# The &kalzium; Handbook

Carsten
Niehaus

    cniehaus@kde.org

2001
2002
2004
2005
Carsten Niehaus
2005
Anne-Marie Mahfouf
&FDLNotice;
2005-08-21
1.4.2pre4

&kalzium; is a program which shows you the Periodic Table of Elements. You can use &kalzium; to search for information about the elements or to learn facts about the periodic table.

KDE
education
elements
chemistry
education
kalzium

## Introduction

&kalzium; provides you with all kinds of information about the Periodic Table of the Elements. You can lookup lots of information about the elements and also use visualizations to show them. It is free and licensed under the &GNU; Public License.

You can visualize the Periodic Table of the Elements by groups, blocks, acidic behavior, families, crystal structure or different states of matter. You can plot data for a range of elements for properties like the density or the atomic mass. You can go back in time and see what elements were known at a given date. You can also calculate the molecular mass of molecules.

## &kalzium; quick start guide

Here is &kalzium; the first time you run it, either from the K menu->Edutainment->Science->Kalzium or with &Alt;F2 and entering `kalzium` into the field.

&kalzium; main window
&kalzium; main window

&kalzium; is divided in a sidebar on the left (in red, 1) and the table view (in blue, 2) which shows the elements of the periodic table. The standard menubar allows you to choose what you want to display and the statusbar reports facts. You can hide the sidebar using the View Hide Sidebar menu.

When you move the mouse cursor on an element of the table, a tooltip appears with a picture of this element if available, its number and its mass. In the sidebar is displayed an overview of the current element in the Overview tab.

You can disable the tooltips using the View Hide tooltip menu.

You can choose several views for the table: display the elements per families, per groups, per crystal structure, depending on their acidic behaviour, &etc;. You can change all that in the menubar in the View Look menu.

If you want to know facts about a precise element, click on it in the table and the information dialog will be displayed.

Information dialog
Information dialog

You can plot data using the Tools Plot Data menu. You choose what you want to plot on the y -axis and a range of elements to plot taht for on the x-axis. The screenshot below shows the mass of the elements 1 to 111.

The Plot Data dialog
The Plot Data dialog

The Glossary ( Tools Glossary ) explains the most important chemical words and shows you pictures of the most common tools along with an explanation.

The Glossary
The Glossary

## Using &kalzium;

### Overview of Kalziums usage

Here are some screenshots of &kalzium; in action:

&kalzium; is very easy to use. It is specially designed for students of all ages to use as a small and quick database.

&kalzium; main screen, immediately after the first start
&kalzium; main screen

### The information dialog

The information dialog is accessed by clicking with the &LMB; on any element. It is available only in the Overview mode or when the sidebar is hidden. This is the place to get information about an element. With the buttons at the bottom of the dialog or with the use of the mousewheel you can change the element which is displayed without closing the dialog.

#### Overview

In the Overview you will find the most important information about the element. In the middle you see the symbol of the Element with it's elemental number in the top left. The bottom-left corner displays the name of the element while the bottom-right corner shows the most important oxidation-stages and, below that, the elemental weight

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

#### Picture

The Picture tab displays a picture of the element when available.

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

#### Bohr Orbitals

The Atom Model tab displays the atomic shells. Every orbit stands for a atomic shell and every yellow circle represents an electron.

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

#### Chemical Data

The Chemical Data tab presents some atomic data. The first entry is the Orbital structure. The next is the density.

Depending on the data available in Kalzium you will see different radii of the element. The covalent radius is the radius of a non charged atom of the element in a molecule. The could for example be the O-H-distance in Water. The atomic radius is the radius of an elemental atom, eg. not bound to anything. The van der Waals-radius is defined as the distance of two atoms of the same sort in two equal molecules, for example two carbon-atoms in propane. The last possible radius is the ionic radius including its charge.

The mass of an element is the avarage mass of all isotopes in relation to their percentage.

