Wolfram Alpha has finally gone live, and I was eager to see if it lived up to the PR storm that preceded its launch. I still haven’t forgiven Wolfram for ANKOS, so I’ve  been pretty skeptical about W|A.

My first impression: Not bad. Not bad at all. It’s by far the best free online application I’ve seen for solving and graphing equations, so I’m going to be using it extensively for the rest of its lifetime. I’m interested to watch it grow in its ability to handle a wider variety of types of information. It’s fun to play with, even if it’s agonizingly slow on the day of its launch.

I tried things like:

• When is the next solar eclipse in Chicago, IL?
• Integrate digamma (d) dx from 6 to 10
• What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?
• Melting point of gold in Kelvin
• Taylor series of (tan(x)^3)
• Who am I?
• Is there a God?
  
• How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

It can handle roman numerals surprisingly well, and I may well stop paying for Mathematica (okay, I didn’t pay for mine). The graphs are beautiful, and feel very interactive. I doubt there are many questions related to math or the computational sciences that it can’t answer at least reasonably well (watch the wording, though).

Unfortunately, it couldn’t express miles in beardseconds, nor could it express Wolfram’s ego in milliDijkstras. However, overall, I think it’s off to a fantastic start. I wish I had it five years ago.

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