Hypergeometric series appeared in the mid-seventeenth century; since then, they have played an important role in the development of mathematical and physical theories. Most of the elementary and special functions are members of the large hypergeometric class. Hypergeometric functions have been a part of Wolfram Language since Version 1.0. The following plot shows the implementation timeline of different hypergeometric functions during the evolution of our system: The Gauss hypergeometric 2F1, Kummer hypergeometric 1F1 and confluent hypergeometric 0F1 functions were implemented in Wolfram Lan ..read more

“There is every reason to expect that the various social sciences will serve as incentives for the development of great new branches of mathematics and that some day the theoretical social scientist will have to know more mathematics than the physicist needs to know today.” —John G. Kemeny, first author of the original textbook on finite mathematics and co-inventor of the BASIC programming language Finite mathematics gives students a mathematical toolkit used in fields as diverse as business, economics, sociology and biology while covering techniques that are logically distinct from calculus ..read more

“The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do.” — Marc Andreessen, inventor of the Netscape browser How is data organized in databases? Why are some computer programs faster than others? How can algorithms be mathematically proven? The answers to these questions require an understanding of discrete mathematics, which focuses on the mathematics behind computing and, more generally, integers. In fact, an understanding of discrete mathematics is required for professionals in a large ..read more

Multivariable calculus extends calculus concepts to functions of several variables and is an essential tool for modeling and regression analysis in economics, engineering, data science and other fields. Learning multivariable calculus is also the first step toward advanced calculus and follows single-variable calculus courses. Wolfram Language provides world-class functionality for the computation and visualization of concepts, which makes this elegant body of mathematical knowledge easy and fun to learn! Today, I am proud to announce a free interactive course, Introduction to Multivariable C ..read more

Statistics is the mathematical discipline dealing with all stages of data analysis, from question design and data collection to analyzing and presenting results. It is an important field for analyzing and understanding data from scientific research and industry. Data-driven decisions are a critical part of modern business, allowing companies to use data and computational analyses to guide their choices and direction, rather than subjective measures like intuition. Motivation from History When we were exploring ways to include introductory statistics topics in Wolfram U, I was thrilled when Da ..read more

“I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably.”
 —Christiaan Huygens Have you ever wondered how health insurance premiums are calculated or why healthcare is so expensive? Or what led to the financial crisis of 2008? Or whether nuclear power is safe? The answers to these questions require an understanding of probability, which is the best tool that we have for coping with an uncertain world. In fact, an understanding of probability is required for professionals in a large number of fields, including data science, finance, engineering, biology, chemistry, medicin ..read more

As you may know from your own experience (or perhaps from the literature on education), passively receiving information does not lead to new knowledge in the same way that active participation in inquiry leads to new knowledge. Active learning describes instructional methods that engage students in the learning process. Student participation in the classroom typically leads to deeper knowledge, more developed critical thinking skills and increased motivation to continue learning. In this post, you will see example activities demonstrating how Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition can support active ..read more

In grade school, long arithmetic is considered a foundational math skill. In the past several decades in the United States, long arithmetic has traditionally been introduced between first and fifth grade, and remains crucial for students of all ages. The Common Core State Standards for mathematics indicate that first-grade students should learn how to add “a two-digit number and a one-digit number.” By second grade, students “add and subtract within 1000” and, in particular, “relate the strategy to a written method.” In third grade, multiplication by powers of 10 is introduced, and by fourth ..read more

What is the half-derivative of x? Fractional calculus studies the extension of derivatives and integrals to such fractional orders, along with methods of solving differential equations involving these fractional-order derivatives and integrals. This branch is becoming more and more popular in fluid dynamics, control theory, signal processing and other areas. Realizing the importance and potential of this topic, we have added support for fractional derivatives and integrals in the recent release of Version 13.1 of the Wolfram Language. The Idea of Fractional Calculus The foundations of calculu ..read more

Two years ago we released Version 12.0 of the Wolfram Language. Here are the updates in cryptography, blockchains and NFTs since then, including the latest features in 13.0. The contents of this post are compiled from Stephen Wolfram’s Release Announcements for 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 and 13.0.   Cryptography & Security (December 2020) One of the things we want to do with Wolfram Language is to make it as easy as possible to connect with pretty much any external system. And in modern times an important part of that is being able to conveniently handle cryptographic protocols. And ever since ..read more