Your questions to Dr. Stephen Wolfram - Date Extended

CEans,

I'm excited to announce that "Ask questions to Dr. Stephen Wolfram" (Creator of Mathematica and WolframAlpha) deadline has been extended till June 22, 2009!

Important:
The decision to extend the deadline is taken after telephonic discussion with Wolfram Research. Dr. Wolfram is expecting great questions from all of you!

Opportunity strikes back:

Learning from our past experience, we are setting up following guidelines for the questions you can ask:

1. Important: We expect questions relevant to Dr. Wolframs' Life & Work including Mathematica and legendary computational search engine WolframAlpha. You may also ask for his views on your own ideas related to his field of work.

2. Do not ask your project related technical difficulties/problems/issues. They'll be removed. This discussion thread is going to be highly moderated.

3. No spamming in this thread. Dr. Wolfram himself might watch this thread.

4. Use proper English while posting your questions. Do NOT use short forms of words (Example: u, gr8, abt)

5. All said, please do not hesitate to ask questions. It's your life-time opportunity. Don't miss this opportunity.

Following links might be useful for you to form questions -

Wolfram Research Official Site: Wolfram: Computation Meets Knowledge
Dr. Stephen Wolfram: Stephen Wolfram: Official Website

Special Note: Those who have already asked their questions may post their questions again. We'll be picking up the top questions asked so far and present them to Dr. Wolfram.

Replies

  • ms_cs
    ms_cs
    Sir,
    I have used WolframAlpha. It gives results within 3-4 seconds. What technology/programming language used? How the servers are maintained/organized to produce such fast results?

    How the "computational engine" used in WolframAlpha works?
  • RajdeepCE
    RajdeepCE
    Sir, after the grand success of Mathemetica, now we have a brilliant search engine "Walphram Alpha". What do you think about future of WA? Can it handle the competition from search engine giant Google? What is your next initative after two mega project?
  • kashish0711
    kashish0711
    Ok here are my 3 questions for now. It's great that the date got extended. Thank You CE for this wonderful opportunity. πŸ˜€



    • We humans dream something then we try to create it and from many many years or decades ago we carried a dream for a "Super Computer", which we believe will exist one day and will know the answer to everything. What I see is that "Wolfram'sAlfa" is on it's way of becoming something similar in a long term project. I want to ask that if one day you are able to collect systematically all proper technical knowledge available till the date then the at that day, will "Wolfram'sAlfa" be anywhere equal or better to our dream of supercomputer? And if not then how will it be different than that?


    • I wanna know about your near future targets regarding Wolfram Alfa?


    • Today we are getting massively dependent on computer technology and in last 100 years we have come a long way in computer technology field, thanks to this we have some great things like mathematica. But I want to have your opinion that how do you think this dependence on computer technology is gonna affect our future generation?
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Keep the questions coming folks.
  • shalini_goel14
    shalini_goel14
    Here goes a list of my few questions

    Qn 1: Is it possible for us to know the flow of working of this amazing computational engine?

    Qn 2: How WA decides what kind of computation it has to do, is there some filtering of input mechanism used?

    Qn 3: The best part WA shows in its outputs is Images and pictorial data. Now how those images and pictures are generated? Which charting framework or technique is used for it?

    Qn 4: Are these images(as well as computations results) pregenerated and saved or they get generated as soon as user enters data? A brief overview of the processing part.

    Qn 5: Why it is not possible for WA to show the steps for getting solution of any "equation"? Why it shows only direct answer?

    Qn 6: In Chemistry topic -
    a) If I search for "Gold/Copper" it shows amazing results for both the elements but why WA fails to show anything if I enter "Gold/Copper/Silver" ? I just tried to get results for 3 elements at a time πŸ˜”

    b) After above question only I got this question - "Do WA always suggest me to use ONLY WA made search patterns to make its better use?"

    Qn 7: What kind of more changes/enhancements you and your team is planning to incorporate into Wolfram Alpha so that it can become more and more worldwide popular ?

    Qn 8: When I enter "google.com" , at the end I get an image(HTML element hierarchy for google.com/). What is that image for? What does the "Show table" link at side means? I was amazed to see the results like HTML tags table rows, columns etc..etc..

    Qn 9:
    a) Its mathematics examples made me fan of WA but when I entered computation for "$250 + Rs150". I got the expected result as well as 8 types of world currency conversions but still I couldn't find the conversion value for "INR to $" on the basis of which my actual computation was done. Why it is so?

    b) One more related to this only why it shows me only 8 types of world currency conversions? What about other type of conversions?

    Qn 10: Is your wonderful team planning to do something for time it takes to show output to us at times?

    If any CEan has answers of any(or all) of my questions. Please feel free to answer. πŸ˜€

    Thanks !
  • raj87verma88
    raj87verma88
    I will go with the questions I asked in the previous thread on the same topic.
  • silverscorpion
    silverscorpion
    Me too. I'll go with my old questions too. And I have a couple more. I'll post them soon.
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Your old questions are intact, folks πŸ˜€ . We'll have new questions incorporated in our questionnaire.

