Saturday, May 16, 2009

What is your name? Wolfram Alpha. What is your purpose?

For my virgin Wolfram|Alpha search, I decided to perform a search that would test its computational qualities.

So I asked:

what is the speed of a european swallow?

As you can see, the question was answered precisely and thoroughly.



Input interpretation:
estimated average cruising airspeed of an unladen European swallow

Result:
25 mph (miles per hour)
(asked of a general swallow (but not answered) in Monty Python's Holy Grail)


Then Wolfram|Alpha shows off, restating the term in a variety of measurement formsts, including (not shown above) seconds per meter. (0.091, in case someone ever asks you.)

So naturally, I had to ask about the African swallow.

Input interpretation:
estimated average cruising airspeed of an unladen African swallow

Result:
there is unfortunately insufficient data to estimate the velocity of an African swallow (even if you specified which of the 47 species of swallow found in Africa you meant)
(asked of a general swallow (but not answered) in Monty Python's Holy Grail.)


Smarty pants.

Well, I guess it's supposed to be...

[1:05 PM - MORE ABOUT SWALLOWS.]
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