It’s no secret that the web has opened up an exciting world of information. Curiosity piqued? Type it into Google, hit enter and et voila, instant knowledge. But that frontier has been pushed even further with a new web application that makes systematic knowledge immediately quantifiable by anyone.
I recently finished a project for a client that makes it possible to use some of this technology. The inspiration for this was the Wolfram Alpha Project (www.wolframalpha.com) which ambitiously aims to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. This web application allows the exploration of statistics, socioeconomic data, astronomy, people and history, sports and games, colours and even musical data.
Many of us have used Google in the past to submit equational queries such as “100 USD in ZAR” for an instant currency conversion or “50 inches in centimetres” for imperial to metric conversions, or even “weather in Cape Town” for an instant four-day forecast. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg; what is really possible when it comes to equating data? This is where the Wolfram Alpha project pushes boundaries.
Many possibilities are available through this technology and they are endless as displayed by some of the trivia one can look up:
— What colour is Chartreuse? And what would its complimentary colours be?
http://www36.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=chartreuse
— What does the A minor scale sound like?
http://www36.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=A+minor+scale
— The complete nutritional information of a sweet potato?
http://www36.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Vitamin+A+in+250g+sweet+potato
— How about words starting with “quick”?
http://www36.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=words+starting+with+quick
The true value, however, is in the next phase of the project, which will be the cross-computation of data. Our imagination might not be able to comprehend the possibilities but soon we will be able to experience the interaction of the colour Chartreuse on the A minor scale.
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