    This small talk is going to be quite a long one πŸ˜€
  • kashish0711
    kashish0711
    This question popped in my mind 3 o' clock in the morning while solving a numerical lol


    • Q: Can we see mathematica in small calculators in near future?


    @shalini: Great going. πŸ˜€
  • thisisananth
    thisisananth
    Could you let us know some applications of wolfram alpha which would not be easy to do without wolfram alpha? I know it presents the information in an easy form but is there some application of wolfram alpha which will make me say "Wow.. the world is richer because of wolfram aplha" i.e the one thing will take lot of effort if wolfram alpha was not there? Please let me know that thing even if wolfram aplha is not having now but is being worked on?
  • ms_cs
    ms_cs
    some more questions πŸ˜‰
    What are all its main goals ?ie., It must have some target users.
    How it earns money ?
  • shalini_goel14
    shalini_goel14
    I guess it can rock if it can provide facility to third party users to integrate their data and stuff with WA and do computations for them and then show amazing results for them. Am I talking about reporting tools? πŸ˜•

    Can it be possible? πŸ˜•
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    thisisananth
    Could you let us know some applications of wolfram alpha which would not be easy to do without wolfram alpha? I know it presents the information in an easy form but is there some application of wolfram alpha which will make me say "Wow.. the world is richer because of wolfram aplha" i.e the one thing will take lot of effort if wolfram alpha was not there? Please let me know that thing even if wolfram aplha is not having now but is being worked on?
    Good question, Ananth. πŸ˜€
  • kashish0711
    kashish0711
    cant wait for his replies
    date for submission over, right?
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Yes its over. It'll take some time to have Dr. Wolfram's responses. He's traveling and therefore the responses may be delayed.

    Keep watch on Small Talks and announcements.
  • kashish0711
    kashish0711
    I can't wait.
    There are some really tough questions there lol Good Luck Dr. Wolfram. 😁
  • prasadaraju
    prasadaraju
    hi, sir i want to know more about this circuit(as i m doing it as my mini project)
    can u tell me whether this circuit works or not
    also please explain clearly about this circuit






    #-Link-Snipped-#
    Overview

    The simple circuit was designed to create a security option for entering a door that would require electronic key inputs.

    Terminology

    4066 Γ’€“ a digitally controlled quad analog switch utilizing advanced silicon-gate CMOS technology with features such as individual switch controls, matched switch characteristics, pin and function compatibility, low quiescent current, low ON resistance, wide analog input voltage range, and 15 ns typical switch enable time
    4N25 Γ’€“ a general purpose optocoupler that consists of a gallium arsenide infrared emitting diode driving a silicon phototransistor in a 6-pin dual in-line package used in microprocessor inputs, digital logic inputs, and power supply regulators due to its features such as high isolation voltage between input and output, operating temperature up to +110ºC, and available in wide-lead spacing
    BC550 Γ’€“ an NPN general purpose transistor with low current and low voltage used for low noise stages in audio frequency equipment
    Circuit Explanation

    There is a handful components used in this circuit which makes the construction simple. The optocoupler IC2 can only be activated by entering the right combination of keys with the right line. An optocoupler is a component made of solid state that utilizes light emitting diode to transfer light via a barrier that is optically transparent. It provides circuit insulation by not allowing current to pass, except light. The door lock will be trapped in the case of wrong combination of keys. This trapped mechanism can only be unlocked by pressing the push button switch S1 or S12. Switch S1 is the external restoring process while switch S12 is done internally.

    The initially set code of the circuit was 147, which can be modified very easily. This can be done by changing the connections of the keyboard switches. A additional exterior circuit like relay, can be driven by the optocoupler IC2. doing this will make sure electric isolation is done simultaneously between the two circuits. Since the circuit is simply constructed with few components, it can be supplied by a 9 V battery source.

    Part List

    R1-7-9=1Kohm
    R2-3-4-5=100Kohm
    R6 =10Kohm
    R9 =47Kohm IC1 = 4066
    IC2 =4N25
    Q1-2=BC550
    S1...11=Push button sw or keyboard S12=Push button normal closed
    All resistors is 1/4W 5%
    Application

    The electronic key operated door is merely found in places where unauthorized entry is prohibited. It works by verifying the person passing through the door to provide access keys to gain entry. They are widely used in banks, factories, restricted offices, prisons, jewelry shops, hotels, homes, apartments, and other establishments. It can be integrated with other security accessories and electric devices like external bells or magnetic contacts, depending on the required security conditions. This circuit can also be applied in controlling the locking and unlocking of vehicle doors. But most importantly, it is an added security feature that is easy to build.
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Dr. Stephen Wolfram doesn't help with homework.
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    This is frustrating! People have almost NO brain!

    Closing this thread.

You are reading an archived discussion.

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