If you’ve ever felt like working out the precise distance between Earth and Mars measured in AA batteries while lying on a beach, hiking in the mountains or sitting in traffic (you wouldn’t do that, would you?) then get thee to the iPhone Apps Store to grab a copy of the newly released Wolfram Alpha app.

The app is based on the “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha, launched in May, that allows online users to get accurate answers to computational queries. Think of it as a super-complex pocket calculator for extreme math, chemistry and science geeks, like its founder, Stephen Wolfram. Wolfram is the Illinois-based British mathematician, physicist, computer programmer, businessman and author of “A New Kind of Science” who has been compared to Issac Newton and Albert Einstein.

The Wolfram Alpha iPhone app is proving popular, indeed. After just a few days in release, the app has already made the Apple “Hot List” and is one of the top sellers in the App Store. Some tech writers have been critical of the app’s jaw-dropping $49.99 list price, but it’s important to keep in mind that the app is not just another way to access the Wolfram Alpha website, but a sophisticated, high-end calculator capable of supporting calculus, discrete number theory and function plotting, then spitting out graphics that illustrate the information like a fancy spreadsheet, all in a matter of seconds.

Cross posting this from Brand X