# Why does this work with Wolfram|Alpha but not Mathematica? [closed]

I ran into this while doing some work today:

It's the exact same syntax - and I expected that Mathematica would be more likely to be able to solve it, since oftentimes Wolfram|Alpha doesn't have all the functions of Wolfram Language. So why did this happen, and how can I make Mathematica solve it when, say, I'm offline and don't have access to Wolfram|Alpha queries?

I'm running Mathematica 10 on CentOS 6.

## closed as off-topic by bobthechemist, m_goldberg, Karsten 7., Kuba♦, Michael E2Jan 31 '15 at 1:17

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• "This question arises due to a simple mistake such as a trivial syntax error, incorrect capitalization, spelling mistake, or other typographical error and is unlikely to help any future visitors, or else it is easily found in the documentation." – bobthechemist, m_goldberg, Karsten 7., Kuba, Michael E2
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• Feel free to come up with a more descriptive title.. – Austin Burk Jan 30 '15 at 23:36
• W|A is assuming a space between h and w, whereas Mathematica does not. – bobthechemist Jan 30 '15 at 23:38
• Mathematica syntax is not correct. You need to put space (or *) between h and w. – halmir Jan 30 '15 at 23:38

Wolfram|Alpha is more willing to change the input because the input is generally natural language. Alpha has interpreted hw has two single-letter symbols, h and w. Mathematica has interpreted hw as a single two-letter symbol. Because you asked Mathematica to solve for h and h does not appear in the expression, there is no solution. Adding a space tells Mathematica there are two symbols there and makes the thing work: