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Author: Subject: Two FREE tools you probably didn't even know you had!
blogfast25
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Two FREE tools you probably didn't even know you had!

1. LaTex formula rendering tool:

Before:

y=ax^3-5/sqrt(2z)

Huh? Bweurk...

AFTER:

$$y=ax^3-\frac{5}{\sqrt{2z}}$$

Better, you think?

This site's 'best kept secret' is that it is LaTex enabled. The G-ds up the SM Mountain regaled us with this gift but forgot to send the memo!

And wherever you see cool LaTex, just right click on it and steal that code and cut/paste/modify to your lion heart's content. Cool or cool?

2. ChemSketch FREE version:

Ok, this one you need to download. Render those pesky chemical formulas like a PRO:

Don't get aga to sing the praises of this unbelievably brilliant piece of FREE (forever) software, because he'll never shut up again!

Look at molecules in 3D, rotating them as if you're holding them in your hand!

http://www.acdlabs.com/resources/freeware/chemsketch/

Plenty video tutorials if you get stuck. Or ask here (within reason).

 Quote: ACD/ChemSketch Freeware is a drawing package that allows you to draw chemical structures including organics, organometallics, polymers, and Markush structures. It also includes features such as calculation of molecular properties (e.g., molecular weight, density, molar refractivity etc.), 2D and 3D structure cleaning and viewing, functionality for naming structures (fewer than 50 atoms and 3 rings), and prediction of logP.

** JUST KIDDING!

[Edited on 22-12-2015 by blogfast25]

Praxichys
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Is there any way we can get a LaTeX plugin for chemistry? Something as basic as chemfig would be phenomenal and reduce the number of images uploaded.

Have something to sell? Need cheap chemicals or glassware? Looking for hard to find reagents? Be sure to visit SM's Trading Post at http://synthsource.proboards.com/
Texium (zts16)
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22-12-2015 at 07:14
blogfast25
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 Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys Is there any way we can get a LaTeX plugin for chemistry? Something as basic as chemfig would be phenomenal and reduce the number of images uploaded.

It would be GREAT. But that's top management decision time. Nought I can do about that, personally.

Start a petition?

blogfast25
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Even simple inorganic reactions can be rendered in LaTex, see this template, e.g.:

$$\mathrm{Mg}(s)+2\mathrm{H_3O^+}(aq) \to \mathrm{Mg^{2+}}(aq)+\mathrm{H_2}(g)+2\mathrm{H_2O}(l)$$

Praxichys
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Of course, but that's child's play compared to chemfig. Have a look at this documentation:

http://texdoc.net/texmf-dist/doc/generic/chemfig/chemfig_doc...

Have something to sell? Need cheap chemicals or glassware? Looking for hard to find reagents? Be sure to visit SM's Trading Post at http://synthsource.proboards.com/
Metacelsus
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Ooh, let me test it out!

$$E = E_0 - \frac{RT}{nF}*ln(Q)$$

(Thanks, gdflp.)

[Edited on 12-22-2015 by Cheddite Cheese]

As below, so above.
gdflp
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It needs "$$" on each side of the LaTeX code for the forum to recognize it as LaTeX. And blogfast, you just missed the memo blogfast25 Thought-provoking Teacher Posts: 10334 Registered: 3-2-2008 Location: Old Blighty Member Is Offline Mood: No Mood  Quote: Originally posted by gdflp And blogfast, you just missed the memo 2002, yes, before AD Blogfast25.$$E = E_0 - \frac{RT}{nF}\ln(Q)$$Look mum, without the 'computer' asterisk! [Edited on 22-12-2015 by blogfast25] blogfast25 Thought-provoking Teacher Posts: 10334 Registered: 3-2-2008 Location: Old Blighty Member Is Offline Mood: No Mood  Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys Of course, but that's child's play compared to chemfig. Have a look at this documentation: http://texdoc.net/texmf-dist/doc/generic/chemfig/chemfig_doc... 100 % no contest. I use chemfig elsewhere. JJay International Hazard Posts: 2846 Registered: 15-10-2015 Location: Western Hemisphere Member Is Offline Mood:$$\LaTeX \text{is sexy.} \\ P(i_0 \le x \le i_1) = \sum_{i=i_0}^{i_1} p(i=x)$$Is there any way to render LaTeX code outside of math mode? That would be required for chemfig. blogfast25 Thought-provoking Teacher Posts: 10334 Registered: 3-2-2008 Location: Old Blighty Member Is Offline Mood: No Mood  Quote: Originally posted by JJay Is there any way to render LaTeX code outside of math mode? That would be required for chemfig. I've no idea how that works. Wouldn't they be simply independent scripts? Etaoin Shrdlu International Hazard Posts: 724 Registered: 25-12-2013 Location: Wisconsin Member Is Offline Mood: Insufferable There's an mhchem addon for MathJax, but it appears not to have been implemented on the forum. (At least I can't get it to work in preview mode.) blogfast25 Thought-provoking Teacher Posts: 10334 Registered: 3-2-2008 Location: Old Blighty Member Is Offline Mood: No Mood  Quote: Originally posted by Etaoin Shrdlu There's an mhchem addon for MathJax, but it appears not to have been implemented on the forum. (At least I can't get it to work in preview mode.) Great as ChemSketch is, an in-forum chem rendering tool might be lighter on the servers (instead of image uploading by members). [Edited on 22-12-2015 by blogfast25] Etaoin Shrdlu International Hazard Posts: 724 Registered: 25-12-2013 Location: Wisconsin Member Is Offline Mood: Insufferable There is one, the openmolecules.org system. I don't know if mhchem for MathJax has structure support but it is nice to just type \ce{2 C6H12O6} and have it come out$$2 \ \text{C}_6\text{H}_{12}\text{O}_6$$Because that looks like this in normal Latex:  Code: $$2 \ \text{C}_6\text{H}_{12}\text{O}_6

