Project Update #1

What the User Sees

So far, after completing about half of my hours for my project, I have succeeded in creating a functional conversion calculator. The calculator is capable of converting moles to grams and grams to moles, with any known element. The most difficult part of this project was creating the basis of the array that holds the values of each element. It was a new concept which I had not learned before, and with the help of my mentors, I was able to implement it into my program. Because all of the work is done on the computer, not much can be shown through photographs. I have instead provided screenshots of the program.

What the Programmer Sees

With the basic calculator completed, what is next is to make improvements. Such improvements would involve the user interface and the program's efficiency. Another step would be to add a way to supply the molar mass, or other constants to the user. Also, instead of involving only single elements, a method could be created that allows for the analysis of compounds.

Behind the Scenes of the Array

Pictured below is my signed Form B documenting my hours spent working on my project. 

A small amount of the Element Array

Getting Started

For my Junior Project, I have decided to combine two subjects that interest me very much, Chemistry and Computer Programming. The language in which I am coding in is Java, which is used in over 3 billion devices such as printers, phones, and even DVD players. Using Java, I will write a program which takes a measurement of grams from the user and converts them to the moles of the substance desired. In this case, the substances will be atoms from the Periodic Table of Elements.

So far, I have created a simple calculator which returns the amount of moles of Carbon when the user inputs grams. If the user chooses a different element however, the code will not return a value, as the conversion methods for other atoms have not yet been written. Using an application known as GitHub, I am able to share my program with my mentors, allowing them to comment and make suggestions about my code, allowing me to improve it further.

As a mole is defined as 602 billion trillion of something, moles of different objects can have different masses. A mole is a very large measurement, for example, a mole of ping pong balls would cover the Earth in a layer that is 60 miles thick. However, when referencing atoms, a mole can be as be as small as 1 gram in mass, and only reaches up to 270 grams at the most. The next step for my program is to add the grams to moles conversion rates of each atom, allowing the user to access each element.