Molecules as teaching aid

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icarson
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Great app! Thanks for all your effort so far.

I'd love to be able to use the app to display smaller molecules so that I can show my daughter the simpler building blocks she is likely to encounter at school.

I'd really love if the app would allow us to build these simple molecules from a library of atoms according to how the atoms bond to each other but I realise that takes the app in a whole different direction. Just a thought

Brad Larson
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Glad to hear that you might find an educational use for it. That's one of my goals.

It's going to be a while before I add any editing functions into the program, if ever. Chemical structure editing might best be done in a separate application, to avoid clutter on the iPhone interface.

That said, I will be adding support for databases of small molecules, so you might be able to find something like ethylene by typing the name and having the program go out and grab the matching compound. I'd like to combine that search capability with the display and storage functionality to enable the program to act as a sort of 3-D flashcard study aid for high school or college chemistry students. I know that something like this would have helped me back in organic chemistry.

icarson
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You're absolutely on the money with the 3D flash card idea. That would be perfect for understanding the relationships between atoms for a high-schooler. Maybe a little metadata on angles, molecular mass, properties of the material etc would also enhance the experience. Looking forward to seeing your additions to the tool.

Anonymous

Thanks for a wonderful job. I would like to know if there were software for teaching I.U.P.A.C nomenclature to secondary school level students. thanks once again.

Brad Larson
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Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for a wonderful job. I would like to know if there were software for teaching I.U.P.A.C nomenclature to secondary school level students. thanks once again.

None specifically that I know of in the store right now, but Solutions (iTunes link) lets you search compounds by chemical formula, returning their name and molecular weight.

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