Wolfram|Alpha: The Second Year (May 18, 2010–May 18, 2011)
A survey of some new features, data, and capabilities
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US Economy
US energy prices: recent and historical data on electricity, propane, natural gas, and heating oil prices for US states—Blog post »
Expanded economic data for US states, metro areas, and counties: including labor force, unemployment, housing, health insurance, and gross state product—Blog post »
US state tax revenue: nearly two decades of detailed historical data on tax collections in US states
US retail sales data: 20 years of monthly historical data about retail sales in nearly 30 different store categories, including restaurants, grocery stores, clothing stores, gas stations, furniture stores, and more—Blog post »
Occupational employment and salary data for US metro areas: comprehensive data on salaries and employment numbers for hundreds of detailed occupational categories—Blog post »
Expanded US income tax data: marginal tax rates for a given AGI and filing status in any year from 1913 to present and maximum and minimum individual and corporate income tax rates by US state—Blog post »
US minimum wages historical data on the minimum wage in all US states from 1969 to present, with the ability to query for inflation-adjusted wages—Blog post »
International Data
Labor and employment data: historical data on labor force and unemployment by sex and education level, employment by industry, employment-to-population ratios, and child labor for most countries—Blog post »
Economic and financial data: added time series data for price indices of most countries
Trade and business environment data: statistics and ratings on aspects of doing business in most countries
Mineral production data: historical data on production of more than 20 key minerals
International transportation data: automobile production by country, number of vehicles by type, traffic data, and road lengths for most countries—Blog post »
Age distribution data: added data from 1950-2050 on country populations, broken down by sex and 5-year age bins—Blog post »
Gender populations: added population fractions
Enhanced relocation calculations: data on cost of living and equivalent-salary conversions between most countries
International health indicators: added data on dozens of key health indicators for all countries, including numbers of medical personnel and statistics on immunization, contraception, drinking water quality, and tobacco use
International energy resources: data on energy production and consumption in all countries, with details on petroleum, coal, natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear power—Blog post »
Nuclear reactors: added data on all operational and shut-down commercial power reactors in the world, with detailed historical power and performance data—Blog post »
Nuclear explosions: known nuclear explosions detonated worldwide, including when/where/who detonated them and basic explosion details such as height of burst, type of detonation, and yield
US Social Statistics
Expanded US housing data: added Case-Shiller index, number of houses, and aggregate home value by US metropolitan area, plus the ability to ask about where home prices are rising or falling in a particular region—Blog post »
US school districts: data on more than 18,000 public school districts in the US, including teacher and student numbers and detailed stats on district revenues and expenditures—Blog post »
SAT/ACT scores: added data by US state
Expanded population data for US metropolitan areas: components of population change, including births, deaths, and domestic and international migration
Enhanced crime data functionality: added the ability to compare crimes and crime rates between different types of regions (e.g. city to national)
Expanded data by ZIP code: demographics by age, race, and sex
Culture and Media
Words and linguistics: new properties of words, such as notable uses, phone digits, crossword clues, Scrabble scores, rhyming words, and close words
Expanded movie information: historical box office figures, production budgets, and ratings—Blog post »
Wikipedia size: added historical data on Wikipedia growth in various languages
US congresspeople: data on current US senators and representatives by state and congressional district
Broadcast stations: AM, FM, and TV stations in the US, with data on location, ownership, and power
Area code upgrades: added dates in service and service type
Hindu festivals: added major religious holidays
Fictional characters: data on popular fictional characters from books, film, and television, including basic personal information and notable works for most characters
Video games: basic information on hundreds of notable video games, including ratings, publishers, and release dates—Blog post »
Mythology: information on hundreds of mythological figures in the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Hindu pantheons
