<para>&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.</para>
</abstract>
<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>education</keyword>
<keyword>elements</keyword>
<keyword>chemistry</keyword>
<keyword>education</keyword>
<keyword>kalzium</keyword>
</keywordset>
</bookinfo>
<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>&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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="quick-start">
<title>&kalzium; quick start guide</title>
<para>Here is &kalzium; the first time you run it, either from the K menu->Edutainment->Science->&kalzium; or with <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> and entering <command>kalzium</command> into the field.</para>
<textobject><phrase>&kalzium; main window</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>
&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 status bar reports facts. You can hide the sidebar using the <menuchoice> <guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Hide Sidebar</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> menu.
</para>
<para>
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 <guilabel>Overview</guilabel> tab.
</para>
<para>You can disable the tooltips using the <menuchoice> <guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Hide tooltip</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> menu.
</para>
<para>
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 <menuchoice> <guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Look</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> menu.
</para>
<para>
If you want to know facts about a precise element, click on it in the table and the information dialog will be displayed.
<textobject><phrase>The Plot Data dialog</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>The Glossary (<menuchoice> <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Glossary</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>) explains the most important chemical words and shows you pictures of the most common tools along with an explanation.</para>
<!-- Don't have empty chapters if possible - comment them out until -->
<sect1 id="numeration">
<title>Numeration</title>
<para>The numeration is the way of numbering the 18 groups of the periodic table. You can change the numeration to
<guilabel>IUPAC</guilabel>, <guilabel>old IUPAC</guilabel> or
<guilabel>CAS</guilabel>, or you can switch it off entirely.</para>
<para>The following options in the <guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Numeration</guimenuitem> menu can be used to change the numeration shown:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>No Numeration</guimenuitem>: if this option is active, no period-numeration will be
in effect.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show IUPAC</guimenuitem> (default): the <acronym>IUPAC</acronym> is the <firstterm>International
Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry</firstterm>. 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).
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show CAS</guimenuitem>: the <acronym>CAS</acronym> is the <firstterm>Chemical Abstracts
Service</firstterm>. In the CAS system the letters A and B were designated to main group elements (A) and transition elements (B). Though the <acronym>IUPAC</acronym> numeration
is the official, the <acronym>CAS</acronym> numeration is what is still
used in classrooms and laboratories.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show Old IUPAC</guimenuitem>: the old IUPAC system labeled columns with Roman numerals followed by either the letter <quote>A</quote> or <quote>B</quote>. Columns were numbered such that columns one through seven were numbered <quote>IA</quote> through <quote>VIIA</quote>, columns 8 through 10 were labeled <quote>VIIIA</quote>, columns 11 through 17 were numbered <quote>IB</quote> through <quote>VIIB</quote> and column 18 was numbered <quote>VIII</quote>. Because of the confusion the old IUPAC and the CAS system created, the IUPAC adopted their new system.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="colors">
<title>Color schemes</title>
<para>&kalzium; can show you which elements are where with regard to their Periodic <quote>block</quote> and <quote>group</quote>, their behavior with acid and which state of matter (&ie; solid/liquid/vapor) they are in at a given temperature.</para>
<para>Color schemes can be changed in the <guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Look</guimenuitem> menu. </para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>No Color Scheme</guimenuitem>: all the elements have the same color. You can change the default color by choosing <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure &kalzium;...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> and going to the <guilabel>Colors</guilabel> tab.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show Groups</guimenuitem>: 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.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show Blocks</guimenuitem>: displays a color for each block.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show Acid Behavior</guimenuitem>: represents each acidic behaviour with a different color.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show Family</guimenuitem>: represents each of the nine families with a color.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<guimenuitem>Show Crystal Structures</guimenuitem>: colors each element depending on its crystal structure.
</para></listitem>
<listitem>
<para><guimenuitem>Gradient</guimenuitem></para>
<para>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.</para>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Gradient for Covalent Radius</screeninfo>
<para>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. </para>
<para>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 <guimenuitem>Plot Data</guimenuitem> 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 <guilabel>First Element</guilabel> and <guilabel>Last Element</guilabel> fields on the dialog. The display does not change until you click on the <guibutton>Plot</guibutton> button.
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.</para>
<caption><para>&kalzium; can solve chemical equations</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="sidebar">
<title>Sidebar</title>
<sect3 id="overview">
<title>Overview</title>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="sidebar1.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Overview</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>The Overview tab is the first one and it shows you an overview of the element the mouse is over.</para>
<para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Full red circle</term>
<listitem><para>
Element is essential to all species
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Full green circle</term>
<listitem><para>
Element is essential for at least one species
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Full blue circle</term>
<listitem><para>
Biological function is proposed
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Red outer circle</term>
<listitem><para>
Element is essential for humans
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Blue outer circle</term>
<listitem><para>
Element is probably essential for humans
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="calculate">
<title>Calculate</title>
<para>The Calculate tab is the second in the sidebar. It alows you to calculate molecules weights.</para>
<para>You are first presented with the following:</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="sidebar2.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Calculate</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The calculator when it is started.</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>In this example, the mass of ethyl alcohol (regular
alcohol) H<subscript>3</subscript>CH<subscript>2</subscript>OH will be calculated. For this, simply enter the formula in the lineedit
and either press enter or click on the
<guibutton>Calc</guibutton>-button. The result of the calculation
will be displayed below.</para>
<para>As you can see you will get several answers. For one, on top
of the widget you will see the empirical formula,
H<subscript>6</subscript>C<subscript>1</subscript>O<subscript>1</subscript>. 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.</para>
<para>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.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="sidebar3.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>The result of the calculation.</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The result of the calculation.</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="timeline">
<title>Timeline</title>
<para>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.</para>
<para>
The number represents the date you are looking at. If you move the slider
to ⪚ 1891 you will only see the elements which where known in the
year 1891.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="timeline.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>the <quote>Timeline</quote></phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The PSE back in time (elements known in 1891)</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="state_of_matter">
<title>State of Matter</title>
<para>
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.
<phrase>the <quote>State of Matter</quote> Dialog</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>&kalzium; can show you which elements are
solid/liquid/vaporous at a given temperature.</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="show_hide_legend">
<title>Show/Hide Legend</title>
<para>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.
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="config">
<title>Configuring &kalzium;</title>
<para>
&kalzium; has many configuration options, which you can access by opening
the configuration dialog by selecting <menuchoice> <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure
&kalzium;...</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> from the menu.</para>