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10 cool things you can do with Wolfram Alpha and Siri

by Erica Sadun Oct 28th 2011 at 3:00PM

Steve Sande and I have been collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that just recently hit the Kindle store. It's a how-to that will help you get the most done with your Siri intelligent assistant. We're sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers.

Today, we're looking at Siri's Wolfram Alpha integration. You can force Siri to use Wolfram by prefixing your request with "Wolfram." For example, you might say, "Wolfram, what is the square root of 2?" or "Wolfram, graph x-squared plus three."

But there's a lot more that you can do with Wolfram than just math. Here are ten of our favorite Wolfram searches. These highlight the flexibility of this amazing information resource.

  1. Roll a Random Number. Say "Wolfram, random integer." Wolfram returns a random value between 0 and 1000. "Wolfram, random number" provides a 0 to 1 floating point value.
  2. Look up nature facts. Say, "Wolfram, what is the scientific name of a mountain lion?" It's Puma concolor. Rabbits are Leporidae, and Peacocks, Galliformes.
  3. Check upcoming holidays. Say, "How many days until Thanksgiving?" This returns both the number of days as well as a helpful calendar so you can chart out the time until then.
  4. Create a secure password. Say "Wolfram, password." Wolfram generates a difficult-to-crack 8-character password. Scroll down for alternates. If you need a longer password, you can append these together.
  5. Convert text to Morse code. Say, "What is Morse code for horsefeathers?" You'll see the entire sequence laid out for your tapping pleasure.
  6. Check your diet. Say, "How many calories in a small apple?" Wolfram will tell you that there are 75.
  7. Ask out about time zones. Say, "Wolfram, what is the local time in Jakarta?"
  8. Query about your chances. Say, "Wolfram, what is the probability of a full house?" For a random five-card hand, it's apparently 1 in 694.
  9. Have fun with pop culture. Say, "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" or "Wolfram, who shot the sheriff?"
  10. Visualize colors. Okay, I've saved the best for last. If you work with colors, this can save you a lot of time. Say, "Wolfram pound sign E 9 7 4 5 1" (for Burnt Sienna / Tangerine) or "Wolfram pound sign 2 9 A B 8 7" (for Jungle Green). This will also convert the colors to RGB values and look up closely-matching brand colors from Benjamin Moore. Make sure to scroll down to catch all the helpful information.



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Steve Sande and I have been collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that just recently hit the Kindle store. It's a how-to that...
 

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Sierrajeff

But if Siri's integrated with Wolfram Alpha, you shouldn't *have* to say "Wolfram" (and/or, "Wolfram Alpha"). I just asked Siri the distance from Tokyo to San Francisco - easy peasy, right? Her response was "Sorry, I can only give directions from your current location."

First, what part of my question was asking for directions.

And second, huh? She has the capacity to give directions from a currently location, but not an identified alternative location? I can't say, give me directions from Grand Central Station to Times Square?

I'm pretty unimpressed with the Wolfram integration, to say the least...

December 15 2011 at 6:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Sierrajeff's comment
Green Gordon

Say 'Wolfram Alpha' first and it does work.

December 21 2011 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Franklin Steel

Say Wolfram Alpha instead of just Wolfram and you'll have better luck. Siri seems to get it right when the word Alpha is there to give context.

Anyway, another fun one is "Wolfram Alpha, Planes Overhead." Wholesome Nerd Fun!

November 29 2011 at 12:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe Maiurano

I can not get wolfram to work with Siri. I downloaded the app and have followed all the suggested ways to ask from saying "wolfram..." to just asking but it never works. It always wants to search the web or says it does not understand.

November 17 2011 at 8:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

You can also ask it about astronomical phenomena: http://stuffyoucansaytosiri.com/2011/11/12/ask-wolfram-where-the-big-dipper-is/

November 12 2011 at 8:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
benjamin bannister

You could ask Siri about lottery numbers like this girl: http://youtu.be/lqMVqYLzzc4

November 06 2011 at 7:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AmericanLime

This may already be here, but Siri can communicator with the Find my friends app and will allow you to ask 'Where is my wife"

November 02 2011 at 10:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to AmericanLime's comment
Craig

Yup that's there.

November 27 2011 at 8:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
my glass eye

"Wolfrum, random integer." = Siri heard, "Wool from random integer" and then headed off to Wolfram to find me a random integer.

"Wolfrum, what is the probability of a full house?" = Siri heard, "Wulfrun, what is the probability of a full house" and then produced that probability from Wolfram.

I did in fact manage to make Siri hear 'Wolfram' once while I tried a handful of the above suggestions out for a second time, but largely I'm finding that Siri doesn't care if you say 'Wolfram' first - it's finding the stuff anyway.

In fact, every single example in the list, with the exception of 'Password' will give you a Wolfram search result whether you preface your request to Siri with 'Wolfram' or not.

November 01 2011 at 11:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to my glass eye's comment
⚡ Dan ⚡

It mainly heard "wulfrun" for me too, but if I say "wolfram alpha" it gets it every time.

December 24 2011 at 6:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
my glass eye

I'm British, using British English setting on Siri, and I cannot get it to acknowledge that I'm saying 'Wolfram...' at the start of any of these. I have tried every single one and in fact most of the time it doesn't actually need me to preface the request with 'Wolfram' at all.

Anyway, I have tried to say 'Wolfram' as both 'Wolf-ram' and the somewhat bizarre 'Wolf-rum' and both are completely unintelligible to Siri, which thinks I am saying 'Wolf ram' or 'Wolf rum' or 'Wulf run' or even 'Call Simmone' on one occasion.

Perhaps this is yet another aspect of the functionality that actually only works in the US.

November 01 2011 at 11:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to my glass eye's comment
Flutter Doo

Well keep in mind that this is a beta, and like most beta software the functionality is brought mainly to the company's country of preference (like Spotify).

November 03 2011 at 2:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joshua K

You have to say it like Wolfrum, but then again I don't think you need to even say it at all.
You can also get a bit more complex with something like "pi times square root of two".
Or something like "how many calories in a bagel versus a cup of coffee", and it will show both results in a table.

October 31 2011 at 12:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BRIAN JAMESREED

You can just say "random number" or "what is the scientific name of...____" or what is the local time in...____"
No need to say "wolfrum"for most, did someone actually try these before they boosted this?

October 29 2011 at 11:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to BRIAN JAMESREED's comment
gbuell

No one said you "need" to say Wolfram, just that you can say Wolfram to force it in certain situations. Gawd.

November 01 2011 at 11:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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