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Education & Academic

How Laplace Would Hide a Goat: The New Science of Magic Windows

Last week, I read Michael Berry’s paper, “Laplacian Magic Windows.” Over the years, I have read many interesting papers by this longtime Mathematica user, but this one stood out for its maximizing of the product of simplicity and unexpectedness. Michael discusses what he calls the magic window. For 70+ years, we have known about holograms, and now we know about magic windows. So what exactly is a magic window? Here is a sketch of the optics of one:

Michael Trott, Chief Scientist, Wolfram|Alpha Scientific Content
Current Events & History

Get Ready for the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017

On August 21, 2017, an event will happen across parts of the Western Hemisphere that has not been seen by most people in their lifetimes. A total eclipse of the Sun will sweep across the face of the United States and nearby oceans. Although eclipses of this type are not uncommon across the world, the chance of one happening near you is quite small and is often a once-in-a-lifetime event unless you happen to travel the world regularly. This year, the total eclipse will be within driving distance of most people in the lower 48 states.
Jeff Bryant, Research Programmer, Wolfram|Alpha Scientific Content
Education & Academic

High-School Summer Camp: A Two-Week Path to Computational Thinking

The Summer Camp Was a Success! How far can one get in teaching computational thinking to high-school students in two weeks? Judging by the results of this year’s Wolfram High-School Summer Camp the answer is: remarkably far. I’ve been increasingly realizing what an immense and unique opportunity there now is to teach computational thinking with […]

Stephen Wolfram
Announcements & Events

Announcing SystemModeler 5: Symbolic Parametric Simulation, Modular Reconfigurability and 200 New Built-in Components

Explore the contents of this article with a free Wolfram SystemModeler trial. Our goal with SystemModeler is to provide a state-of-the-art environment for modeling, simulation---and analytics---that leverages the Wolfram technology stack and builds on the Modelica standard for systems description (that we helped to develop). SystemModeler is routinely used by the world's engineering organizations on some of the world's most complex engineering systems—as well as in fields such as life sciences and social science. We've been pursuing the development of what is now SystemModeler for more than 15 years, adding more and more sophistication to the capabilities of the system. And today we're pleased to announce the latest step forward: SystemModeler 5.
Roger Germundsson, et al.
Announcements & Events

The Practical Business of Ontology: A Tale from the Front Lines

The Philosophy of Chemicals “We’ve just got to decide: is a chemical like a city or like a number?” I spent my day yesterday—as I have for much of the past 30 years—designing new features of the Wolfram Language. And yesterday afternoon one of my meetings was a fast-paced discussion about how to extend the […]

Stephen Wolfram
Announcements & Events

Books from around the (Wolfram) World!

We're always excited to see what new things people have created using Wolfram technologies. As the broad geographical distribution of Wolfram Community contributors illustrates, people all over the world are doing great things with the Wolfram Language. In this vein, today we want to highlight some recent books written in languages other than English that utilize Wolfram technologies. From engineering to statistics, these books provide valuable information for those looking to dig a little deeper into scientific applications of the Wolfram Language.
John Moore, Marketing and Technical Content Team Lead, Technical Communications & Strategy Group
Best of Blog

Analyzing Social Networks of Colonial Boston Revolutionaries with the Wolfram Language

As the Fourth of July approaches, many in America will celebrate 241 years since the founders of the United States of America signed the Declaration of Independence, their very own disruptive, revolutionary startup. Prior to independence, colonists would celebrate the birth of the king. However, after the Revolutionary War broke out in April of 1775, some colonists began holding mock funerals of King George III. Additionally, bonfires, celebratory cannon and musket fire and parades were common, along with public readings of the Declaration of Independence. There was also rum. Today, we often celebrate with BBQ, fireworks and a host of other festivities. As an aspiring data nerd and a sociologist, I thought I would use the Wolfram Language to explore the Declaration of Independence using some basic natural language processing. Using metadata, I'll also explore a political network of colonists with particular attention paid to Paul Revere, using built-in Wolfram Language functions and network science to uncover some hidden truths about colonial Boston and its key players leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Swede White, Public Relations Manager
Best of Blog

Create a Tracker to Analyze Gas Mileage Using Wolfram Tech

When I first started driving in high school, I had to pay for my own gas. Since I was also saving for college, I had to be careful about my spending, so I started manually tracking how much I was paying for gas in a spreadsheet and calculating how much gas I was using. Whenever I filled my tank, I kept the receipts and wrote down how many miles I'd traveled and how many gallons I'd used. Every few weeks, I would manually enter all of this information into the spreadsheet and plot out the costs and the amount of fuel I had used. This process helped me both visualize how much money I was spending on fuel and manage my budget. Once I got to college, however, I got a more fuel-efficient car and my schedule got a lot busier, so I didn't have the time to track my fuel consumption like this anymore. Now I work at Wolfram Research and I'm still really busy, but the cool thing is that I can use our company technology to more easily accomplish my automotive assessments.
Andrew Steinacher, Lead Developer, Wolfram|Alpha Scientific Content
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