Yes, normally I post my blog entries much earlier in the day, but I've been distracted and fascinated by the subject of today's post, the Wolfram Demonstrations page.

Back in May, Wolfram Research released the newest version of their classic software, Mathematica 6. Of the numerous new features, one of the most eye- and mind-catching is the ability to export to their new notebook format (.nbp).

What is notebook format? Short description: It's like QuickTime player for mathematical demonstrations. Long description: It's a special file format that allows users, via the free downloadable Mathematica Player, to manipulate interactive mathematical demonstrations. Those who have Mathematica 6 can develop their own original demonstrations.

There are already over 1700 free downloads available on the Wolfram Demonstrations page, and more are being uploaded every day. The best place to start to give you an idea, while having some fun at the same time, is the puzzle section. You can try everything from the classic puzzles, like Towers of Hanoi and the 15 puzzle, to more modern puzzles, like Sudoku and Planarity.

From here, you can look through random demonstrations, search or browse by topic (via the menu). If you've enjoyed some of my mathematical discussions in the past, such as the Monty Hall Dilemma (demonstration), Buffon's Needle Problem (whose demonstration is cleaner than the frozen hot dog approach) and Prisoner's Dilemma (demonstration), you can now experiment with them more directly!

For the fullest experience, I suggest trying out the demonstrations that interest you, and do further research on those topics in Wolfram's MathWorld section. Which reminds me, I've got to get back to these demonstrations myself!