Balancing Chemical Equations draft V 0.1

**** Update *****

This illustration is complete.
See it here

**** Update *****

First pass at re-writing the ‘balancing chemical equation’ illustration in html5.

This is one of the early illustrations I wrote using NetLogo. The goal is to redo it as an embeddable javascript illustration. This version contains the selectors to change the hydrocarbon shown in the illustration by pushing buttons for the number of carbons in the chain and a switch to determine if it is is an alcohol or not. This matches the dynamics from the original illustration.

Status:

• Hydrocarbons containing from 1 to 5 carbons and with or without an alcohol group can be selected.
• The main label and ball and stick diagram update in response to the buttons and switch to show the name and structure of the hydrocarbon selected.

Next steps:

• Add the chemical equation below the ball and stick diagram
• Add the rest of the reactants and products of the oxidation of the hydrocarbon shown (O₂, water and CO₂) as an equation to the right of the hydrocarbon.
• Build additional controllers to add or remove oxygen, carbon dioxide molecules to the reaction
• Build a table showing
  • the number of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the products and reactants
  • Whether or not the equation is balanced
• Add some buttons to show/hide certain features of the illustration