ScienceWorld Q&A
- Contacting the site's maintainers
- Problems with display or printing
- Permissions
- Details about the site
- Copyright and access restrictions
- Citing and linking to Eric Weisstein's World of Science
- Finding more information
- Q: How do I submit a
math fact I couldn't find in Eric Weisstein's World of Science?
- A:
Specific math facts or definitions to be added to Eric Weisstein's World of Science
are welcome and can be sent by email directly to scienceworld@wolfram.com.
Alternatively, they may be submitted by mail to the following address:
Eric Weisstein's World of Science
Wolfram Research, Inc.
100 Trade Center Drive
Champaign, IL 61820-7237
USA
fax: +1-217-398-0747
All contributions will be reviewed for correctness and suitability.
Material should be specific, concise, verifiable, and preferably
useful and interesting as well. References to published literature
are especially helpful, as is use of plain ASCII, TEX,
or LATEX text files or Mathematica
notebooks. Microsoft Word and other binary documents cannot
be processed, nor can submissions written in HTML or encoded using
Microsoft's TNEF. For additional information about TEX and
LATEX, see the AMS TeX pages, or read Michael Doob's helpful A
Gentle Introduction to TeX.
Figures, if included, should be in PostScript or another common
object-oriented format (such as Adobe Illustrator). In general,
illustrations in low-resolution bitmap formats such as GIF, JPEG, and
PICT cannot be used.
Every attempt will be made to recognize contributors for their
assistance. In particular, unless otherwise requested, contributed
entries will prominently feature the phrase "This entry
contributed by contributor name."
- Q: I've found a typo/error/bug in ScienceWorld.
How can I report it?
- A: To report typographical errors, problems with images, etc.,
use the same email address used to contribute new material: scienceworld@wolfram.com. Bug
reports, great and small, are especially appreciated, and corrections
usually appear within a few days.
- Q: Why are the GIF images of equations garbled or
misplaced?
- A: The two most likely explanation are that (1) you have
specified an incorrect URL, or (2) your browser's (or proxy's) image cache
has improper synchronization with the content of Eric Weisstein's World of Science.
In terms of URLs, note that URLs pointing to individual
Eric Weisstein's World of Science entries should always be of the form
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/EntryTitle.html.
If you have an intervening directory, e.g.,
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/E/EntryTitle.html please
contact the maintainer of the site bearing the deprecated link and
request that it be corrected.
If the formulas themselves appear garbled or missized, please try
"shift-reloading" (i.e., hold down the shift key while pressing the
"Reload" button in Netscape) the page to force your browser to
re-fetch the images over the network instead of from its local cache.
If this doesn't work, try clearing the disk and memory image caches,
which can usually be done from within your browser's "Preferences"
control panel. Some proxy servers also do caching, so it may be
necessary to bypass your proxy (or ask your sysadmin to flush it) in
order to correctly reload the images. Note that pressing CTRL-F5 (or
holding down CTRL and hitting "Refresh") on a PC will force Internet
Explorer to perform a network reload, even through a proxy.
If this does not solve the problem, try exiting and restarting
your browser. If this still does not work, try restarting
your computer. If the problem persists, send email to scienceworld@wolfram.com, giving a
detailed description of the problem you are experiencing.
- Q: Why do I have problems displaying/printing
LiveGraphics3D applets?
- A: If you are having difficulty viewing LiveGraphics3D applets,
your browser and/or Java settings may not be configured properly, or your
browser's cache may be garbled. First, try exiting and restarting your
browser. If this does not work, try turning Java off, clearing your cache,
turning Java back on, and reloading the page.
If this still does not work, try upgrading to the newest browser/Java
combination available to you. On a Macintosh running pre-Mac OS X,
you may also need to allocate more memory to your browser. Note that
if you are behind a firewall, your browser's proxy settings might
also be configured incorrectly. As a last resort, consult your system
administrator.
The images depicted in LiveGraphics3D applets can be printed directly
from most web browsers (e.g., Netscape 4.6 under Mac OS,
Netscape 4.6 under Linux RedHat 6.0). However, under some operating
system/browser/Java combinations, a blank space is obtained when printing
where the image should be. If you experience this problem, turn off Java
in your browser's Preferences settings and SHIFT-Reload the page. This
will bring up the pages with static GIF images instead of applets, and
these should print fine. Note that the presence of embedded GIFs within
applet tags also allows non-Java-capable browsers to view pages without
missing "live" images.
