Interactive Economic Models from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Publication: Journal of Economic Education
Volume: Forthcoming
Issue: Forthcoming
Pages: Forthcoming
Author(s): Fiona Maclachlan, W. J. Bolte and Seth Chandler
Address (Principal Author):
Fiona Maclachlan
Professor of Economics and Finance
Department of Economics and Finance
Manhattan College
Riverdale, NY 10471
Phone: 718-862-7466
Fax: 718-862-8032
E-mail: fiona.mac@gmail.com
Title: Interactive Economic Models from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project
URL: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com
Descriptive Note:
The Wolfram Demonstrations Project is a growing online collection of free interactive illustrations from a broad range of fields, including economics. Each Demonstration is a computer model or "applet" with interactive controls that users can manipulate to explore the effects of changing parameters of the model. Demonstrations can include 2D and 3D graphics and formatted text, and often display sophisticated plots of data and mathematical functions.
Each demonstration has its own informational web page, which includes an animated preview of the Demonstration, a synopsis of the topic being displayed and links to more information. Running a Demonstration requires downloading the free Mathematica Player, or Mathematica 6, a technical computing environment commonly available on college campuses.
The site's searching interface is the primary way of locating content, but related demonstrations are also linked together, allowing the user to browse collections of similar material. The economics section (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/search.html?query=economics) is subdivided into microeconomics, macroeconomics, game theory, insurance, finance, and business. Subtopics are further refined as the collection expands.
Demonstrations are contributed by a community of Mathematica enthusiasts, researchers and educators, and the project aims to be the largest and most complete source of interactive visualizations in the world.
Each demonstration includes complete source code, so users with Mathematica 6 can edit the source code to modify a Demonstration. Minor modifications, such as changing colors or thicknesses of curves, can be done with very little Mathematica experience. Mathematica code is intuitive and readable, so learning to create original Demonstrations by reading the source code of existing ones is also relatively easy.
Publishing a demonstration is a straightforward process of filling out an authoring template and uploading it to a personal authoring area on the demonstrations site. Before being published, each one passes through a rigorous quality control process that includes expert review to ensure the accuracy of the content.
The demonstrations team welcomes submissions from qualified contributors. Please contact them at http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/feedback/ for more information.