Recurring events: notable worldwide recurring events, with historical data on attendance, location, and notable participants or winners
Geography
Famous streets: systematic data about notable streets in the world, including lengths, nearby attractions, and a visualization of cross-street density
Oceans: enhanced and expanded data about all major seas and oceans, including boundary and elevation maps, depths and dimensions, and notable islands, ports, and undersea features
US county maps: boundary maps added for all US counties
Relief plots: added to mountains, volcanoes, and islands
Astronomy
Lagrange points: new functionality which computes and returns the set of Lagrange points between any pair of astronomical bodies
Space weather: important extraterrestrial features of the solar system like sun spots, solar x-ray flux, and more; time series data for sunspots, solar x-ray flux, interplanetary magnetic field, and Kp-index—Blog post »
Sun path, sky maps, and local sidereal time: graphical representation of the daily path of the Sun, various location- and time- related facts about the Sun during rise/set, UV index forecast information, observatories, and local sidereal time—Blog post »
Variable stars: more stars and new variable properties for stars, including type and range of variation
New astronomical formulas: determine the orbital velocity for an object around a center of known mass and with a known circular orbital radius; compute basic properties of telescopes, such as light gathering power and magnifying power
Cosmology calculations: the state of the universe for a given comoving distance
Astronomical radio sources: information about Sagittarius A* and over 300 other radio sources
Chemistry
New properties for existing chemicals: speed of sound, threshold limit value, UV cutoff wavelength, ionic radii, biological decay properties, pH sensitivities, and more for elements, chemicals, and isotopes
Improved solution properties: Raoult's law; Morse equation; salinity data for saltwater solutions such as fresh water, brine, brackish water, and saline water; density, freezing point, conductivity, sound speed, specific heat, and adiabatic lapse rate
Crystallography: information regarding crystal systems/families, such as required symmetries, associated Bravais lattices, crystal classes, and space/point groups
Enhancements to organic chemistry: functional groups, hybridization, topological indices, and chemical protecting groups
Earth Sciences
Expanded earthquakes data: county, city, and regional level details; historical data going back to the 16th century
Geochronology: statistical analysis results for environmental-related properties such as oxygen and CO2 content, as well as temperature anomaly, sea levels, and biodiversity—Blog post »
Ice ages and glaciations: data on 6 major ice ages, including temperature and CO2 trends for the current ice age, as well as regional names and type of glaciation and continental configuration for ancient ice ages
Global climate studies: dozens of global and regional temperature, greenhouse gases studies, linear trends, and extremal values—Blog post »
UV forecast: forecasts of the expected UV doses shown in graphical and tabular form—Blog post »
Geogravity: updated and extended ocean models
Engineering
Beam formulas: calculator computing maximum deflection and stress in a beam based on parameters including geometric, physical, and support conditions
Machinist tools: calculators for drill sizes for tapping clearance holes; formula that computes various dimensions of a machine screw thread based on various custom inputs and standards
Health and Medicine
Disease data: detailed diagnosis information based on disease prevalence among health care-seeking patients within the US—Blog post (June 29, 2010) »—Blog post (July 15, 2010) »
Medical symptoms: information about common diagnoses and patient characteristics from symptoms reported by patients during health care provider visits
Medical formulas: peak expiratory flow, glomerular filtration rate, glaucoma risk, whole blood viscosity, oxygen delivery, creatinine clearance—Blog post »
Physical activity formulas: estimates of human metabolic properties as a result of completing a default distance, time period, or repetitions for a selection of exercises that include: swimming, running, biking, rowing, and stepping—Blog post (July 13, 2010) »—Blog post (July 23, 2010) »
Weight loss formula: suggested caloric regimen and progress indicators based on weight loss goals
Sunburn: skin-type dependent time to sunburn calculations provided for any location and current conditions;
the time-dependence of the UV dose over the day and potentially applied sunscreen are properly taken into account
Diving formulas: new formulas on two of the most commonly used recreational dive planners (PADI and NAUI) for recreational divers
Life Sciences
Species characteristics: unique and characteristic data on numerous plants, animals, insects, and more Blog post »