Please see the LiveGraphics3D Homepage or MathWorld's LiveGraphics3D description
page for additional information.
- Q: Do you have an index of mathematical symbols?
- A:There is currently no comprehensive index to mathematical symbols used
in ScienceWorld. In most cases, a fairly detailed explanation of
the symbols used is given for each individual entry. However, work
is currently underway to create a summary of all symbols.
In the meantime, you may find the guide to
mathematical notations from the Wolfram Research Mathematical
Functions of use.
- Q: May I reproduce photographs of scientists found
on your site?
- A:
No. These images have been compiled from various sources. Since I do
not hold copyright to them, I can unfortunately not grant permission
for their reproduction. Partial information of the original sources of
images can be found on the photo
credits page.
- Q: When was page X last modified?
- A: The pages on Eric Weisstein's World of Science are constantly undergoing
revision and extension. A list of new and modified entries is available
and kept up-to-date for each portion of Eric Weisstein's World of Science. In addition,
the metadata associated with each page uses the Dublin Core standard
(in particular, the DC.Date.Created and DC.Date.Modified meta tags)
to indicate creation and modification dates all pages. However, this
information is available only from late 1999 onwards.
- Q: Did one person write all this stuff?
- A: Yes. With the exception of contributed entries, the entire
contents of Eric Weisstein's World of Science have been written over the last decade by
internet encyclopedist Eric Weisstein, with
generous assistance from many people in the mathematics and internet
communities. Contributions are most welcome. Please see the Become a Contributor page. A discussion of the
Eric Weisstein's World of Science project can be found on the about
Eric Weisstein's World of Science page.
- Q: Why do pages not print out properly?
- A: If you are having problems with parts of a page being cut off
when you print, note that Eric Weisstein's World of Science is formatted to have the
maximum allowable width for printing to US letter paper (8.5 inches),
corresponding to about 800 pixels. Since A4 paper is slightly narrower,
you will have to specify an appropriate reduction in your printer driver in
order to avoid cutting off the right-hand side of some text. Although there
is currently no way to suppress the sidebar when printing, this may be
implemented soon.
While the current formatting of Eric Weisstein's World of Science pages has been verified
to allow printing to a laser printer when spooled from common operating
systems and browsers, your performance may vary depending on your printer,
browser, drivers, and preference settings. You may need to consult your
printer manual and/or local print guru to obtain good results for your
particular setup.
A good rule of thumb is: if you're having trouble printing, it is your
browser's fault. A table of known browser printing issues is given below.
| Browser |
Operating System |
Problem |
| Netscape 4.7x |
Redhat Linux 6.1 |
First time a page is printed, it contains only the top navigation
banner. Printing the page again (sometimes) gives correct printouts. |
| Mozilla 0.9.x |
Redhat Linux 6.1 |
Equations print with a black background, outlined characters,
and are nearly impossible to read. |
Although equations and images are systematically checked to ensure
proper width, pages containing applets or other specialized graphics may
occasionally be too wide for proper printing. If you encounter such a
page, please email the site's
maintainers. In addition, while formula widths are automatially
verified not to exceed the maximum printable width, certain classes of
formulas do not currently get flagged by these checks. If you come across
formulas whose total width is greater than 525 pixels, please send email
to scienceworld@wolfram.com
and these equations will be modified by hand.
- Q: Who sponsors this site?
- A: Eric Weisstein's World of Science is sponsored as a public service by Wolfram Research, Inc. Wolfram Research
is the world's leading technical software company and maker of the
award-winning technical computing system Mathematica,
without which this web site could not have been created. Additional
information is available about the company and its founder Stephen Wolfram.
- Q: What is the Resource Library?
- A: The Resource
Library is the portion of the Wolfram
Research web site that is devoted to documenting the capabilities of Mathematica
and providing information resources that are useful to Mathematica
users. The Resource Library contains the Mathematica Documentation Center,
as well as general information resources including Eric Weisstein's World of Science and
Wolfram Research's Mathematical
Functions.
- Q: What is the history of Eric Weisstein's World of Science and
how are the pages authored?
- A: Eric Weisstein's World of Science began life more than 12 years ago. The
earliest incarnation of Eric Weisstein's World of Science was a document written in an
early version of Microsoft Word on a Macintosh Plus. The author began
cross-referencing entries, anticipating that the entire document might
someday be converted to hypertext. This hope/dream was realized beginning
in 1995, when the internet explosion was in full swing and the author
posted the encyclopedia to a personal web site at the California Institute
of Technology as part of his web site Eric's Treasure
Troves of Science.
