How many calories do you burn? Ask the new computation engine, Wolfram Alpha

June 8, 5:28 PMSan Jose Fitness ExaminerAmy Rabinovitz

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Photo: Stephen Faust / Wolfram Research, Inc

A different type of search engine debuted a few weeks back, Wolfram Alpha and at this point, it's still a toy to me.  But wow! What a toy.

First of all, it's not really a search engine. It's a computation engine.

If an answer can be computed, Wolfram Alpha takes information from authoritative databases and presents the user with answers, rather than with links to information. 

Want to compute calories burned in exercise?

Type in: walking 45min, 4mph

(or running,  30min, 2mph, etc)

It takes you to a page that asks your gender, your age, your height, your weight, and provides the answer.

Want to compute your maximum and target heart rate?

Type in: heart rate 50yo male, resting hr=60bp

Wolfram Alpha describes itself as the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.   It has a way to go before it reaches that "anyone" stage.

Wolfram Alpha draws on scientist Stephen Wolfram's groundbreaking work on Mathematica, the world's leading technical computing software platform, and on the discoveries he published in his paradigm-shifting book, A New Kind of Science.

If this succeeds, we could be in for a whole lot of fun and some seriously good information.

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