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Ask HN: Why can't Wolfram Alpha answer which is the largest river in Africa?
It can answer this:
"largest river in mexico"
But, can't answer this:
"largest river in africa"
- Nicolas___ 15y agoMaybe they have per-country data, and since Africa is not a country but a continent...
- kookiekrak 15y agoBecause it doesn't have the data? Mexico is a country, Africa is a continent. Same as how you can ask largest river in USA but not largest river in North America
- thequux 15y agoHowever, "contained in" is transitive. It must know that the Nile is in Egypt, which is in Africa. I suppose the question is whether Mathematica knows about that transitivity; my bet is that it should; after all it is mathematical software.