From July 1996 to June 1999, the author continued to develop and improve
the encyclopedias in his spare time while working as a research scientist
at the University of Virginia. During this time, the encyclopedia was
initially hosted in the author's personal directory in the Department of
Astronomy's web server, but it was subsequently moved to the static URL www.treasure-troves.com.
Starting in June 1999, the author accepted a position at Wolfram
Research, Inc. He began devising a subject-based classification
scheme for all entries in the encyclopedia and started the
arduous task of subject-classifying each entry in the encyclopedia.
The entries were subsequently moved from www.treasure-troves.com to
scienceworld.wolfram.com, and Eric Weisstein's World of Science was unveiled in its
new form in January 2002.
- Q: Is the material on Eric Weisstein's World of Science
copyrighted?
- A: Yes. Although science and mathematics are free to all, these
pages represent a considerable amount of labor on the part of the author
and are copyrighted. Readers are encouraged to use the contents of these
pages for education and enjoyment, but these pages may not be copied, mirrored, or reproduced in bulk without permission of
the author. Reproduction for commercial purposes is not permitted, nor is
use of robots to create archival copies. Note that this site uses a
robots.txt file, which should be honored. If you would like a mathematics
encyclopedia you can hold in your own two hands, please consider buying the author's hardcover and/or CD-ROM encyclopedias
of mathematics, which contain material similar to that found on this site.
In general, honoring copyright statements on the internet will encourage
the development of high-quality sites and minimize the clutter of web
advertising. Sadly, not everyone abides by copyright symbols (©).
Furthermore, some versions of Internet Explorer completely ignore the
robots.txt file. As a result, unauthorized attempts at bulk downloading
of material will be met by blocking of violators
together with the subnets from which they originate.
- Q: Is the material on Eric Weisstein's World of Science available
in formats other than HTML?
- A: No. These pages are intended to be used for reference only
and are not available as source documents. For questions on obtaining
high-resolution PostScript copies of figures, please e-mail scienceworld@wolfram.com.
- Q: Why do I get "Access Denied to IP Address
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"?
- A: Your client, subnet, proxy, or cache server has been
identified as a source of an extremely large number of hits over a short
period of time, possibly resulting from robot activity. Large numbers of
requests may represent unauthorized bulk downloading of copyrighted material from these pages.
You may want to try disabling any proxy server you are using,
since excessive requests from the proxy can lead to its blocking,
thus affecting all proxy clients. There is nothing we can do about this
since we do not have the time to investigate individual events resulting
in bulk downloads. A single user's actions can lead to blocking of an
entire proxy and/or subnet, so please be considerate of the author of
this site and of your colleagues, so they too can enjoy it.
- Q: Why do I get "Access Denied to Browser Agent xxx"?
- A: Your web browser was found on a list of agents that are
barred from accessing this site. Browser agents are blocked when they (1)
fail to identify themselves, (2) are known spiders or robots which in the
past have been responsible for downloading large numbers of copyrighted pages from this site, or (3) are e-mail
siphons that gather e-mail addresses for the purpose of spamming.
If your browser is being blocked but does not fall into one of the above
categories, please contact scienceworld@wolfram.com and include a
description of your browser and operating system. Note that some "content
filtering" programs (AtGuard, in particular) prevent your browser
from properly identifying itself and can be responsible for the problem.
- Q: Can I get my own copy of Eric Weisstein's World of Science?
- A:Not at this time. The encyclopedias on Eric Weisstein's World of Science,
and in particular Eric Weisstein's World of Physics, are still works in
progress. However, Eric continues to work on them and anticipates
publishing the physics encyclopedia at some point in the future.
If you would like a mathematics encyclopedia you
can hold in your own two hands, please consider purchasing the
author's hardcover and/or CD-ROM encyclopedias of mathematics, which
contain material similar to that found on the MathWorld site.
- Q: May I host a mirror site or create a personal
mirror?
- A: No. The material on this site is updated frequently, and so
any mirror would rapidly become out-of-date. Furthermore, mirroring
without the permission of the copyright holder is considered copyright violation. If you want to own a
mathematical encyclopedia, please consider purchasing the author's hardcover or CD-ROM encyclopedias
of math.
