Quantum Atomica 2.1

Many people will know what atoms are; some may understand what the quantum atom is - virtually no one will have seen it. Quantum Atomica can take you down to the atomic level to see whats really happening within the atom. It focuses on the hydrogen atom, the simplest atom possible, constructed from one proton and one electron.

Quantum Atomica allows the user to experience visualisation of the complete set of hydrogen orbitals up to and including those for which the quantum number n is equal to 4.

In Quantum Atomica, these can either be selected by name as listed above, or by specifying the quantum numbers n, l & m. The selection process is exceptionally easy; for example the orbital 4Dx²-y² is being selected in the screenshot below:

Moments after pressing calculate, you are able to use the visualisations that Quantum Atomica was really designed for. The current types of visualisation include transects, weighted dot distributions and raytraced images.

Transects
Plotting transects is the most traditional way of viewing the structure of the hydrogen orbitals. Quantum Atomica is capable of performing transects perpendicular to all 3 of the Cartesian co-ordinate axes. The probability density function corresponding to the orbital is sampled in the plane of the transect, and this data is used to plot a colour map, such as the following transects through 1S and 4Fz respectively (the brighter areas indicate regions of higher probability):

It is possible to change the position of the plane along its current axis smoothly in real-time, so animations of how the internal structure of the orbital function varies across an axis can readily be generated.

Weighted Dot Distributions
Plotting weighted dot distributions allows the users to experience the hydrogen orbitals in all three dimensions. The orbital functions, which are inherently continuous across space, are first converted into discrete distributions of points across space, using the continuou