3 ms·

Integer overflow?

• gjm11 11y ago
  Unlikely; Wolfram Alpha is based on Mathematica, which has arbitrary-precision integers, and I don't think one wolfram can be more than about 10^12 nano-dijkstras. (If I put "1 wolfram" into Alpha then it tells me about Stephen Wolfram. If I put "2 wolfram" into Alpha it tells me about tungsten. I guess that when you ask it for "1 whatever", it first simplifies it to "whatever", and then you can have variable quantities of tungsten but not of Stephen Wolfram.)
  • nnq 11y ago
    Wolfram is also another name for the chemical element "tungsten" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_(element) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_(element) ("2 wolfram" probably means "give me the second meaning of 'wolfram'"). Mathematica/WolframAlpha is probably not smart enough to figure out unambiguously how much mass or energy could be in one nano-dijkstra, which it would need for such a conversion. On the other hand, referring to "1 wolfram", some would argue that one wolfram could greatly exceed 10^12 nano-dijkstras... Dijkstra was actually quite smart and from reading his essays, I'd consider him quite humble, not arrogant at all. He had that "old-noble-European cold-joking-seriousness" and most Americans are known to be incapable of understanding this tone of communication.