Have You Met Wolfram Alpha? – What is Wolfram Alpha?

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

What is Wolfram Alpha? Good news to all parents out there!  If you are a working Mom or a working Dad and you have school age kids who attend school or you also home school your children, you need all the help you can get.  Raising kids is already very tricky.  What more if you still have to help them with homework?

It could be a pretty messy situation both for you and the child. Especially if the subject involves numbers and it is your own Waterloo.  Even if it turns out that Mathematics is your favorite subject and you breeze through it, if you are already exhausted from a day’s work and you still have a child waiting to be taught when you get home, it can still get a little uncomfortable for you and the little one.

You need to recognize that you can manage better with some help.

Let me introduce Wolfram Alpha.

We need to clarify what is Wolfram Alpha.  It is not a search engine.  It doesn’t do what Google does when you are looking for information, or images, or videos.

What is Wolfram Alpha?   It’s a computational engine that is programmed to compute knowledge. It works by using its extensive array of stored knowledge in computing answers and generating results. You don’t need to log in if you want answers to some of your mathematical or even science questions.

You have a choice of using the free Wolfram Alpha website or you can upgrade to the Wolfram Alpha Pro.

What is Wolfram Alpha?

There are Six Basic Elements. These are the Input field; Assumptions; Calculations or Formulas; Input Interpretation; Links in Results; and Related Queries.

The Input field is where you type your question. After you enter your input, there may be several interpretations that will show. Click to change the assumptions if needed. Consider also that the Formulas section may require more information.  So you need to check if it is asking for more data. When the result is ready, “Wolfram Alpha will show you a precise version of how it interprets your input.” In addition, there may be links that will be displayed if you hover over a pod.  Not only that, Wolfram Alpha will also give suggestions on similar inquiry you may want to explore.

Wolfram Alpha allows its user to personalize the queries made.  This is done by saving the favorite query for future use.  These are stored in sequence.

Wolfram Alpha offers a better service through Wolfram Alpha Pro.  Here, you will experience the full power of Wolfram Alpha.  For starters, it offers going beyond the text input, and promises richer results.  For more information, you may click here.

I hope this is able to assist you with your child’s maths homework!

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