Balkinization  

Monday, June 08, 2009

Fun With WolframAlpha

Ian Ayres

Crosspost from Freakonomics:

The jury’s still out on whether WolframAlpha.com will turn into a tool that is useful to solve real world computational problems, but it certainly is fun to play with.


Here are some cool Easter eggs (more here).


INSERT DESCRIPTION



Or try entering:


Where’s my car?

Who let the dog’s out? (Apostrophe needed.)

Which weighs more, a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?


No answers yet for:


Chocolate or vanilla?

Who’s on first?

Who made me?



I also recommend entering the names of your loved ones. For example, when I enter “Ian, Henry,” I learn that my name is slightly more popular than my son’s:


INSERT DESCRIPTION


But I also learn that most Ians in the United States are younger than I am, while most Henrys are older than my son:


INSERT DESCRIPTION


What’s really scary is when I put in the name of my 12-year-old daughter, Antonia:


INSERT DESCRIPTION



My beloved spouse and I thought we had independently chosen her name. But I’d love to hear any hypotheses to explain why the use of Antonia spiked 13 or 14 years ago.




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