Some elements have information about their isotopes.

Mass

  The mass of this isotope.

Neutrons

  The number of neutrons this isotope has.

Percentage

  The percentage of atoms occuring that are of this isotope type. Also called abundance.

Half-life period

  Only unstable isotopes have a half-life period. It is defined as the time in which half the isotopes decay.

Energy and Mode of Decay

  Some isotopes are known to emit particle radiation under the process of radioactive decay. Each decay transformation has a typical energy release, which is listed along with the mode of decay.

Spin and parity

  The spin of the nucleus and its parity.

Magnetic Moment

  The magnetic dipolemoment of the nucleus. Measured in units of the nuclear magneton.

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

#### Miscellaneous

The Miscellaneous tab tells you other informations about the current element, including when it was discovered, its abundance in crustal rocks, its mean mass (the mass per neutron) and the origin of the name.

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

#### Chemical Energies

The Energies tab tells you about different energy facts related to the element.

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

#### Spectrum

If Kalzium has information about the emission-spectrum of the current element, this page will display it at the top. The displayed wavelength increases from left to right. The wavelength between 380 nanometer (nm) and 780 nm have the colors of the visual light spectrum. For example, 550 nm is the color green.

There are two ways to zoom into the spectrum. With the spinboxes displayed right below the spectrum, the first and the last wavelength of the spectrum are defined. Furthermore, you can hold the left mouse button pressed whilst moving the mouse cursor over the spectrum. You will see the area in which Kalzium would zoom into marked with a white line. Once you release the left mouse button, Kalzium will zoom into the selected area.

At the bottom of the page is the Export Spectrum as Image-button. With it you can save the current spectrum as an image file.

To zoom out of the view by 10% press the right mouse button while the mouse is inside the spectrum.

&kalzium; information dialog
&kalzium; information dialog

### Numeration

The numeration is the way of numbering the 18 groups of the periodic table. You can change the numeration to IUPAC, old IUPAC or CAS, or you can switch it off entirely.

The following options in the View Numeration menu can be used to change the numeration shown:

- No Numeration: if this option is active, no period-numeration will be in effect.

- Show IUPAC (default): the IUPAC is the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. This is an organization which defines most of the standards for chemical concerns. The new IUPAC system numbers each column with Arabic numbers from 1 (one) through 18 (eighteen).

- Show CAS: the CAS is the Chemical Abstracts Service. In the CAS system the letters A and B were designated to main group elements (A) and transition elements (B). Though the IUPAC numeration is the official, the CAS numeration is what is still used in classrooms and laboratories.

- Show Old IUPAC: the old IUPAC system labeled columns with Roman numerals followed by either the letter A or B. Columns were numbered such that columns one through seven were numbered IA through VIIA, columns 8 through 10 were labeled VIIIA, columns 11 through 17 were numbered IB through VIIB and column 18 was numbered VIII. Because of the confusion the old IUPAC and the CAS system created, the IUPAC adopted their new system.

### Color schemes

&kalzium; can show you which elements are where with regard to their Periodic block and group, their behavior with acid and which state of matter (&ie; solid/liquid/vapor) they are in at a given temperature.

Color schemes can be changed in the View Look menu.

- No Color Scheme: all the elements have the same color. You can change the default color by choosing Settings Configure &kalzium;... and going to the Colors tab.

- Show Groups: displays a color for each group. A group is a vertical column in the periodic table of the elements. There are 18 groups in the standard periodic table. Elements in a group have similar configurations of their valence shell electrons, which gives them similar properties.

- Show Blocks: displays a color for each block.

- Show Acid Behavior: represents each acidic behaviour with a different color.

- Show Family: represents each of the nine families with a color.

- Show Crystal Structures: colors each element depending on its crystal structure.

- Gradient

  The gradient views displays the elements according to a property you can select below and with a gradient colored scheme. The elements for which the data is not available are displayed in grey.

