Frequently Asked Questions: General Chemistry Collection (Student Edition)
Edited by Jon L. Holmes and Nancy S. Gettys University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396
This area is under construction. Frequent updates are expected in September 1998. General Questions Macintosh Programs Windows Programs MS DOS Programs General Questions Will all the programs on the CD run on both Macintosh and Windows? No. Some programs are available for both Mac OS and Windows, but most are for only one or the other. The only programs that have both Macintosh and Windows versions are: Answer Sheets, Alkanes in Motion, Lake Study, Solid State Resources, Solid State Structures, and Window on the Solid State, Parts 1 and 2. The table below gives the programs for each platform. Table 1. Titles and Topics in the JCE Software General Chemistry Collection PC Programs Topics Alkane Isomers Organic nomenclature, Organic structural isomers Animated Demonstrations I Wave theory of atom, Atomic orbital electron distributions, Ionic compounds, Hydration of Ions, Cleavage of ionic crystal Animated Demonstrations II Mass spectrometer, X-ray diffraction Bravais Bravais lattices Chemistry CAI Nuclear chemistry, Colligative properties, Coulomb's law, Solubility product, Faraday's law of electrolysis, Periodic trends FactGame Drill on chemical facts KinWorks Experimental determination of rate constants, Design of kinetics experiments Notebook Calculations and plotting of data Periodic Table Games Periodic Table, Inorganic nomenclature REACT Balancing equations, dH, dS, dG calculations, Equilibrium constants Rutherford Alpha-particle scattering experiment, Nuclear atom SIRs Periodic table, Electron orbitals, Atomic electronic structure, Barometers and manometers, Vapor pressure, Ideal gases, Dalton's law, Heat capacity, Heat of reaction, Entropy, Approach to equilibrium, Equilibrium constants, Equilibrium problems, Titration curves, Titrating an unknown, Buffers, Electrochemical cells, Faraday's law, Nernst equation, Reaction rate, Initial rate method, Determining rate constants, Reaction mechanisms, Functions and graphs Spec20 Visible spectrophotometry TITRATE Titration curves, Alpha plots Macintosh Programs Topics Acid-Base Package Titration curves, Buffers, PH, Alpha plots Alkanes in Motion Molecular dynamics AnswerSheets Unit conversions, Inorganic nomenclature, Stoichiometry, VSEPR theory, Chemical structures Atomic Spectra-Graph Atomic emission spectra Chemistry Navigator Periodic table, History of chemistry, Minerals, Periodic trends Coordination Compounds Octahedral complexes, Structural isomers Inorganic Nomenclature Inorganic nomenclature Lake Study for Macintosh Scientific method, Water chemistry, Environmental chemistry MolVib 2.0: Molecular vibration animations Organic Nomenclature Organic nomenclature Precision of Calc. Values Experimental error Solid-State Resources Material Science, Solid state Solid-State Structures Solid state, Structural chemistry Window on the Solid State Solid state, Structures of metals Windows Programs Topics AnswerSheets Unit conversions, Inorganic nomenclature, Stoichiometry, VSEPR theory, Chemical structures BCTC Water chemistry, Environmental chemistry, Chemistry and society Bonding Theory History of chemistry, Metal complexes, Structural isomers Equilibrium Calculator Equilibrium calculations Illustrated Periodic Table History of chemistry, Periodic table, Periodic trends, Descriptive chemistry of elements, Structural chemistry of elements Lake Study for Windows Scientific method, Water chemistry, Environmental chemistry Solid-State Resources Material Science, Solid state Solid-State Structures Solid state, Structural chemistry VizQuiz with WiscQuizzes Quizzing and homework Window on the Solid State Solid state, Structures of metals How do I uninstall the General Chemistry Collection? Windows: To remove the General Chemistry Collection from your computer requires two manual steps due the the lack of an uninstall program. The first step is to delete the files on your hard drive (probably C:) and the second is to remove the Start button menu items. To accomplish the first step, open My Computer by double-clicking, then open your C: hard drive. You should see a folder named "JCE-Soft". Drag this folder into the Recycle Bin. Answer Yes to All in any dialogs that appear. Step one is accomplished. To do step two, right-click the mouse on the program bar at the bottom of your screen and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Start Menu Programs tab and then the Remove... button. Find and select the "JCE DOS Software" folder and click Remove. Answer Yes to any dialogs that appear. Do the same for the "JCE Software Docs", "JCE Software WiscQuizzes", and "JCE Windows Software" folders. Empty the Recycle Bin