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Ask WA to factorise 40! [i.e., forty factorial] and it can do it in a
split second. Ask it what Euler's gamma function applied to 9 3/4 is and
it can instantly produce a result. Want to know what the DNA sequence
for the human homeobox gene HOX2 is? No problem. (And it'll also compare
it to the homologues in half a dozen standard model species too.) Ask
how many litres there are in one gallon and instantly get an answer.
Now ask, if petrol costs 132.7 pence per litre, and my car does 30 miles
per gallon, how much does it cost to drive 1 mile?
I just spent approximately 1 hour trying to make WA answer this trivial
question. In the end, the only way I could get it to work is to do all
the computation steps myself, one at a time. (I.e., ask WA to convert
this unit to that unit, ask WA to multiply this value by the conversion
figure it just gave me, etc. You can't even stuff all the queries into
one block of text. You have to run them as separate queries, or it fails.)
WA is hailed [BY ITS CREATORS] as the ultimate computational knowledge
tool. They show all sorts of [dubious] examples of real-world
calculations that you might want to do with it. But in solemn truth, if
you want something utterly nerdy, WA can probably do it in a heartbeat.
If math isn't your strong point and you just want WA to do a tricky
conversion for you... forget it.
[Don't even get me started on the fact that WA deliberately rejects
certain queries, because its creators still want to charge you money for
Mathematica, and nobody would ever buy that if they could do the same
stuff for free with WA...]
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