The Reactit! Calculator's goal is to provide an easier way of calculating basic chemical reactions for high school and university students. It will require prior knowledge to be able to operate, hence the target audience, however, it can help individual learning especially for those in Years 10 and 11. A majority of the reactions as well as the information accessible from the program will be geared towards New South Wales Preliminary/HSC Chemistry.
The solution does not require a high-level of program processing, hence the hardware requirements are minimal and most of the required specs involve the software.
It is reccomended that you use Google Chrome for Mac OSX on the latest version (84.0.4147.125). However, it is possible to run the program in Safari, but certain aspects of the styling will not work as intended. The program will not work on Firefox.
The program is for Mac OSX computers only. There is no guarantee that the program would work on Windows or Linux. The version of OSX does not matter as long as you can operate on the most recent version of chrome.
In order to run the solution, access to the terminal and npm is required. It is also neccesary that the computer is capable of node.js server hosting. If your computer is operating a server the same port of 8000, the program may not be accesible.
Before running the program, ensure that any other operating system features and Chrome browser extensions may not interfere with the program. Most of these additional features will not affect the efficiency of the program
Due to the program being Mac OSX specific, it is likely that all possible computers are able to operate and host the solution. The only neccesary output/input equipment is a screen to display the window and a keyboard for searching/navigation using 'tab'. A mouse/trackpad is reccomended for the best navigation of the solution.
It is reccomended that the computer uses the standard minimum processing requirements of a MacBook air (4 GB RAM, 1.6 GHZ i5 processor - an Early 2015 model MacBook air).
In order to install the software:
- Download this GitHub Repository as a zip file. And move the file to the desired folder.
- Open the zip file.
- Open a terminal window and enter the following commands, filling in the square brackets with the information about the zip file:
- cd [File location*]
- npm install
- npm start
- Go to the URL in a Chrome Browser: localhost:8000
*You can also drag and drop the folder icon (appearing at the top of the bar) on finder into the terminal of the file's location into terminal - this requires that the finder window be displaying the contents of the zip file.
The search bar, located on the right side of the screen, will allow you to select from a preset list of chemicals. Enter in the name of the chemical (i.e. Water or Sodium Chloride) or the formula (i.e. H2O or NaCl) to get a set of suggested results. Once you have found your desired chemical, click on it.
Note that all salts are considered as in the aqueous state (for this current version). The chemicals that you can add are listed at the index section of the user manual.
Once you have selected a chemical from the search bar, the chemical will appear below. At this point, you can change the amount/mass/concentration of the chemical you want to add to the reaction. This requires that you select a unit measure from the drop-down list and enter a numerical value in the text box. Click the button labelled 'Add'.
Note: Once you click the 'Add' button, the chemical cannot be removed from the reaction interface alone. If you want to change the chemical or alter it's amount, you need to click the 'Delete' button, which will clear the reaction interface.
Above the reaction interface is a series of text boxes and drop-down lists. From left to right, these lists allow you to: change the tempurature of the reaction; change the pressure the reaction occurs at; change the volume of the vessel. Select the units you want to use and enter a numerical value into the text box. Note that if you enter a negative or zero value at any point (Except for Celcius at -273.15), the number in the text box will switch to one. Changing the units will automatically convert the number to the desired unit.
Once the desired inputs have been implemented, click the 'React' button to begin the reaction. The lower area of the page will display the results. The reaction may take some time.
If you input the wrong chemicals, you may not be able to perform a reaction. Reffer to the index section to see all possible reactions.
Note that all combustion reactions will undergo regardless of the conditions, it is assumed that some catalyst is added as hidden.
Once the reaction is complete, the lower section of the page will fill with all of the products involved in the reaction, along with the excess unreacted chemicals. Use the drop-down units to convert their values
If you want to add new chemicals, you must first press the button labelled 'Delete'.
These are, most likely, the questions that you may need answering when figuring out problems and issues with this program.
Why can I only select a limited amount of chemicals?
You can only do such because of the complexity of reactions that are allowed. Trying to include all chemicals known to man can be a daunting task and it is better to worry about conducting the research on the most commonly occuring ones.
Why is the reaction button not working/taking too long?
The problem may come from the following sources:
- You inputted is incalculable, try making sure the right chemicals such as catalysts or water are included
- The reaction is not in the program's database due to similar reasons in the questions above
- The mole ratios of the inputted reaction are too high, meaning that the program will call it quits before the numbers can be produced
- You may have not entered a valid reaction. Ensure that the reactants will actually produce a product
Why are the numbers being displayed read zero? Why are the numbers not accurate?
You have most likely inputted a number that is too small to calculate or that you used too many significant figures. As a standard, 5 significant figures are used
Where are the imperial units?
We use metric units only because this is a scientific tool. And this has been developed in Australia.
How precise are the constants used?
The constants are kept to 4 significant figures (i.e. Ideal Gas Constant). For other information pertaining to individual chemicals, it can vary depending on what can be dug up online.
Below is an image showing each component of the display. This can also be accessed by pressing the button labelled 'i' next to the title. (Not shown in picture below).
The reaction button contains most of the magic of the program. The way it works is in a few simple steps:
- Find the type of reaction (i.e. Combustion, Harber Process etc.)
- Assign the products based on the type (e.g. complete hydrocarbon combustion reactions produce water and carbon dioxide)
- Equalize both sides of the reaction
- Calculate any necessary amount values
- Extra feature values such as equilibria or acid/base
Here are the following chemicals that you can input:
- Sodium Chloride (NaCl)
- Sodium Sulfite (Na2SO3)
- Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3)
- Ammonium Chloride (NaCl)
- Ammonium Sulfite (Na2SO3)
- Ammonium Nitrate (NaNO3)
- Sodium Ion (Na)
- Chloride Ion (Cl)
- Ammonium Ion (NH4)
- Sulfite Ion (SO3)
- Nitrate Ion (NO3)
- Water (H2O)
- Methane (CH4)
- Oxygen (O2)
- Hydrogen (H2)
- Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Here are the following reactions that you can input (All and only dissolutions are reversible):
- Dissolution of NaCl
- Dissolution of Na2SO3
- Dissolution of NaNO3
- Dissolution of NH4Cl
- Dissolution of (NH4)2SO3
- Dissolution of NH4NO3
- Combustion of H2
- Combustion of CH4