WolframAlpha is for Chemists
by mitch on May 18 2009 (2323 Views)This is by far the most difficult story to cover today, since the website that is the feature of this post, WolframAlpha, has been in an constant state of crashing or stalling all day. This problem will only be exasperated after the official launch on Monday. I’ll hope for the best but the links below might not work for a day or two. Lets get to the details of what WolframAlpha is and how it can help you, more than Google ever could.
WolframAlpha is not a search engine, it is a computational engine. It doesn’t get information from the internet it gets it from primary documents and databases then figures out the answer. For example, if you wanted to know how to prepare 1M sodium acetate solution just ask it. It will spit out the correct proportions to make the solution. WolframAlpha can tell you things even though no one inputed that specific information into it. It synthesizes information into a correct and unique response.
It can also be used to spit out simple knowledge like the pKa of acetone.
Since it uses its database to try to answer your questions, you can start thinking outside the box. Here is a favorite, Specific Heat Capacity of Chicken.
If you come up with any interesting WolframAlpha search queries share them in the comments. Reddit Chemistry 
has already been having fun with it all day.
Link to using WolframAlpha for chemistry queries. Chemistry FAQ.
Mitch
Could be one of the most interesting websites available.
It (sadly) did not know where Jimmy Hoffa was buried; I guess all technology has its limits.
Much like google, wolfram|alpha will give you the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Better still, it cites its reference.
wolfram is awesome
so are these guys/gals – http://www.chemistryanswer.com
Too bad you can’t use it to get the cost of chemicals, would be good to use to search chemical suppliers.
Seeing the popularity of names is interesting: “Name William”, etc.
You like it? Have you looked at the examples for chemistry? You’re happy about seeing CAS and PubChem IDs for elements, even though those numbers are for compounds, or even substances?
Like it? Very much so.
Looked at examples for chemistry? Absolutely
Happy about seeing CAS and PubChem ID’s for elements? The information is correct (in the few cases I played with), so yes.
Must be pars pro toto in action
I hate it when people confuse elements with substances. Carbon has at least three substances in which it can materialize… maybe CAS actually does have numbers for elements (never checked that), but the PubChem CID WA gives for nitrogen (CID:947) really points to the molecular gas, *not* some entry reflecting the nitrogen element.
My most burning question remains unanswered.
I guess I need to play with it more, but so far most of my searches return far less information than google.
I spent 4 hours one day tracking down the vapor pressures of 5 chemicals but I found them on wolframalpha correctly in less than a minute. I didn’t get the antione equations – it gave values at STP but still SUPER useful for when you need obscure numbers from chemical engineer handbooks.