- Q: How should I cite material from
Eric Weisstein's World of Science?
- A: If you excerpt text or graphics from this site for inclusion
in a written or online report, you should follow normal protocols for
proper citation. An example citation for this site would consist of
something like the following:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Torque." Eric Weisstein's World of
Physics. http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Torque.html.
Other reproduction of material on this site for
publication or redistribution is governed by applicable copyright restrictions. For additional
questions or for permission to reproduce material for
commercial purposes, please send your request to scienceworld@wolfram.com.
- Q: May I use material from Eric Weisstein's World of Science
in my report?
- A:
Yes, providing you follow conventional citation
standards. Science is free to all, and most mathematical
results and theorems cannot be patented or copyrighted. However, the
collection and presentation of mathematical results is protected by
copyright laws just as are the collection of
words in a novel or play and the collection of computer commands in
a software package.
- Q: May I make hyperlinks into
Eric Weisstein's World of Science?
- A: Absolutely. Feel free to make hyperlinks into entries in
Eric Weisstein's World of Science or to the Eric Weisstein's World of Science top page.
- Q: Why couldn't I find X in
Eric Weisstein's World of Science?
- A:
If you were unable to find specific information you were seeking, there
are two possibilities: (1) it is there but you did not find it, or
(2) it is not there to find. Try using several different techniques
to locate information--i.e., use the subject tree, use the
alphabetical index, and do a full-text search.
If you still cannot find what you are seeking, it is probably not yet
contained in ScienceWorld. If this is the case, try looking up
one of the references given at the end of a related article.
If you feel the information you are seeking should be added to
Eric Weisstein's World of Science, please consider helping make this happen by becoming
a contributor.
- Q: Can I hire you as a consultant on science?
- A: Wolfram Research maintains a list of
people who consult on scientific and mathematical topics, particularly
those involving the use of Mathematica. Please see this page for
additional information. The maintainers of Eric Weisstein's World of Science do
not act as consultants.
- Q: Can you suggest student projects based on
Eric Weisstein's World of Science?
- A:
There are many interesting unsolved problems in science that could be
investigated as part of a student project. Many individual entries
in Eric Weisstein's World of Science contain material that could be expanded and
generalized by the enterprising student.
- Q: Do you provide on-line course material,
study guides, lesson plans, etc.?
- A:
No, not at this time.
- Q: Can you suggest books, classes, or colleges
that will help prepare me for a career in science?
- A:
While we certainly encourage Eric Weisstein's World of Science readers to pursue science
or mathematics as a career, decisions about career preparation and
courses of study are best made with the help of your parents, guidance
counselor, and teachers.
- Q: I need to know more about or have a homework
assignment on X. Can you help?
- A:
Yes and no. The author regrettably does not have time to answer specific
questions asking for additional information. This includes requests
for further references, the solution of problems, the contruction or
description of algorithms, or the writing of a paper for you. However,
in many cases you will be able to find the information you need by
browsing the thousands of pages of material already on this site.
Contributions and suggestions for additional
material to include are welcome.
Suggestions about material that could be added are welcome (see the FAQ
on contributing), but blanket requests ("Can
you tell me more about matrices?") or requests that require
substantial research ("Can you tell me why the symbol m is used
for slope?") will likely go unanswered due to the author's limited
time (but see also the FAQ on searching). In
particular, any messages containing phrases resembling "Please respond as
quickly as possible" are almost certain to go unanswered.
- Q: I would like a copy of a journal article cited
on Eric Weisstein's World of Science. Can you provide one?
- A: No. However, university libraries should carry many of the
journals cited in Eric Weisstein's World of Science. In addition, most academic
institutions have access to older and more obscure journals through
interlibrary loan. With the exception of a small number of incomplete
references currently being researched, the citations given in
Eric Weisstein's World of Science are complete and use a system of slightly modified standard journal abbreviations.
- Q: Is Eric Weisstein's World of Science available in
languages other than English?
- A:
Unfortunately, the task of translating the entire site is too large
to be undertaken at this time. The contents of Eric Weisstein's World of Science are the
equivalent of thousands of printed pages, and so would require a vast
effort to translate. Such a task would also be made more difficult by
the technical nature of the material.
Although the Eric Weisstein's World of Science team has received requests for translations
into French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian,
and Spanish, at the moment there are no plans for creating them.
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