Learning Chemistry through JAVA:

A web site for understanding fundamental chemical principles. 

The Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution (MB)
Learn about the nature of gases at equilibrium.  This module explains the concepts of randomness and probability distributions.  The applet simulates a gas of argon atoms in motion with random velocities.   You can watch the distribution of speeds evolve toward the Maxwell-Boltzmann speed distribution.

Atomic Quantum Mechanics (QM)
Pick an atom and its electronic configuration and see the wavefunctions calculated right before your eyes.  The applet uses Density Functional Theory to compute all of the ground-state wavefunctions for any element on the periodic table.

Note:  This module is in progress; topic pages are currently being created to provide background and understanding of atomic quantum mechanics.
 

Screen shots of applets that we are planning for the future:

Surface Science (SS)
Learn about fundamental concepts in the interactions of a gas with a crystalline surface.  Propel the gas molecules at the surface and observe physisorption, chemisorption, reflection, desorption, and defect creation.

Kinetics of Greenhouse Gases (KG)
Choose the starting concentrations of oxygen and chlorine and watch the conversion process to ozone.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Biomolecules (MD) 
Link together a handful of "student" applets with a "teacher" applet and optimize the structure of a large biomolecule.  You will be able to keep track of a selected portion of the molecule while the teacher keeps tabs on the workings of the whole relaxation process.  This organization permits the entire class to collaborate on a computational research project.