Is this computer learning?

wonderboy1953

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What I'm getting at, e.g., is the Wolfram website whereby you can enter in any integral calculus problem and get back an answer. I can understand solving some problems online or through computer software to understand the methods, but it doesn't seem right to have the computer do all of your homework for you.

Do you share my issues?
 
What I'm getting at, e.g., is the Wolfram website whereby you can enter in any integral calculus problem and get back an answer. I can understand solving some problems online or through computer software to understand the methods, but it doesn't seem right to have the computer do all of your homework for you.

Do you share my issues?

I bet it can't find the indefinite integral of sin(x)/x.


I sometimes use Wolfram Alpha when doing homework - not to cheat, but to check answers. At least, I don't think that it's cheating - it's more of an anti-timewasting service :).
 
You have to show your workings usually. Not usually enough to simply give an answer.
 
Usually you have to right out how you got to the integral, or set up the integral on the math homework. My teachers don't care how you solve it. That's what calculators are there for. We know how to solve the integral, plug it in and don't waste time.

Using my work for example, GM doesn't want their engineers to spend 30 minutes solving an integral when they are being paid a large sum of money, they want them to solve it quick and efficiently. Efficiency is key.
 
I bet it can't find the indefinite integral of sin(x)/x.

Not sure about that particular one, but if you have an absolute value and a trigonometric equation it tends to barf.

But then again, when I learned this stuff in college I wasn't even allowed a calculator on the homework. I could only use things like wolfram in other classes where showing work didn't matter.
 
Yeah, that's for the definate integral - as in a numerical answer. It's impossible to get a finite algebraic answer to the integral of sin(x)/x
 
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