# The &kalzium; Handbook

Carsten
Niehaus

    cniehaus@kde.org

Robert
Gogolok

    mail@robert-gogolok.de

Developer
Anne-Marie
Mahfouf

    annma@kde.org

Help in documentation
2001
2002
2004
2005
Carsten Niehaus
&FDLNotice;
2005-01-19
1.2

&kalzium; is a program which shows you the Periodic System of Elements (PSE). You can use &kalzium; to search for information about the elements or to learn facts about the PSE.

KDE
education
elements
chemistry
PSE
education
kalzium

## Introduction

&kalzium; provides you with all kinds of information about the PSE (Periodic System of 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 blocks, groups, acidic behavior or different states of matter. You can plot data for a range of elements (weight, mean weight, density, IE1, IE2, electronegativity). You can go back in time and see what elements were known at a given date..

## Using &kalzium;

Here are some screenshots of &kalzium; in action:

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

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

### The information dialog

&kalzium;'s simplified information dialog
&kalzium;'s simplified information dialog

Here is a screenshot of &kalzium;'s simplified information dialog.

In the simplified information dialog, you only get the main information you should know about an element. The dialog covers three aspects of the element: General, States and Energies.This dialog is available on right or left mouse click on an element, depending on your settings (default is right click).

&kalzium;'s detailed information dialog
&kalzium;'s detailed information dialog

Here is a screenshot of &kalzium;'s detailed information dialog.

In the detailed information dialog, you get a lot of information on an element. First an overview presents you with the element, its symbol and atomic weight. The Miscellaneous tab tells you when it was discovered and its mean weight. The Picture tab displays a picture of the element when available. The Energies tab tells you about different energy facts related to the element. The Chemical Data tab presents some atomic data. For example you can see the isotopes of the selected elements and the isotopes frequency of occurrence and the number of protons. The Atom Model tab displays the atomic shells. Every orbits stands for a atomic shell and every circle represents an electron.

### 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 are changed in the 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: each acidic behavior is represented by a different color.

### 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 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.

### Miscellaneous

#### 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. You can active this feature via Miscellaneous Show/Hide Timeline or by clicking the Clock icon on the toolbar. If it is activated you will see a slider below the PSE and an LCD which displays the current year. If you move the slider you will notice that some elements disappear if you move it to the right 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; 1856 you will only see the elements which where known in the year 1856.

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.

After you hide the Timeline, the display will stay at the year you choose and if closed, Kalzium will restore that date at next run.

the Timeline

The PSE back in time (elements known in 1856)

#### 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.

#### State of Matter

With the Show/Hide State Of Matter menu entry, 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 Configure &kalzium;... from the Settings menu.

Configure Kalzium Dialog
Configure Kalzium Dialog

- The Color Scheme tab allows you to choose your Color Scheme (No colors, Groups, Blocks, State of matter, Acid behavior).

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

- in the Miscellaneous tab, you will be able to choose if you want the More Information dialog on left click (default) or right click. You can also choose the units. You can select if you prefer kJ/mol by default but you can choose eV and the Temperature is in Kelvin by default but you can change to degrees Celsius or degrees Fahrenheit.

## Command Reference

### Menus and shortcut keys

#### The File Menu

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  Quits &kalzium;

#### The PSE Menu

PSE Show Regular PSE

  Display the regular PSE with all the elements

PSE Show Simple PSE

  Display the simple PSE with less elements

#### The Numeration Menu

Numeration No Numeration

  Display no numeration scheme

Numeration Show IUPAC

  Display the IUPAC numeration

Numeration Show CAS

  Display the CAS numeration

Numeration Show Old IUPAC

  Display the Old IUPAC numeration

#### The Miscellaneous Menu

Miscellaneous Show/Hide Timeline

  Display the Timeline Slider

Miscellaneous Plot Data

  Open Plot Data dialog

Miscellaneous Show/Hide State Of Matter

  Display the State Of Matter dialog

Miscellaneous Show/Hide Legend

  Toggle the Legend labels

#### The Look Menu

Look No Color Scheme

  Display all elements in the same color.

Look Show/Hide Groups

  Display the elements with a different color for each group

Look Show/Hide Blocks

  Display the elements with a different color for each block

Look Show Acid Behavior

  Display the elements with a different color for each acid behavior

#### 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, 2001-2004 Carsten Niehaus cniehaus@kde.org

Contributors:

- Robert Gogolok, lots of help and coding

&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;