ENGAGEMENT
Kids can freely explore their choice of topics. Answers rely on info housed in Wolfram Alpha’s databases. Not all factual questions can be answered, which could turn kids away.
PEDAGOGY
Wolfram Alpha shares everything it knows using text, diagrams, and pictures. Kids can read and remember the data but will need more support to apply it elsewhere. Answers and reports can be shared on social networking sites.
SUPPORT
A video tutorial, community forum, and blogs are available. Different presentations of data may engage kids who are not strong readers.
- Michelle K. - common sense reviewer from commonsense.org
It never works. I am always getting signed out and the stupid sign in button doesn't work. For how much they push you to get pro you would think that their pro would have some value but no. It is way more expensive than other sites that do just as good of a job and don't cause issues. I honestly hope they see this and fix their service.
- Benjamin W. reviewer from sitejabber.com
This app gives nothing but the facts.
At the top right of the WolframAlpha app is a search field, outlined in orange. It's finicky about the sort of input it accepts; it's not good for general searches on a topic, but responds to specific and factual questions. I input "strongest major storms," and the app interpreted this as "strongest major storms," for which no data was available. Strangely, the app suggested that related WolframAlpha queries included "third richest in fibre food," "5 most populated countries," "fastest bird," and "food richest in calcium." But the app had no trouble telling me the GDP of Kenya or who won the 1987 World Series.
To the left of the Search window is a field with four tabs: Examples; History; Favorites; and About. Examples is a good place to start, as it gives you a better feel for the sort of inquiries it accepts. Subjects listed are as diverse as Mathematics, Physics, Weather, Places and Geography, People and History, Culture and Media, Sports and Games, Music, and Colors.
The Mathematics of Colors
The answers are numerical, notational, or statistical representations. For example, enter "orange," and you'll get a swatch, as well as various representations of it: "24-bit RGB: red 255, green 128, blue 0," "CMYK: cyan 0%, magenta 50%, yellow 100%, black 0 %," in hexadecimal format (#FF8000), as well as several others. For music, enter "F#", and you'll see in in music notation, its position on a piano keyboard, scales associated with it, its standard frequency (369.994 Hz), or as a MIDI note.
WolframAlpha can be useful for comparing similar items, but it can be hit or miss. Enter "hydrogen, helium", and you'll get a wealth of data for each. Enter "Yankees, Red Sox" and you'll get some basic team information about each, as well as 2013 stats and comparative statistics of each team's top 5 hitters. The information that comes up is selective; for example, no pitching stats appeared. I was able to get some pitching info for a single team's pitchers by entering "Yankees pitchers," but it was limited to the pitchers' date and place of birth, the height and weight distribution for the pitchers on the team, and distributions for the number of games played and games started. Finally, asking for "Yankees pitchers ERA" brought up some more comprehensive pitching stats for each pitcher.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend this app for the person who craves knowledge and looks to having answers on hand without delay.
- Mark Joseph
English
