Wolfram Alpha

I was flicking through my Mensa magazine, at the weekend; when I read an article written about a chap called Dr Stephen Wolfram.  He is a brilliant scientist and mathematician and has created a new search engine, that actually gives you specific answers to questions, rather than just producing a list of results, as is common with Google et al.  The engine is called: Wolfram Alpha.

I would advise any mathematician, to check it out immediately.  It is, quite simply, stunning.  You can ask it any sort of mathematical question and it will punt out answers and variations on the answers, that are just brilliant and very complete.

I tried to trick the engine, into giving me a stupid answer, but I struggled to do so.

For example, I asked it:  What is the meaning of life, the Universe and everything?

I was expecting an error message, but it simply returned just one answer:

42

For anyone who knows Douglas Adam's, Hitchhikers Guide, they will know that this is the only correct answer! (see below video)







I also asked it:

Give me all the English words, which contain the letters 'M,A,T,H,S'

It gave me 476 words in total, of which, a selection are below:

abashment  |  accomplishment  |  accomplishments  |  achievements  |  admonishment  |  admonishments  |  aestheticism  |  aftermaths  |  alchemist  |  alchemists  |  algorithms  |  amaranths  |  amateurish  |  amateurishly  |  amateurishness  |  amethyst  |  amethystine  |  amethysts  |  Amherst  |  amphetamines  |  amphitheaters  |  anathemas  |  anathematizes  |  antechambers