Animal hearing ranges: comparisons of various sound frequency levels to typical hearing ranges of common animals
Tree growth: characteristic growth curves for over 130 species of trees—Blog post »
Genome sizes: genome sizes of all sequenced organisms, including the number of genes and proteins for each sequenced chromosome
Metabolic pathways: over 80 human metabolic pathways, including the citric acid cycle, the urea cycle, citrulline biosynthesis, and many more; topology, biochemical components, and reaction steps
Oligonucleotide melting: melting temperatures of oligonucleotides, magnesium and monovalent salt concentrations, and graph of melting temperatures versus salt concentrations
Materials
Wood data: various physical, thermal, and mechanical properties of 700 types of wood—Blog post »
Alloy data: physical, thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties of 10,000 types of alloys—Blog post »
Physics
Atomic spectra: absorption (or emission) spectra of the elements and the corresponding excitation states and graphical representation of the spectra—Blog post »
Harmonic oscillator: formulas for computing the amplitudes, phases, and time-evolution of undamped, damped, and forced harmonic oscillators and realizations of the oscillators through springs and pendula
Coriolis effect: formulas for computing the trajectory of an object in a rotating frame of reference
Pendula: formulas for computing the angles and trajectories of various regular and chaotic pendular, including double pendula, coupled pendula, and spring pendula—Blog post »
Elastic collisions: newly added formulas for computing the elastic collisions in one and two dimensions
Symmetric top: formula for computing the movement of a heavy symmetric top, time-evolutions for all relevant variables
Rocket equation: formulas for computing the height and velocity of a rocket
Object on inclined plane: formula for computing forces and accelerations of objects sliding and rolling down an inclined plane,
allowing for resting, sliding, rolling, and combinations
Thermodynamic machines: formulas for computing efficiencies of various thermodynamic machines, with p-V and T-S diagrams
Thermodynamic processes: formulas for computing initial and/or final states for various thermodynamic processes for an ideal gas, with p-V and T-S diagrams for all processes
Heat capacity ratio: formula for the calculation of heat capacity ratio of various ideal gases
Sackur-Tetrode equation: formula for calculating the entropy of an ideal gas
de Broglie wavelength: formula for ideal and thermal de Broglie wavelengths
Joule's law: formula for Joule's law for energy dissipation of an electric current
Larmor formula: formula for the movement and radiation of a charged particle in a magnetic field
Refraction in a prism: formula for the refraction of a light ray in a prism
Refractive indices of ice, water, and moist air: formulas calculating the refractive indices of water, ice, and air at different thermodynamic conditions
Money and Finance
Tip calculator: quick and handy calculator to calculate a tip based on a restaurant bill
Financial analyst recommendations: buy/hold/sell financial analyst recommendations broken down into time series plots, pie charts, and grids
Financial portfolios: portfolio valuation and composition information
Return on investment calculator: formula for calculating the return on any investment
Returns rankings for classes of mutual funds: comparisons of the top 20 entities with the highest return from an inputted class
Units and Measures
Upgrades to wire and steel gauges: mass, thermal, and electrical properties of given lengths of wire of a certain gauge and material; comparison of the size of wire gauge with other industrial measures in the system; thickness, tolerance, area density, and gamma radiation halving thickness for a given steel gauge
Rope: mechanical and thermal properties of different standard rope sizes
Hypodermic needles: dimensions and uses of various needle sizes and comparison of sizes with other industrial measures in the system
Knitting needle sizes: equivalent needle sizes in multiple systems and dimensions for both nominal size parameter inputs and actual diameters and comparison of sizes with other industrial measures in the system
Sieve sizes: related particle and mesh sizes for a given sieve opening input and size comparisons with other industrial measures in the system
Freight containers: dimensions and capacity data for a given freight container size
Nonscientific units: variety of popular nonscientific units
Scientific units: variety of scientific units and constants
Historic units: extended support for units no longer in use, including various proposed and never accepted units
Generalized conversion: conversions between quantities with incompatible units that allow for "natural" conversion factors,
such as converting mass to energy using the famous E=mc2—Blog post »
Reduction to base units: conversions of compound quantity and unit expressions to SI base units
