mathematics

Perhaps you, like me, enjoy a glass of wine. Especially if it's a larger glass, at least half full of good wine.

Perhaps you, riding on your usual wave of intelligence and sophistication, believe that you can always taste the difference between cheap wine that deserves a box or a hole in the ground, and expensive wine that deserves another year or two in a dimly lit cellar.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England, believes the mathematical likelihood is that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Wiseman, you see, decided that … Read more

Wolfram Research has released Mathematica 8, bringing some rudimentary human-language skills to the mathematics and scientific software by building in some abilities of the Wolfram Alpha search engine.

It's an unusual combination. Mathematica can produce stunning graphical displays and dig into the murkiest data sets, but only for those who learn its control language.

"Free-form linguistics understands human language and translates it into syntax--a breakthrough in usability," said Chief Executive Stephen Wolfram in a statement.

Well, the Alpha language can't exactly give Mathematica the ability to chat at cocktail parties. But it can understand the command "pi 200 digits" … Read more

Google has finally announced the winners of its Project 10^100 contest, which will award five different projects a total of $10 million.

The contest was first announced back in 2008 but has taken quite a long time to reach its conclusion, after Google changed the project to focus on "themes" rather than specific ideas. Sixteen themes were selected exactly a year ago, and the public was given an opportunity to vote on the themes most worthy of funding.

Organizations then submitted specific proposals for the five most popular ideas, and the list of winners follows below:

• The … Read more

Scientific calculators are essential laptop utilities for engineers, scientists, researchers, builders, teachers, and students. College Scientific Calculator 27 from Tvalx is a fine choice to fill the bill. It offers precise calculations to 63 digits; hyperbolic, trigonometric, and inverse functions; memory for frequently used figures; and the capability to store and reuse calculations and formulas, print them, or save them as text files.

College Scientific Calculator 27's interface is different from most desktop calculator applications, which usually try to mimic the look and feel of a handheld calculator as closely as possible. This program's interface more closely resembles … Read more

GNU XaoS 3.5 is a free, open source fractal generator and "zoomer" that offers smooth, fluid navigational movement as you zoom in or out of a fractal. It includes 24 well-known fractal formulas with many possible variations in effects and appearance, but you can also use it to generate your own fractals. It offers effects like a starfield generator, embossing, motion blur, pseudo 3D mode, and even a text display.

The program's 32-bit installation executable includes the 64-bit version for recent editions of Windows like Vista and 7, both of which we used for testing. The … Read more

Chance are you didn't listen when your math teacher said you'd need to know all those formulas and functions later in life, yet here you are, looking for math software. Not a problem, because WisePair's WiseCalc has your number. It's a free scientific calculating engine that can handle some pretty sophisticated high-level stuff, such as evaluating functions and matrix expressions, performing unit conversions and row operations, and much more. It has hundreds of built-in functions and unit conversions and nearly every useful formula and constant known to science. Users can define their own, too. In fact, … Read more

AlgeBasics is an educational tool that helps users learn basic algebra. Although the program has a teaching component, we're not sure that users who are not already familiar with the basics of algebra will get much out of it.

The program's interface isn't the most intuitive thing we've ever seen, but it's fairly easy to understand. AlgeBasics covers four main topics: algebraic expressions, algebraic fractions, indices (positive only), and indices with negatives. For each of these topics users can either view a tutorial or work a set of practice problems. We found the tutorials to … Read more

If you need help with geometry studies, this app may be just the assistance you're looking for. Tutors and homeschoolers alike will find features to appreciate in this easy-to-use tool.

GEUP launches a screen-size window, with an editing pane that takes up most of its space. This pane is edged along top and its left side with a row of icon-stamped buttons. Although the icons may initially intimidate novice users, familiarity will increase with practice. Students can't necessarily learn geometry by using the tool alone, but using it in connection with a textbook or study guide will certainly … Read more

PowerPlayer for Pick 3/4 2008 helps users select lottery numbers for pick-three and pick-four lotteries based on the results of previous drawings. Or at least, that's what it's supposed to do. We found the whole thing so confusing that we're not sure what, if anything, the program actually does.

The interface is a disaster, a jumble of columns, numbers, and check boxes. It was easy enough to select our local pick-three from the list of available lotteries, but after that, we were stumped. A visit to the built-in Help file was practically worthless. Even the sections … Read more