  Gradient for Covalent Radius
  Gradient for Covalent Radius

  - Atomic Radius

  - Covalent Radius

  - van dew Waals Radius

  - Atomic Mass

  - Density

  - Boiling Point

  - Melting Point

  - Electronegativity

  - Electron Affinity

### Tools

#### Glossary

The Glossary gives you definitions of the most used tools in chemistry as well as some knowledge data. On the left side of the windows you can see the tree of items. On top, there are chemical terms, below that there is a second tree of labaratory-tools.

On the top of the widget you can see a searchbar. If you type in the bar the trees will be adjusted immediately. The small button left of the searchbar will clear it.

the Glossary

#### Plot Data

The Plot Data dialog allows you to plot some information about elements. The X-axis represents a range of elements (from one number to a higher number). You set this range using the First Element and Last Element fields on the dialog. The display does not change until you click on the Plot button.

the Plot Data Dialog

&kalzium; can plot some data about a range of elements.

#### Equation Solver

The Equation Solver enables the user to solve chemical equations. This is an example:

> aH2O + bCO2 -> cH2CO3

The computed equation will be displayed on the right side of the window. As you can see in the first example you can also define the value of one or more coefficients. The other coefficients will be ajusted. Furthermore, it is possible to use brackets around elements or electronic charges as shown in the last two examples.

the Equation Solver Dialog

&kalzium; can solve chemical equations

#### Sidebar

##### Overview

Overview

The Overview tab is the first one and it shows you an overview of the element the mouse is over.

Full red circle

  Element is essential to all species

Full green circle

  Element is essential for at least one species

Full blue circle

  Biological function is proposed

Red outer circle

  Element is essential for humans

Blue outer circle

  Element is probably essential for humans

##### Calculate

The Calculate tab is the second in the sidebar. It alows you to calculate molecules weights.

You are first presented with the following:

Calculate

The calculator when it is started.

In this example, the mass of ethyl alcohol (regular alcohol) H3CH2OH will be calculated. For this, simply enter the formula in the lineedit and either press enter or click on the Calc-button. The result of the calculation will be displayed below.

As you can see you will get several answers. For one, on top of the widget you will see the empirical formula, H6C1O1. At the bottom of the widget there is a list of elements and their abundance in the entered molecule and finally the mass of the molecule.

The tooltip of the widget will show you the relativ masses of the elements in the molecule. In this example, the six hydrogen have only 17.76% of the mass of the molecule.

The result of the calculation.

The result of the calculation.

##### Timeline

The Timeline feature allows you to explore the elements of the set time period. This is great for getting a feel for how the PSE evolved over time, as more and more elements were discovered. If you move the slider you will notice that some elements disappear if you move it to the left and reappear if you move it to the right. Furthermore the number will change constantly.

The number represents the date you are looking at. If you move the slider to &eg; 1891 you will only see the elements which where known in the year 1891.

You will notice that some elements are not even shown in the current year. This is because some of the elements have not been discovered yet but are predicted to exist.

the Timeline

The PSE back in time (elements known in 1891)

##### State of Matter

With the State of Matter function, you can choose a temperature and view the state of each element at that temperature. You can easily visualize how many elements and what elements are, for example, solid at a given temperature. So you can learn that almost all are solid at very low temperatures and that most are liquid or even vaporous at high temperatures.

the State of Matter Dialog

&kalzium; can show you which elements are solid/liquid/vaporous at a given temperature.

##### Show/Hide Legend

The Show/Hide Legend action allows you to display the legend for the scheme you are in (Groups, Blocks, Acid Behavior). The legend is displayed by default but if you hide it, it will stay hidden until you choose to show it. &kalzium; will keep this setting in its configuration file, so that the next time you run it, the setting will be as you left it.

## Configuring &kalzium;

&kalzium; has many configuration options, which you can access by opening the configuration dialog by selecting Settings Configure &kalzium;... from the menu.

