Stephen Wolfram

JANUARY 31, 2023

It began partly as an empirical law, and partly as something abstractly constructed on the basis of the idea of molecules, that nobody at the time knew for sure existed. There were still mathematical loose ends, as well as issues such as its application to living systems and to systems involving gravity.

Energy 88

Energy Physics Argumentation Mathematics 88

Stephen Wolfram

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

I should say at the outset that I’m going to focus on the big picture of what’s going on—and while I’ll mention some engineering details, I won’t get deeply into them. Then we might make a mathematical guess, like that perhaps we should use a straight line as a model: We could pick different straight lines.

Computer 145

Computer Architecture Mathematics Construction 145

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

And at first I did so in the main scientific paradigm I knew : models based on mathematics and mathematical equations. From mathematics. Mathematical physics. By the late 1970s, though, there were other initiatives emerging, particularly coming from mathematics and mathematical physics. Synergetics.

Computer 55

Computer Mathematics Science Sciences 55

Stephen Wolfram

JUNE 29, 2022

we have a new symbolic construct, Threaded , that effectively allows you to easily generalize listability. Why is such a construct needed? Now “characters” could be 16-bit constructs, with nearly 65536 possible “glyphs” allocated across different languages and uses (including some mathematical symbols that we introduced).

Calculus 114

Calculus Construction Computer Argumentation 114

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

Its key idea is to think of things in the world as being constructed from some kind of simple-to-describe elements—say geometrical objects—and then to use something like logical reasoning to work out what will happen with them. In the mathematical paradigm one imagines having a mathematical equation and then separately somehow solving it.

Physics 65

Physics Science Sciences Mathematics 65

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

Its key idea is to think of things in the world as being constructed from some kind of simple-to-describe elements—say geometrical objects—and then to use something like logical reasoning to work out what will happen with them. In the mathematical paradigm one imagines having a mathematical equation and then separately somehow solving it.

Science 64

Science Sciences Physics Mathematics 64

Stephen Wolfram

AUGUST 22, 2023

It didn’t help that his knowledge of physics was at best spotty (and, for example, I don’t think he ever really learned calculus). He was going for what he saw as the big prize: using them to “construct the universe”. And the person he saw there was their “vice president of engineering psychology”—a certain J.

Computer 68

Computer Physics Science Sciences 68

Stephen Wolfram

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

But it is only now—with ideas that have emerged from our Physics Project —that I think I can pull all the pieces together and finally be able to construct a proper framework to explain why—and to what extent—the Second Law is true. In some types of rules it’s basically always there , by construction.

Computer 92

Computer Energy Physics Construction 92

Stephen Wolfram

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

And if we treat these as equivalent and merge them we now get: (The question of “state equivalence” is a subtle one, that ultimately depends on the operation of the observer, and how the observer constructs their perception of what’s going on. It’s a new kind of fundamentally multiway construct.

Physics 108

Physics Computer Argumentation Construction 108

Robert Talbert, Ph.D.

APRIL 15, 2022

Those assessments can take on various forms, and in well-constructed courses they do have varying forms, corresponding to different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. But no matter the form, they are are typically one-and-done: Students turn them in, and the work is graded, and that's that. Limit the frequency of reassessments.

Academic Standards 52

Academic Standards Communications Calculus Argumentation 52

Stephen Wolfram

DECEMBER 13, 2021

the same integral could still be done, but only in terms of elliptic integrals : Mathematical Functions: A Milestone Is Reached. Special functions are in a sense a way of packaging mathematical knowledge : once you know that the solution to your equation is a Lamé function , that immediately tells you lots of mathematical things about it.

Construction 67

Construction Computer Physics Accessibility 67