The Kalzium HandbookCopyright © 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Carsten Niehaus
Copyright © 2005 Anne-Marie Mahfouf
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.
Table of Contents
IntroductionKalzium 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, and families. You can plot data for a range of elements for properties like the boilingpoint 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 guideHere is Kalzium the first time you run it, either by selecting ->->-> from the menu or with Alt+F2 and entering kalzium into the field.
Kalzium is divided in a navigation panel 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 navigation panel using the -> menu.
When you move the mouse cursor on an element of the table, an overview of the current element in the Overview tab of the navigation panel is displayed.
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 -> menu.
If you want to know facts about a precise element, click on it in the table and the information dialog will be displayed.
You can plot data using the -> menu item. You choose what you want to plot on the y-axis and a range of elements to plot that for on the x-axis. The screenshot below shows the mass of the elements 1 to 10.
The Glossary (->) explains the most important chemical words and shows you pictures of the most common tools along with an explanation.
Using KalziumHere 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.
The information dialogThe information dialog is accessed by clicking with the mouse button on any element. This is the place to get information about an element. With the buttons at the bottom of the dialog you can change the element which is displayed without closing the dialog.
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 bottom left. The top-left corner displays the name of the element while the bottom-right corner shows the elemental weight.
The Atom Model tab displays the atomic shells. Every orbit stands for a atomic shell and every yellow circle represents an electron.
The Miscellaneous tab tells you other information about the current element, including when it was discovered and the origin of the name.
The Isotopes tab presents information about the isotopes of an element.
- Mass
The mass of this isotope.
- Neutrons
The number of neutrons this isotope has.
- Percentage
The percentage of atoms occurring 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.
The Data Overview tab tells you about different facts related to the element.
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, e.g. 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 average mass of all isotopes in relation to their percentage.
NumerationThe 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 menu can be used to change the numeration shown:
: if this option is active, no period-numeration will be in effect.
(default) 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).
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.
The 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 schemesKalzium can show you which elements are where with regard to their Periodic “block” and “group”, their behavior with acid and which state of matter (i.e. solid/liquid/vapor) they are in at a given temperature.
Color schemes can be changed in the -> menu.
: all the elements have the same color. You can change the default color by choosing -> and going to the Colors tab.
: displays a color for each block.
: displays icons for each element.
: represents each of the nine families with a color.
: 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.
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.
ToolsThe shows you the isotopes of the elements.
There are different kinds of isotopes, some are stable, some are not. The unstable isotopes can decay as alpha-rays are two different beta-rays. These differences are encoded by using different colors.
Kalzium can display the isotopes of a range of elements
The R/S Phrases, also known as Risk and Safety Statements, R/S statements, R/S numbers, and R/S sentences, is a system of hazard codes and phrases for labeling dangerous chemicals and compounds. The R/S phrase of a compound consists of a risk part (R) and a safety part (S), each followed by a combination of numbers. Each number corresponds to a phrase. The phrase corresponding to the letter/number combination has the same meaning in different languages.
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 laboratory-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 in the right end of the searchbar will clear it.
The 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.
Kalzium can plot some data about a range of elements.
The 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 adjusted. Furthermore, it is possible to use brackets around elements or electronic charges as shown in the last two examples.
Kalzium can solve chemical equations
The Overview tab is the first one and it shows you an overview of the element the mouse is over.
The State of Matter tab is the second in the navigation panel.
You are first presented with the following icons and text:
Kalzium can show you which elements are solid/liquid/vaporous at a given temperature.
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 e.g. 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.
The PSE back in time (elements known in 1856)
The Calculate tab is the last in the sidebar. It allows you to calculate molecules weights.
You are first presented with the following icons and text:
Calculate
The action allows you to display the legend for the scheme you are in (Groups, Family, Blocks). 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 KalziumKalzium has many configuration options, which you can access by opening the configuration dialog by selecting -> from the menu.
In the Colors tab, you can change the different colors for each scheme.
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 or degrees Fahrenheit.
In the Miscellaneous tab, you can select to display the atomic mass or only the element numbers in the PSE.
Command Reference- ->->
Display no numeration scheme.
- ->->
Display the IUPAC numeration.
- ->->
Display the CAS numeration.
- ->->
Display the Old IUPAC numeration.
- ->->
Display all elements with one background color.
- ->->
Display the four blocks of elements.
- ->->
Display icons for each element.
- ->->
Display the families of elements.
- ->->
Display the groups of elements.
- ->->
Disable any gradient for the table.
- ->->
Display the elements covalent radius.
- ->->
Display the elements van der Waals radius.
- ->->
Display the elements atomic mass.
- ->->
Display the elements boiling point.
- ->->
Display the elements melting point.
- ->->
Display the elements electronegativity.
- ->->
Display the elements electron affinity.
- ->->
Display the discovery date of each element with different background colors for each century.
- ->->
Display the elements energy of first ionisation.
- ->->
Display the classic periodic table with all elements.
- ->->
Display a periodic table without transition elements.
- ->->
Display a periodic table only with transition elements.
- ->->
This item represents the table the DZ Deutscher Zentralausschuss "German Central Committee" suggests.
- ->
Toggle the legend view.
- ->
Toggle the Sidebar.
- ->
Open the Plot Data dialog.
- ->
Open the Isotope Table window.
- ->
Open the Glossary.
- ->
Open the Equation solver dialog.
- ->
Open a dialog to import and export a wide range of chemical file formats and data types with the Open Babel library.
- ->
Open the Risk/Security Phrases dialog.
- ->
Display a dialog with the Greek alphabet and Numeric Prefixes and Roman Numerals.
- ->->
Open the Molecular Editor dialog.
- ->
Opens a dialog where you can select Elements and their Properties to export them to a HTML file.
- ->
Toggle the Main Toolbar.
- ->
Toggle the Statusbar.
- ->
Configure the keyboard keys you use to access the different actions.
- ->
Configure the items you want to put in the toolbar.
- ->
Display the Kalzium settings dialog.
- -> (F1)
Invokes the KDE Help system starting at the Kalzium help pages. (this document).
- -> (Shift+F1)
Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within Kalzium will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.
- ->
Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a “wishlist” feature.
- ->
Opens a dialog where you can edit the Primary language and Fallback language for this application.
- ->
This will display version and author information.
- ->
This displays the KDE version and other basic information.
Questions and Answers| 6.1. | 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. |
How can I contribute? Credits and LicenseKalzium
Program Copyright, 2001-2005 Carsten Niehaus
(cniehaus AT kde.org)
Contributors:
Pino Toscano
(toscano.pino AT tiscali.it)
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
InstallationTable of Contents
Kalzium is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org/.
Kalzium can be found in the kdeedu package on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main FTP site of the KDE project.
RequirementsKalzium itself can be found on The Kalzium home page and is part of the KDE-Edu project
Compilation and InstallationFor detailed information on how to compile and install KDE applications see Building KDE4 From Source
Since KDE uses cmake you should have no trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.