Configure &kalzium; Dialog
Colors

In the Colors tab, you can change the different colors for each scheme.

Configure &kalzium; Dialog
Units

In the Units tab, you can choose the units. You can select if you prefer kJ/mol by default or you can choose eV. The temperature is in Kelvin by default but you can change to degrees Celsius, degrees Fahrenheit, Reamur or Rankine. The last two units are not often used today but can still be found sometimes. Furthermore, they teach us, that temperatures are nothing absolut. It doesn't matter, which unit you are using.

Configure &kalzium; Dialog
Miscellaneous

In the Miscellaneous tab, you can find other options not related with the previous tabs.

## Command Reference

### Menus and shortcut keys

#### The File Menu

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  Quits &kalzium;

#### The View Menu

View Numeration No Numeration

  Display no numeration scheme

View Numeration Show IUPAC

  Display the IUPAC numeration

View Numeration Show CAS

  Display the CAS numeration

View Numeration Show Old IUPAC

  Display the Old IUPAC numeration

View Look No Color Scheme

  Display no color scheme

View Look Show Groups

  Display the groups of elements

View Look Show Blocks

  Display the four blocks of elements

View Look Show Acid Behaviour

  Display the acidic behaviour

View Look Show Families

  Display the familes of elements

View Look Show Crystal Structures

  Display crystal structures

View Look Gradient Atomic Radius

  Display the elements atomic radius

View Look Gradient Covalent Radius

  Display the elements covalent radius

View Look Gradient van der Waals Radius

  Display the elements van der Waals radius

View Look Gradient Atomic Mass

  Display the elements atomic radius

View Look Gradient Density

  Display the elements atomic radius

View Look Gradient Boiling Point

  Display the elements boiling point

View Look Gradient Melting Point

  Display the elements melting point

View Look Gradient Electronegativity

  Display the elements electronegativity

View Look Gradient Electron Affinity

  Display the elements electron affinity

View Show/Hide Legend

  Toggle the legend view

View Show/Hide Tooltip

  Toggle tooltip display on elements

View Show/Hide Sidebar

  Toggle the Sidebar

#### The Tools Menu

Tools Plot Data

  Open the Plot Data dialog

Tools Glossary

  Open the Glossary

Tools Show Equationsolver

  Open the Equationsolver dialog

#### The Settings Menu

Settings Show/Hide Toolbar

  Toggle the Main Toolbar

Settings Show/Hide Statusbar

  Toggle the Statusbar

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Configure the keyboard keys you use to access the different actions.

Settings Configure Toolbars...

  Configure the items you want to put in the toolbar

Settings Configure &kalzium;...

  Display the &kalzium; settings dialog

#### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Questions and Answers

Will I ever have to pay for &kalzium;?

No, never. But the author always welcomes a nice mail or a DVD as a Thank You. &kalzium; is licensed under the GPL, so you will never have to pay for this program.

Will there ever be a &Windows; version?

No, at the moment not, but you can download the source and make your own Windows version. It should not be a big problem, because it is written with Trolltech &Qt; libs. But what do you need &Windows; for? Get the latest &Linux;, and live on the edge.

## How can I contribute?

Support me with data.

In the world of science, the progress is quite fast. If you ever find an incorrect or missing value, please drop me an email.

Find some bugs or give some suggestions

If you find any bugs in the program, or have a few suggestions for improvements, please let me know at cniehaus@kde.org.

## Credits and License

&kalzium;

Program Copyright, 2001-2005 Carsten Niehaus cniehaus@kde.org

Contributors:

- Pino Toscano toscano.pino@tiscali.it

- Thomas Nagy tnagy2^8@yahoo.fr

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kalzium;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Requirements

&kalzium; itself can be found on The &kalzium; home page and is part of the KDE-Edu project

You can find a list of changes in the file `ChangeLog` in the distribution of &kalzium;.

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;