and... Mission accomplished! Macintosh: Close any applications that are running. Open the Fonts folder located inside the System folder, find JCEChem and FEBTechnical and drag both to the Trash. If you installed Precision of Calculated Values, locate the Precision of Calculated Values folder on your hard drive and drag it to the Trash. Empty the Trash. Questions About MS DOS Progams I use Windows 95, and some of the DOS programs on the General Chemsitry Collection CD have caused my computer to crash. What is wrong? Certain DOS programs will not run properly (and can cause your system to lock up) under Windows 95 unless you make minor changes to their Properties settings. These programs are: Bravais, Cleave, HCC, Mass Spec, Notebook, Particle in a Box I and II, Salt, and X-ray Diffraction. To solve this problem: 1. Open the JCE DOS Software program group. The JCE DOS Software group can be located by clicking on My Computer or running Explorer, and using 'Find' {Ctrl-F} to find all files/folders named "JCE" - thereafter, double-click on the JCE DOS Software item in the list. 2. Hold the right mouse button down while pointing at one of the program items in the group, and select 'Properties' from the pop-up menu. 3. Click on the 'Memory' tab and change the 'Initial Environment' memory to 1024K. Click 'OK' to save the changes. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each program listed. Oxidation Number Rules This program should be executed from DOS - it generally will not run properly under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Oxidation Rules requires that the ANSI.SYS device driver be loaded at startup using the /K parameter. See your DOS manual for information about loading ANSI.SYS. PIRExS This program should be executed from DOS - it generally will not run properly under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. PireXs requires that the ANSI.SYS device driver be loaded at startup using the /K parameter. See your DOS manual for information about loading ANSI.SYS. Ruthorford New Features Speed Controls The simulation can now be run at three different speeds, slow, medium, and fast. A speed can be selected by pressing the keys s, m, or f at any time during the simulation. Pressing any other keys will end the simulation. Salt New Features Speed Controls The simulation can now be run at three different speeds, slow, medium, and fast. A speed can be selected by pressing the keys s, m, or f at any time during the simulation. Pressing any other keys will end the simulation. Command Line Paramaters Salt can take a command line parameter which will determine the slow and medium speed settings. The paramater is a number, representing how slow the simulation should executes. If no paramater is given, Salt will use a default value of 50. Example: Salt 75 Recommended values range from 0 to 100. Questions About Windows Progams BCTC The README.TXT file on the CD gives information needed when installing BCTC from floppy disks. You do not need this information for the program on the General Chemistry CD. LakeStudy The README.TXT file included on the CD describes updates in Lake Study, as published in JCE Software Volume 5D, Number 1. The version included on the CD is the newest version published in JCE Software Volume 5D, Number 1. Please ignore the contents of this file. Illustrated Periodic Table Solid State Resources How do I start Solid State Resouces? The JCE Software Setup program does not install an icon for Solid State Resouces. In order to start Solid State Resources go to the Windows Explorer (Windows 95) or Windows File Manager (Windows 3.1) and navigate to the SOLID_II directory on the General Chemistry CD. Inside find the file SOLIDS.HTM and double-click it. The file will open in your WWW browser. Window on the Solid State I cannot find icons for Parts 3 and 4. How do I start them? The JCE Software Setup program does not install an icons for Parts 3 and 4 of Window on the Solid State. The easiest way to start these programs is to go to the Windows Explorer (Windows 95) or Windows File Manager (Windows 3.1) and navigate to the JCE_WIN directory. Inside find the SOLIST directory and open it. To start Part 3, drag the ION_STR.TBK icon onto the TB.EXE icon. To start Part 4, drag the ION_CELL.TBK icon onto the TB.EXE icon. Solid State Structures Where can I get PCMolecule2? Solid State Structures requires PC Molecule2 by Molecular Ventures, Inc. PC Molecule 2 is available in Full, Demo, and Lite versions and can be downloaded from their WWW site at http://www.molvent.com/. All versions can be used to display Solid State Structures files. How do I start Solid State Structures? Windows 95: Double-click one of the Solid State Structure files from the Windows 95 desktop or from Windows Explorer; or start