Elements and Nuclides


Chemistry
I have a confession to make; I'm fascinated by the Periodic Table and all it represents, and collect software (and T-shirts!) related to it. These two programmes are superb examples of what can be done to present an enormous amount of information on the behaviour of the elements. The author, Roger Darlington, has spent the last few years compiling the data and writing these applications for his own enjoyment, and has now decided to share them with us all via his newly named company, Atomic Software.
Each application comes on a single high-density floppy in a plastic wallet with a few A4 pages of documentation, and costs £14·95 for one, or £19·95 for both. To run them you will need at least 4Mb of RAM and a multisync monitor. The author has tested them on suitably equipped A310, A540 and A5000 machines, and I've used a RISC PC 600 and a StrongArm machine for this review. Actually I did discover a few problems, including one specific to the RISC PC (the absence of mode 39 in my monitor definition file), but they have all been resolved promptly by Roger Darlington and he made substantial improvements over the weeks that we have been in contact for the original review in 1997.

In Use
The most obvious thing you notice on starting either application is that they don't multi-task. At first I was disappointed at this, but there is so much information on screen that it could become very cumbersome and crowded in the Desktop, without putting in a lot of effort to organize windows. Some aspects would definitely benefit from multi-tasking: such as being able to print the information directly via the RISC OS printer drivers and selecting the parameters to display, but overall it works well as it is, and the author admits that he isn't a WIMP programmer. That is really the only criticism I can level at the programmes, and it's a rather half hearted complaint at that!

Elements
The paper documentation is minimal, but the application comes with a comprehensive Help file, and contains Ovation and text files explaining some of the terms used. The screen for Elements displays the conventional Periodic Table with control knobs, a text area, a display of the selected property and a thermometer showing important temperatures for the selected element.


Elements Main Display for Iron - Click Picture for Full-Size Version (44 kb GIF)

Each display region changes to reflect the element in question when the cursor is moved, giving a comprehensive collection of information that can be expanded with a mouse click. The most useful piece of paper supplied lists the properties that can be displayed, including specific heat capacity, crystal cell sides, ionization potentials, density, atomic mass, and many others. Selecting these in the programme is a little tricky at first, consisting of clicking in one of the "control knob" areas to rotate a line pointer, but this has been improved considerably recently. The great feature is that there are two of these pointers enabling you to plot two properties against each other, and any screen can be saved as a sprite by pressing the * key on the numeric keypad.


Plot of Atomic Weight vs Solar Abundance

There are some suggestions of interesting plots to work through, which could form the basis of classroom discussion or individual worksheets for students investigating the behaviour of the elements.

Nuclides
Here the application splits into two parts: one is a comprehensive tutorial on several aspects of nuclear properties,


Part of the Introduction to Nuclides

and the other is a Segre chart showing all the isotopes of the elements and their decay products. This is really detailed and an incredible piece of work that takes some getting into. You can display the whole chart, a magnified portion, decay products,


Magnified Region of Segre Chart


Decay Products

or half-lives, and save screens by pressing the * key on the numeric keypad as before. Extra information on using the software is in the Help file, and the tutorial covers different decay processes, fission, fusion, basic particles and much more.

Summary
This isn't any ordinary piece of software: it is outstanding in its scope, detail and originality. If you or any of the family have any interest in chemistry, or you're a teacher looking for software for school, you should buy Elements straight away. I love playing with it, looking at different relationships and seeing if I can account for them. Nuclides is more specialized, and ideally suited to A Level or University, but when you buy Elements you might as well get Nuclides for the extra cost and learn about radioactive isotopes in the process. The value for money is incredible, and the level of detail breathtaking: the only thing I've seen that comes anywhere near them is a US-produced Windows one that does less for three times the price (and can't spell 'aluminium'). I described some of the features of these two programmes to a PC owning friend, and he was extremely jealous.
The enthusiasm of the author is another plus point. Having started this for his own benefit, it has now become a labour of love. New information and features are continually being added, and upgrades will be available in return for the original disc and £2: Roger suggests every six months for this, which seems a very good idea. If want further infomation, you can contact Roger by email to R.W.Darlington@acoustics.salford.ac.uk, or at the address below.

At these prices, everyone should send their cheques to:

Atomic Software,
1 Fells Grove,
Worsley,
Manchester,
M28 7JN
straight away, and feel proud that we have some outstanding chemistry software!

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