iPad app review – Elements

18 June 2010 - posted in Folk Loves, Interactive, Mobile by Nicky Smith

If you go down to Apple today your sure of a big surprise … Yet, another not very witty start to a blog, but I would encourage you to go and take a look at the iPad section of their site when you get a minute. As you know, Folk are giving away an iPad or two this summer so we obviously had to buy one for ourselves first. After all, you can’t berate or adore a man made object properly unless you own one yourself (or have the use of somebody else’s on a full time basis – thanks Folk).

I digress … I love our iPad and have already downloaded around 50 apps for it. These are a combination of iPhone apps and iPad specific apps. A few nights ago, I had to go to the apple site for something unrelated to the iPad, but whilst there I took a look at the 10 apps they were showcasing, and what I found was brilliant. The Elements app caught my eye instantly. I had seen it briefly on the UK iPad TV spots and was intrigued, so I had to take a look for myself. One minute later and eight quid down, I was the proud owner of a truly beautiful, yet useful as well as function and practical app. Some say “iPads are rubbish” or “what’s the point?”. This, my friends makes a pretty good case in favour of the iPad.

iPad – The Elements from Bradford Kuntscher on Vimeo.

Science was not my thing at school. A double B at GCSE was the height of my achievements in this academic field. Chemistry was by far my worst subject. If I only had an iPad with this periodic table app on it, I would have got an A (or A star star star star or whatever they have these days). You may well remember the periodic table song from your school days. If not here it is. The app opens with this tune in a well-crafted, stylish animation. When finished, and a few pad strokes later, you are faced with a fully animated Periodic table. Rather than boring letters and numbers, each element is signified by a rotating icon. Click on one of these icons, and each element opens into its own page.

Take my favourite element, Titanium (Ti to its friends in the table). We all know it has an atomic number of 22, and atomic weight of 47.867 and a density of 4.507 g/cc. But did you know that if you wanted to test whether or not your “Titanium” golf club was actually made of said element, all you have to do is rub it against an industrial grinding wheel? If the sparks are not bright white, then it is not titanium, and you have not damaged anything of value. Don’t try this at home because A. you probably haven’t got an industrial grinding wheel and B. you will ruin your golf club, titanium or not.

The point is, this app makes learning the periodic table fun. It is a great educational tool if you can afford it (four hundred and thirty quid for the basic iPad and eight for the app). Passing it around the office proved tricky as our guys were fixated, spending at least 10 minutes each exploring an array of different elements, which was not something I expected to see from an iPad app.

The longer you play with the app, the more interesting things you can find out. Apart from the fully rotating images (nice but pointless), the app links to my second favourite search engine WolframAlpha, where you can get a wide array of extra detail on your element of choice.

All in all, hours of educational fun can be had by even the biggest science dullard. If only teaching budgets were not going to be hit so badly over the coming months, I feel that schools would benefit massively from the iPad and this app alone. It’s a bright shiny thing that sticky fingered children will love to play with, and perhaps help inspire the next generation of chemists. Come on ICI, Shell and BP (You need the PR right now), stump up some sponsorship money and invest in your future.

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/apps-for-ipad/#elements