That can be done with normal forum code too but it's still a mess. Reactions are so much easier to type and edit with mhchem. (Inline MathJax support would also be nice but I really have no idea how difficult it is to implement any of this.)

[Edited on 12-22-2015 by Etaoin Shrdlu]
blogfast25
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@Etaoin:

Whatever the solution, it'd be nice to have something like that: it seems a little outdated that Anno 2015 SM has nothing in place, when the site is mainly about chemistry.

JJay
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Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25
 Quote: Originally posted by JJay Is there any way to render LaTeX code outside of math mode? That would be required for chemfig.

I've no idea how that works. Wouldn't they be simply independent scripts?

I don't think it would be as easy to set up as just dropping the scripts in a directory....
chemrox
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chemsketch requires registration and the word "mandatory" is anathema to moi. It just seems to me that limit notation is part of the history and theory and is itself limited as has been mentioned. I guess I'm prejudiced because I use mostly partials. And rarely do physics. But I have explained calculus using the concept of limits and have reminded myself how it all works by writing out the ideas with limit notation.

"Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion." — Robert Burton.
brubei
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Let edit all the post !
j_sum1
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Mood: Metastable, and that's good enough.

 Quote: Originally posted by chemrox chemsketch requires registration and the word "mandatory" is anathema to moi. It just seems to me that limit notation is part of the history and theory and is itself limited as has been mentioned. I guess I'm prejudiced because I use mostly partials. And rarely do physics. But I have explained calculus using the concept of limits and have reminded myself how it all works by writing out the ideas with limit notation.

A bit nonsequential, chemrox. It seems like you are answering several threads at once.

I downloaded and use chemsketch. No registration was required. This might be a recent change. Avogadro is similar but not as powerful.

Limit notation in calculus, or more accurately, analysis -- seems an ok way to write the concept. Or, more to the point, if you understand the concept, the notation is pretty efficient. Beginning with the notation and then trying to insert the concept is a way to introduce confusions, but that is a pedagogical issue and not unique to limits at all.

Liebniz notation does have advantages over function notation but I think I sumarised the position in the other thread.

A little shameless self-promotion: New stuff on the YT channel. 100 sub celebration. Or you can tour my lab.
blogfast25
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 Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1 I downloaded and use chemsketch. No registration was required.

Same here: no registration was needed.

[Edited on 19-3-2016 by blogfast25]

The Volatile Chemist
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I knew about latex because it took forever to load on my old Nokia N800...
I feel like I should know what logP is (one of the things the drawing software claims it can calculate) since I'm in AP Chemistry, but what is it...?

My write-ups are on here...
http://www.MeltThe.Ga or http://ptp.x10.mx
blogfast25
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 Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist I knew about latex because it took forever to load on my old Nokia N800... I feel like I should know what logP is (one of the things the drawing software claims it can calculate) since I'm in AP Chemistry, but what is it...?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_coefficient

But what does AP mean?

The Volatile Chemist
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Sorry, I probably should've googled log(P)...
AP is an American university-in-secondary-school class. In high school, you can tale the AP version of a class after you take the normal version, the AP class covering the class at a first-year-university level. Then, if you take a test at the end of the year and do well enough, most universities you would go to will give you credit for the class as if you took it there.
Sorry for all the weird wording, I was thrown off by having to use the phrase university all the time, because 'college' doesn't mean the same thing in the UK as it does here...

My write-ups are on here...
http://www.MeltThe.Ga or http://ptp.x10.mx
Loptr
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Another handy tool that is available on the web is Solv-DB, which is a database of solvents and their properties. I use it quite a bit.

http://solvdb.ncms.org/solvdb.htm
Eddygp
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Very useful tool to avoid (summed up) hours of reference finding:

http://chemsearch.kovsky.net/

there may be bugs in gfind

[ˌɛdidʒiˈpiː] IPA pronunciation for my Username
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 Sciencemadness Discussion Board » Fundamentals » Chemistry in General » Two FREE tools you probably didn't even know you had! Select A Forum Fundamentals   » Chemistry in General   » Organic Chemistry   » Reagents and Apparatus Acquisition   » Beginnings   » Miscellaneous   » The Wiki Special topics   » Technochemistry   » Energetic Materials   » Biochemistry   » Radiochemistry   » Computational Models and Techniques   » Prepublication Non-chemistry   » Forum Matters   » Legal and Societal Issues   » Detritus