Physical constants: definitions for various physical constants
Dimensionless numbers: support for the large dimensionless numbers of physics
More arithmetic with quantities: arithmetic on more quantities that result from stored values
Math
Math calculators: dynamic calculators which allow specification of math problems using interactive input fields—Blog post (November 1, 2010) »—Blog post (March 9, 2011) »
MathWorld definitions: integration of mathematical definitions, diagrams, classifications, and other information from the MathWorld site into Wolfram|Alpha—Blog post »
Plane geometry: support for new plane figures; new geometric computations related to conic sections, angles, lines, planes, and polygons
Planar laminae: geometric and mechanical properties of planar laminae—Blog post »
Solid geometry: support for new geometric solids and computations in solid geometry—Blog post »
Area between curves: compute the area of a planar region bounded by curves
Plot annotations: locate stationary points, cusps, corners, and other features of the graphs of functions—Blog post »
Limit computations: computation of limits extended to handle the case of expressions involving abstract functions
Complex analysis: additional analysis of complex functions, including location of poles and computation of residues—Blog post »
Root mean square: compute the root mean square of a periodic function
Special functions: support for many additional special functions
Enhanced plot functionality: support for log-linear plots; 3D and contour plots for complex-valued functions—Blog post »
Vectors: additional vector computations and improved graphical representations
Number theory enhancements: compute final digits of large integers; visualize modular arithmetic with clocks; compute common divisors and multiples; identify perfect numbers; compute digit sums in any base
Pascal's triangle upgrades: graphical representations of Pascal's triangle modulo an integer, limiting fractal dimensions
Simplification and alternate forms: additional types of simplification for math expressions—Blog post »
Intervals and number lines: compute properties of intervals of real numbers; plot intervals and other sets of real numbers on number lines—Blog post »
Scientific notation: support for conversion of numbers into scientific or engineering notation with specified precision—Blog post »
Circle packing: compute properties of dense packings and symmetric packings of circles—Blog post »
Finite groups: data on many additional finite groups
Computational complexity: data on hundreds of computational complexity classes—Blog post »
Special matrices: support for classes of matrices such as Hilbert matrices, Vandermonde matrices, and more
Graph theory: many additional graph indices and polynomials
Probability and combinatorics: more probability calculations for coins, cards, and dice; probabilities of shared birthdays
TeX support: enhanced support for TeX syntax in math inputs—Blog post »
European decimal notation: support for comma as decimal mark via an interpretation mechanism
Alternate names: additional support for alternate and common names of knots, graphs, and other mathematical entities as input and in output
Technology and Computer Systems
Flight data: real-time information about flights and schedules
Frequency allocations: ITU/FCC allocations for a frequency given a
geographical location, classes of sounds (ultrasound, etc.),
and a small, selected list of animals that can hear particular sound ranges
Notable computers: query for and compare data on notable personal computers, including RAM amounts, CPU speeds, and other specs
CIDR calculator: formula that provides an in-depth parameter breakdown for the inputted IP subnet as well as useful IP address information
RAID calculator: formula that calculates detailed information and visual aids for the common RAID configurations
Passwords: tools for password generation and analysis
QR codes: a quick response barcode generator
User Experience
Browser support: Opera and Safari browser extensions added
Social media sharing: simple one-click sharing to popular social media sites
Pod dog ears: peel up the dog ear on any pod for extra features
Widgets: free, personalized mini-apps that leverage the depth and breadth of the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine
Guide lines for plots: aid in identifying plot coordinates
Images: people, species, dinosaurs, elements, minerals, bridges, aircraft, and more
Interlinking within pods: cross-linked output
Navigation links: handy links to common websites
Related queries: topically related links to other queries
Data statistics: ability to perform selected operations (maximum, minimum, linear regression) on multiple properties of multiple groups of entities
Products
Wolfram|Alpha API: REST-style web service
Mobile apps: Android app
Wolfram Course Assistant Apps: the first set of mobile course apps covering topics in math, chemistry, astronomy, and music theory