MathWorld is an online mathematics reference work, sponsored by Wolfram Research Inc., the creators of the Mathematica computer algebra system. It is also partially funded by the National Science Foundation's National Science Digital Library grant to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... Wolfram Research is part of the Wolfram Group which consists of four companies: Wolfram Research Inc. ... This article is about computer software. ... A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. ... The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ... The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) intends to become the comprehensive source for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. ... The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), is the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. ...

History

Eric W. Weisstein, the creator of the site, was a physics and astronomy student who got into the habit of writing notes on his mathematical readings. In 1995 he put his notes online and called it "Eric's Treasure Trove of Mathematics"; it contained hundreds of pages/articles, covering a wide range of mathematical topics. The site became popular as an extensive single resource on mathematics on the web. Weisstein continuously improved the notes and accepted corrections and comments from online readers. In 1998, he made a contract with CRC Press and the contents of the site were published in print and CD-ROM, titled "CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics". The free online version became only partially accessible to the public. In 1999 Weisstein went to work for Wolfram Research, Inc. (WRI), and WRI renamed the Math Treasure Trove to MathWorld at http://mathworld.wolfram.com and hosted it on the company's website without access restrictions. Dr. Eric W. Weisstein Encyclopedist Dr. Eric W. Weisstein (born March 18, 1969, in Bloomington, Indiana) is a noted encyclopedist in several technical areas of science and mathematics. ... Physics (Greek: (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the discovery and understanding of the fundamental laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time and explaining them using mathematics. ... A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant Astronomy is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Wolfram Research is part of the Wolfram Group which consists of four companies: Wolfram Research Inc. ...

CRC lawsuit

In 2000, CRC Press sued WRI, WRI president Stephen Wolfram, and author Eric Weisstein, due to what they considered a breach of contract: that the MathWorld content was to remain in print only. The site was taken down by a court injunction. The case was later settled out of court, with WRI paying an unspecified amount and complying with other stipulations. Among these stipulations is the inclusion of a copyright notice at the bottom of the website and broad rights for the CRC Press to produce MathWorld in printed book form. The site then became once again available free to the public. This article is about the year 2000. ... The CRC Press, LLC is a publishing group which specializes in producing technical books in a wide range of subjects. ... Stephen Wolfram (born August 29, 1959 in London) is a scientist known for his work in theoretical particle physics, cellular automata, complexity theory, and computer algebra, and is the creator of the computer program Mathematica. ... Dr. Eric W. Weisstein Encyclopedist Dr. Eric W. Weisstein (born March 18, 1969, in Bloomington, Indiana) is a noted encyclopedist in several technical areas of science and mathematics. ...

This case made a wave of headlines in online publishing circles. The PlanetMath project was a result of MathWorld being unavailable. PlanetMath is a free, collaborative, online mathematics encyclopedia. ...

Criticism

On the Usenet group sci.math, there have been comments on the quality of MathWorld's articles. While the information in MathWorld is considered generally correct, there have occasionally been incorrect statements and typos in MathWorld articles.[1][2] Mathworld has a facility that allows readers to submit comments on individual articles. There is no known systematic study of MathWorld's consistency, nor that of other on-line math resources, including Wikipedia, so their quality remains a matter of debate and discussion. Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...

See also

• PlanetMath
• ScienceWorld

PlanetMath is a free, collaborative, online mathematics encyclopedia. ... ScienceWorld, also known as Eric Weissteins World of Science, is a web site that opened to the general public in January 2002. ...

External links

• Wolfram Research's MathWorld
• Eric Weisstein's account of the suit