last month, students in the midterm review session of Harvard's Math 21a class received a lesson in Mathematica they would not soon forget. Professor Oliver Knill coded a 3D-animated Miley Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball to the beat of her song (by the same name). Knill used the same principles of mathematics that his class was reviewing for the midterm---and now he just may be the coolest professor ever.
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

Arm Yourselves with Wolfram Knowledge

By now, most of you students are likely getting into the thick of the academic year, preparing for the first wave of exams and projects and presentations to come your way... But don't freak out just yet! Here's a list of Wolfram's most recent apps and programs that might help make your life a little easier. After all, it never hurts to have a few powerful resources on your side.
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

Reliability Mathematics in Mathematica

What is the cost of extending a warranty for a car? I'd be interested to know, since my car broke down just past the 100,000 mile marker on a road trip through America. With Mathematica 9 comes complete functionality for reliability analysis that can help us analyze systems like cars. I thought it might be worthwhile to take Mathematica for a spin and look at how some technical systems can be modeled and analyzed.
Johan Rhodin, Kernel Developer, Mathematica Algorithm R&D
Education & Academic

Exploring Maxwell’s Equations with Mathematica 9

I love Maxwell's equations. As a freshman in college, while pondering whether to major in physics, computer science, or music, it was the beauty of these equations and the physical predictions that can be elegantly extracted from them that made me decide in favor of physics. On a more universal level, the hints in Maxwell's equations led Einstein to write Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"), more commonly known as Einstein's first paper on the theory of relativity. The quantum version of the equations, quantum electrodynamics (QED), remains our most successful physical theory, with predictions verified to 12 decimal places. There are many reasons to love Maxwell's equations. And with Mathematica 9's new vector analysis functionality, exploring them has never been easier.
Itai Seggev, Senior Kernel Developer, Algorithms R&D
Show More