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... Q: mass of five hydrogen atoms A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: distance traveled by space shuttle in one day A: Wolfram|Alpha

... Q: mass of five hydrogen atoms A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: distance traveled by space shuttle in one day A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: explosive energy of five sticks of dynamite A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: number of keys on a US keyboard A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Q: world war 2 deaths A: Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. ...

astrec 17y ago
mass of 5 hydrogen atoms offers results for the mass of hydrogen 5, not a bad guess i suppose.
bilbo0s 17y ago
Just to be fair, I tried a couple of your queries with Google, and the answers were not forthcoming either. But I suppose with Google I could do some SEO and get the answers to show up. Whereas I am not sure how to do that with Wolfram. Of course it only just came out. The queries I tried were: Q:distance traveled by space shuttle in one day A:Lots of links, none of which gives canonical answer. Q:explosive energy of five sticks of dynamite A:Lots of links, only a few of which deal with dynamite the explosive. Query time was roughly 9:30 AM Central Time Sunday May 16, 2009. Still, I think both Google and Wolfram will go to this model over time. Which, of course, will be terrible for Google since revenue wise it is a one trick pony. I think it will be better for us though. It does seem more natural for me to ask for the population of Ningbo, and just get an answer instead of a list of links.
- nostrademons 17y ago
  I would've used very different queries to Google those: Q: [space shuttle speed] A: 17,500 mph Q: [17,500 * 24] A: 420,000 That took about 2 queries and 2 minutes - the first result for the space shuttle's speed compared a bunch of sources, 3 of which were in agreement. Q: [dynamite explosive energy] A: 2.1 million joules Q: [2.1 * 5] A: 10.5 million joules Wikipedia was the first result for that, with the answer right on the page (and the text leading up to the answer in the snippet). Curiously, a lot of people do use full-sentence queries - perhaps it's the lingering aftereffects of their 3rd grade teachers. If Wolfram Alpha can handle those correctly, it'll be a big win. But other search engines have tried - Ask.com is based around being able to ask questions in natural language. And it never seems to work that way - computers don't seem to know which of the many things you say are irrelevant.

astrec 17y ago

mass of 5 hydrogen atoms offers results for the mass of hydrogen 5, not a bad guess i suppose.

bilbo0s 17y ago

Just to be fair, I tried a couple of your queries with Google, and the answers were not forthcoming either. But I suppose with Google I could do some SEO and get the answers to show up. Whereas I am not sure how to do that with Wolfram. Of course it only just came out. The queries I tried were: Q:distance traveled by space shuttle in one day A:Lots of links, none of which gives canonical answer. Q:explosive energy of five sticks of dynamite A:Lots of links, only a few of which deal with dynamite the explosive. Query time was roughly 9:30 AM Central Time Sunday May 16, 2009. Still, I think both Google and Wolfram will go to this model over time. Which, of course, will be terrible for Google since revenue wise it is a one trick pony. I think it will be better for us though. It does seem more natural for me to ask for the population of Ningbo, and just get an answer instead of a list of links.

nostrademons 17y ago
I would've used very different queries to Google those: Q: [space shuttle speed] A: 17,500 mph Q: [17,500 * 24] A: 420,000 That took about 2 queries and 2 minutes - the first result for the space shuttle's speed compared a bunch of sources, 3 of which were in agreement. Q: [dynamite explosive energy] A: 2.1 million joules Q: [2.1 * 5] A: 10.5 million joules Wikipedia was the first result for that, with the answer right on the page (and the text leading up to the answer in the snippet). Curiously, a lot of people do use full-sentence queries - perhaps it's the lingering aftereffects of their 3rd grade teachers. If Wolfram Alpha can handle those correctly, it'll be a big win. But other search engines have tried - Ask.com is based around being able to ask questions in natural language. And it never seems to work that way - computers don't seem to know which of the many things you say are irrelevant.