By programming it to solve equations and find patterns in data, he could leave the math to the machine and focus his brain on the science. His solution was to get his hands on a computer. He could come up with concepts, but executing calculations was hard. By 12, he’d written a dictionary on physics, by his early teens he’d churned out three (as yet unpublished) books, and by 15 he was publishing scientific papers.ĭespite his wunderkind science abilities, math was a constant stumbling block. Growing up, Wolfram’s obsession was physics. Indeed, the inspiration for Wolfram|Alpha, which he released in 2009, started with Wolfram’s own struggles as a math student. Stephen Wolfram, the mind behind Wolfram|Alpha, can’t do long division and didn’t learn his times tables until he’d hit 40. They say that Wolfram|Alpha is the future. What some call cheating, others have heralded as a massive step forward in how we learn, what we teach, and what education is even good for. Though Wolfram|Alpha was designed to be an educational asset - a way to explore an equation from within- academia has found itself at a loss over how to respond.

Alfram math