PCMolecule2, Select Open... from the File menu and then select the file you wish to view. Windows 3.1: From the File Manager, locate and double-click one of the Solid State Structure files; or start PCMolecule2, select Open... from the File menu and then select the file you wish to view. Macintosh Programs Where can I get a copy of HyperCard Player? Several of the programs on the CD require HyperCard or HyperCard Player. You can obtain the most recent information about HyperCard including updates at http://www.apple.com/hypercard/. HyperCard Updates and HyperCard Player can also be downloaded from Apple Computer's Software Updates. Look for HyperCard under Macintosh Utilities. Chemistry Navigator Precision of Calculated Values The Important Warning file is partially incorrect. Rather than dragging a copy of Precision of Calculated Values to your hard disk, double-click the installer and it will be placed there for you. Solid State Structures MacMolecule is required to view the Solid State Structures files. MacMolecule 1.7.1 included on this CD works only with 680x0 Macintosh computers that have a hardware Math Coprocessor (also called a floating point unit or FPU). It will not run on a Power Macintosh or a standard Macintosh that does not have an FPU. You can obtain a free copy of MacMolecule2.0 Lite that will run on Power Macintosh computers or on standard Mac's with our without an FPU from Molecular Ventures, Inc. Text messages included in the Solid State Structures files will not be visible with MacMolecule2. Window on the Solid State Only Parts I and II are avaialble for Macintosh. Window on the Solid State for Macintosh was created for Macintosh computers running with 256 colors. We recommend that the program always be run with the monitorŐs color depth set to 256 colors. Instructions for changing the color setting are included below. Some of the newest Macintosh computers do not have color settings lower than thousands of colors. The four programs will run with the monitor set to display thousands or millions of colors, but there are two difficulties of which you should be aware. 1. Additional memory will have to be allocated to each of the four Window on the Solid State applications in order for them to open properly with thousands or millions of colors. If the memory allocation is insufficient, the program will open to a white screen with no text visible. The suggested and minimum RAM allocation is sufficient for 256 colors but not for higher color resolution. The procedure for increasing the memory is as follows: Click one time on the application icon to select it. Select Get Info from the File menu or press Command-I on the keyboard. Examine the information window for the application. Increase preferred memory allocation, located in the lower right corner of the Information window. Set the value to 3000 K. Close the window. Open the application as usual by double-clicking on its icon. If the program still does not open properly, repeat the steps above, increasing the memory allocation by 500 K. Start the program again. You may have to repeat this procedure several times in order to find the memory requirement needed for your computer. Repeat these steps for each of the four Window on the Solid State applications you wish to use. 2. When thousands or millions of colors are used, the dark green background on some screens in the programs may appear to retain shadows of certain screen objects, such as text boxes, after they have been dismissed. The background may sometimes appear blotchy or patchy. While unsightly, this does not interfere with the material presented in the program. When running with the monitor set to 256 colors, this problem does not occur. To change the color setting: Open the Monitors control panel. Select 256 from the list of monitor settings and be sure the colors button is selected. If all the numbers of colors listed are greater than 256, select the lowest number. (You will need to increase the memory allocation for the programs as described above.) Close the window by clicking in the close box in the upper left corner. If you do not observe the monitor switching to 256 colors (or whatever number of colors you selected) when the window closes, you must restart the computer in order for the change to take place.

Published: 1st Edition: January 1997, 2nd Edition: August 1998

Citation: Holmes, J. L.; Gettys, N. S. About This Issue: General Chemistry Collection (Student Edition) J. Chem. Educ. Software SP16

Keywords: High School; General; Lecture Aid; Computer Room; Simulation

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Last Updated: September 7, 1999 Created: September 3, 1997	Created by: N. S. Gettys Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu
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